Polly-do-you-remember?

When the Bee in the City trail arrived in Manchester, I had intended to photograph 50 of the bees but now I've got 86, it looks like I'm going to try for all 101.

This bee is a bit off the beaten track and is out at Clayton Hall.  I did take a picture of it last week but the gates were locked and I could barely pick it up with my zoom! I was worried they might see me on CCTV and think I was scoping out the joint!

This bee is called Polly-do-you-remember? and was sponsored by Age Friendly Manchester.  In 2010, AFM gained accreditation with the World Health Organisation, and Manchester became the first UK city to join their global network of Age-friendly Cities. AFM wants to make the city a better place in which to grow older and in turn improve the lives of older people.

The quilted design of the bee is a reference to the Old Hall quilting group at Clayton Hall and their sharing of stories. Images recall forgotten histories and reference the fabric of the medieval building, former home to the founder of Chetham’s Library, Humphrey Chetham. Polly also represents the worker bees, and the link with the outstanding contribution of the volunteers, recognised in the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2018.

The bee was designed by Caroline Greyling, an artist who "combines the real and the fantastic in her drawings and illustrations, using feminine forms and influences to build a body of work based on the future's return to the ways of the past".

Clayton Hall is a 15th-century manor house.  The hall is a Grade II* listed building and the mound on which it is built is a scheduled ancient monument and a rare example of a medieval moated site.  The hall is surrounded the moat (although there is no longer any water in it) making an island 66 m by 74 m.

I've lived in Manchester all my life and never even knew about Clayton Hall.  I've now been 3 times since starting my Blip journey!   

Quote for today:
It was a mistake to think of houses, old houses, as being empty. They were filled with memories, with the faded echoes of voices. Drops of tears, drops of blood, the ring of laughter, the edge of tempers that had ebbed and flowed between the walls, into the walls, over the years.
- Nora Roberts, Key of Knowledge