Woolly Weekend!

Nellie of The Woods and I went to a Woolly weekend fair at the most delicious private house! Shabby is the word to describe it - shabby and glorious in its aged state! The house is called Kelly House and the family have lived there since the Norman Conquest! The current squire is the 31st and apparently this makes for an almost unsurpassed lineage amongst the former gentry of England! The house is now a mixture of Tudor, Georgian and Victorian as you can see from the link! I was in love with the place as soon as we parked, I have no idea what this building once was but oh I could have spent ages taking photographs of it! 
The rooms we saw inside the main house were tantalising! There was a Georgian Green Man above one of the doorways and there were bits and bobs obviously acquired down the years I spotted  hats from various eras arranged on one wall and a display case of old toy cars. No photography was allowed inside the house apart from of the exhibits. The house does a 2 and a half hour tour and I plan to take The Exile and hopefully be given permission to take some photographs!!
The fair was small but so lovely - the first stall was for a local Childs hospice and had the type of knitted things your old aunty might have made! Tea cosies, crochet toilet roll covers etc! But they had a delightful old  full sized knitted couple knitting, along with knitted biscuits and a willow plate and a hella magazine! The next room had an Alpaca Stall which had the softest fibres! I bought 4 bags to be made into felted things by my sister and I! The next room had shawls and hats and felt things- the shawls were beautiful but my sister can make me those and the hats sadly didn't suit me! I did buy a felted small vase! The next room had a stall selling all the bits and bobs that go with knitting - I bought a selection of buttons which I will probably give to my sister to work into some collage! The final room had a square domed high ceiling, like some banqueting hall, and there were pieces of stained glass made by the current squire. The wool in this room was just gorgeous! My sister would have been in heaven! Luckily one of them is going to be exhibiting at the Stitchfest in Totnes that we are going to in November!
After all this we went for tea and cake - this meant going down a rickety staircase to a backyard, then through what appeared to be a scullery as you can see in my blip,  and a room full of tins of paint and old furniture to get to the Tudor kitchen which had the largest hearth and a roaring fire! I had lemon and ginger tea and a piece of lemon drizzle cake!
After this we took Oscar for a walk down a track past a derelict farm building to a field with an amazing view. We managed to get into the next field to get a view of the house from the other side which was apparently once the main entrance. We had a quick walk around the church built in 1259! Next time I go I shall leave Oscar in the car and have a look inside!
It was a perfectly lovely way to spend the day, the company and conversation of Nellie, the place, the fair, the countryside and the weather all perfect! Good for the soul!