Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire

Today we took a trip to the National Trust property Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire.

It was a lovely day so we decided to visit Sudbury Hall since we were staying with Jan’s parents in Loughborough and it was only about 30 minutes drive away. As well as the hall itself, the National Childhood museum is also situated on the same site, so we thought there was a reasonable chance that James and Emma would also enjoy the trip. Obviously, it provided me with an opportunity to take photographs, so I was pleased to go. You can view the photos I took in the gallery below.

Sudbury Hall Pictures

I took along my Takumar standard lens kit with my Sony Nex 6 and captured amongst others the photos above during out trip.

Although the hall was an interesting visit, the National Childhood museum really made the trip worth while. There were a large number of toys from the 1960’s and onwards which I remember playing with and toys from the victorian age onwards which were really interesting to see. It’s a particularly rewarding visit for anyone with children, because it’s interesting to contrast todays toys with the toys their grandparents would have played with or coveted.

Emma told me that while she was looking at a large victorian dolls house with elaborately decorated rooms, that a small boy asked her which room had the TV in. She told him that in victorian houses they didn’t have TV and he looked at her aghast and went to confirm this with his parents!

The most interesting parts of the visit and ones I wound recommend to others attending the property were

• the opportunity for children to experience being a chimney sweep
• the victorian school room (although not if you are worried about being picked on and made to look a fool, I found it quite patronising and embarrassing)
• the various toy exhibitions