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Sunnycroft
Sunnycroft is an unusual property (now of the national trust), known as a suburban villa, a sort of country estates in miniature, or poor man's mansion. Sunnycroft is a rare example of a well-preserved such property, with a lovely charm of comfy British sophistication without the pomposity of wealth.
The Sunnycroft gardens.
Sherlock Holmes looking interiors.
A profusion of details.
The paintings gallery.
The kitchen was clearly not that of noblety.
Back view, with the imposing conservatory.
Side view, on the garden.
Maybe the best part, the tea room.
Victorian cakes were not to Julia's taste.
Lilleshall & Monument
The village dates back to Anglo-Saxon times, the parish church being founded by St Chad, and is listed in the Domesday Book. The monument was erected by tenant to their landlord (Duke of Sutherland), "the most just and generous of landlords" who received this as a testimony, so the plaque on the monument tells us, that "he went down to his grave with the blessings of his tenants on his head". It seems he left them some inheritance of some sort.
The Domesday book church.
The Commonwealth War Graves entry, in front.
We parked nearby and carried on by foot.
Till the Lilleshall Monument.
View of Shropshire (with the Wrekin on the right).
The foot of the monument is the perfect spot to play with the windmill from Sunnycroft.
Lilleshall from its monument.
A nice bridge in the fields.
We left them together.
Lilleshall abbey
The Abbey was funded in the 1140s, for Augustinian canons, and was closed by orders of Henry VIII in 1538. It suffered much damages during a Parliamentary siege in 1645.
Incongruous mass of history forgotten in the countryside.
Walls only enclosing testimonies.
Much remains in fairly good condition.
This portal was the most impressive part.
A little labyrinth that opened all its secret and with nowhere to get lost.
Julia when she was visiting Augustinian Abbeys.
Catching wind in a place where all the windows are open.
In what used to be the cloister.
From behind.
And again the main nave, waiting for another night to set in.
Time for us to go.
A last view of greatness when it is left to itself, this time from the tower.
Tong
On our way back we spotted the beautiful Saint Bartholemew's church and stopped, thankfully finding it still opened (although it seems the nice person in charge who was closing let us visit instead of looking at his watch). There is inside a "Golden Chapel" which is a scaled down version of Henry VII's chapel in Westminster.
