Dunham Massey

Dunham Massey is yet another impressive Edwardian home, built in the early 18th century for the 2nd Earl of Warrington, George Booth.

The Earl's coat of arms and cypher adorn the house within and without: on walls, bannisters, the tops of drainpipes – it is quite an undertaking, particularly for the young, to attempt to find them all. An antique fire extinguisher and bicycle proved more interesting to Kassie than many of the more opulent rooms, including the Green Salon with its tall black pillars of lime and the Billiards Room with its antique scoreboards. Most interesting of all were the iron covers of the kitchen courtyard created by T. Crapper & Co., famous for both their improvements to drains and manhole covers. Naturally, we could not help but wonder whether Thomas Crapper's name had any etymological significance to the contents piped beneath our feet – a renowned Victorian plumber, his name is widely believed to be the origins of the word "crap".

The extensive gardens also proved enlightening: we saw towering rhododendron bushes, gargantuan lilies, numerous types of hydrangea, and the distinctive monkey tree, not to mention an impressive selection of other specimen trees. The garden features a moat, complete with ducks and flowering water lilies, an 18th-century orangery (pictured left), an intriguing Victorian bark house, and a mount which apparently hails from an earlier (Tudor) garden.

We didn't have time to explore the surrounding park but came across a fallow deer or two near the gift shop and toilets, always a treat.

Date of Our Last Visit: September 2003