Hardwick Country Park

We decided to travel north this morning and explore Hardwick Park. It is only half an hour's drive from us but we had never been there. My blip is of the building called Bono Retiro.

In the 18th century the then owner employed a leading architect to create pleasure grounds. Their grand plan was to create a garden that, although heavily engineered, was meant to look completely natural.There were several follys in the park but by the late 19th Century the estate fell on hard times. The buildings disappeared, the lake silted up and the magical views became overgrown with trees and undergrowth until 1999 when Durham County Council, with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, embarked on a project to return the grounds to their former glory.