Clumber Park, Near Nottingham

I left home at 5.30am to drive to Clumber Park to do a photo shoot with Olympus cameras and their landscape photographer, Steve Gosling. I have met Steve a few times and he's a lovely bloke, so I knew it'd be a good day out photographing.

Clumber Park is a country park in the Dukeries near Worksop in Nottinghamshire, England. It was the seat of the Pelham-Clintons, Dukes of Newcastle. It is owned by the National Trust and open to the public.

Clumber, mentioned in Domesday Book was monastic property in the Middle Ages, but later came into the hands of the Holles family.
In 1709 it was enclosed as a deer park by John Holles - Clumber house, by the River Poulter at the centre of the park, became a hunting lodge, but two generations later, about 1759, the heir to the estate, Lord Lincoln, decided to make it one of his principal mansions.

When, in March 1879 a serious fire destroyed much of Clumber House, the 7th Duke of Newcastle had it rebuilt to designs by Charles Barry, Jr.
Another fire, in 1912, caused less damage, but the effects of the First World War and the Great Depression forced the abandonment of the mansion, which, like many other houses during this period, was demolished in 1938.

The Church of St Mary, a Grade I listed Gothic Revival chapel built by the 7th Duke of Newcastle and a four acre walled kitchen garden with a glass house measuring some 450 feet in length survive.


Clumber Park is over 3,800 acres in extent, including woods, open heath and rolling farmland. It contains a serpentine lake covering 87 acres, and the longest double avenue of lime trees in Europe. The avenue was created by the 5th Duke of Newcastle in the 19th century and extends for more than two miles (4km).

The park was left to the people of Worksop by the Duke of Newcastle and acquired by the National Trust in 1946.

The park is used by walkers and has several miles of paths and cycle tracks surrounding the lake. The park has bicycles for hire. The visitor centre is in the old stable block, part of which houses a display on the history of the park, a shop and restaurant. Off the main lime tree avenue are camping facilities.

The lake was partially rebuilt in the 1980s and again in 2004 after suffering from subsidence from coal mining.

The blip photo shows the chapel and lake, with some of the many wildlife that inhabit the park.

I left at 5.45pm and drove straight home, arriving at 9.15pm. A long, enjoyable day!