Zen blossom

More pretty blossom, this time an early flowering azalea. It has a bit of a Japanese look to it, I think.

Let's pretend to be a castle

The Wentworth Castle estate holds a number of monuments and structures, including this sham castle known as Stainborough Castle, on the highest point of the grounds. Finished in 1731, it was built by Thomas Wentworth as a ruined folly and inscribed 'Rebuilt in 1730'. It originally had four towers, named after his four children. Now only two remain. You can climb a (mercifully sturdy, steel) spiral staircase to the top and the views from up there are lovely.

And right at the top, there's a dragon!

It's all rather nice and I could well imagine the household gathering there for picnics and fun, much as visitors do now. You can almost hear the laughter of those four children.

Lenten rose

Another personal favourite, the hellebore, is known as the Christmas or Lenten rose, flowering as they do in late winter/early spring. They come in a variety of colours, from purples and pinks to white and even astonishing pale green flowers. The 'petals' are actually sepals and the spiky bits in the middle are the modified petals or nectaries. They are low growing plants and like dappled shade under shrubs and trees. Many of them droop their heads shyly and are hard to photograph but this one smiled at me.

Camellia

The beginning of March was, I suppose, a bit of a silly time to visit a garden. Nature has hardly begun to stir from winter dormancy - though I do like to see the structure and shape of trees without their leaves. Nevertheless there were a few hints of spring around, with snowdrops and pretty little pink and white cyclamen nestled under the trees. Wentworth Castle Gardens holds National Collections of rhododendrons, camellias and magnolias - meaning that in a few weeks there will be spectacular blossom to see. (I might go back!) I spotted this one early flowering camellia. They are such delicate blossoms and flower so early that they are nearly always browned and burned by frost. This beautiful bloom was, however, pretty well perfect.

The Blackamoor

This Georgian lead sundial depicting a slave, The Blackamoor, sits in the conservatory at Wentworth Castle Gardens. It was a popular subject for sculpture in the gardens of grand mansions, initially because of the wealth generated by the slave trade. Later, these sculptures became a symbol adopted by the abolitionist movement: 'Am I not a man and a brother?' A notice beside this particular sundial said that it had at one time been painted white as a protest, by students from the college. They have recently removed the white paint and restored it to its former colours. Personally, I find it a powerful and moving reminder both of our not-always-glorious history and of the fact that things can change when brave people speak out.

Victorian Conservatory

Perhaps the most celebrated feature of Wentworth Castle Gardens is the newly restored Victorian conservatory. It was featured on a TV programme called 'Restoration', which involved various worthy restoration projects competing for funds in a public vote. It didn't win, but nevertheless eventually enough funds were raised and the once derelict conservatory has been beautifully restored and rebuilt. It was dismantled into over 4000 parts, which were taken off site, stripped, repaired and repainted before being faithfully reconstructed on site again, complete with new glass carefully made to look old and flawed. It reopened in late 2013. It's beautiful.

Ha-ha

There are wonderful views from the park at Wentworth Castle. There is a special, hidden feature: a recessed wall and ditch known as a ha-ha (probably because that describes the surprised reaction experienced when walking out across the lawn, when the feature suddenly becomes visible). These walls and ditches were often used around large country houses. They are designed to allow full appreciation of the view from the house, with no intervening walls or fences, whilst protecting the immediate surroundings from livestock.

Wentworth Castle Gardens

There was a hint of Spring in the air over the weekend, with some warm sunshine despite a stiff, cold wind in more exposed places. I finally managed an expedition, to one of the places that has been on my 'must visit' list for a while...Wentworth Castle Gardens, near Barnsley in South Yorkshire.

It's an interesting place and its mixed use seems increasingly common among our larger heritage estates. The house itself was once the home of the Earls of Strafford. Thomas Wentworth bought the site and an older house in 1711. He dedicated a great deal to rebuilding the house and landscaping the estate, perhaps aggrieved that what he believed was his birthright, the nearby estate of Wentworth Woodhouse, had passed to another relative. The house is not generally open to the public. Nowadays it is run as a residential college - Northern College - for men and women of all ages who, for one reason or another, have no qualifications but are seeking to return to learning.

The wider estate it is set in, Stainborough Park, was at one time beautifully landscaped with carefully planted trees, various follies and monuments and a sinuous lake. The changing fortunes and ownership of the house led to a break up of the estate, and some of the land was decimated by open-cast mining whilst other areas were farmed. In 2002, a trust was formed to restore and preserve what is South Yorkshire's only Grade I listed estate. New trees have been planted, features restored, the lake dredged and the parkland returned to a deer park.