A National Trust property to start February? Why not? A visit to Bakewell and a wander round some beautiful towns and villages. A friend works at Chatsworth House so a flying visit to her apartment and the coffee shop nearby left a desire to revisit when the house reopens later in 2025. The grounds are open and it would have been walkable to the party venue of another friend in Bakewell itself, but after all the partying, we decided to visit a new National Trust property a small distance away.

We are glad we did, despite one of the volunteers at Kedleston describing it as Chatsworth’s poor relation, the grandeur and splendour of the apartments we did see were pretty much all that you expect of the great houses the Trust allows us to visit. Perfectly happy to snap some views with the new camera and enjoy a shared scone. I even saw some books matching my NT Scone recipe book, but tempting me to try other NT recipes.

The garden also had sweeping views and amazing trees, and even the start of some snowdrops but you can tell the summer gardens will be even more impressive.

I didn’t find the stairs challenging like I sometimes do, but I imagine when busier my slowness on the stairs would have been an issue. There were sumptuous and sparse areas in the house but even the corridors had things of interest.

Altogether well worth the two hours we spent there before heading for home. I do like seeing new properties as we do go back to the ones we live closest to on a regular basis and at least if I don’t go and see snowdrops locally I can say I’ve seen some sweeps already!