On your own doorstep - Haden Hill House Museum

The Museum

 Hello Everyone,

The Library

The Museum and Hall

Ornamental lake and ducks

Now you all know I am keen on peeps being aware of historical buildings and places of interest on their own doorstep. It is so easy to live somewhere and ignore local attractions while being aware and visiting places on the other side of the globe. Recently, I made my first visit to  Haden Hill Park and was surprised at what I found there. Children's play area, bowling green, leisure facilities, nice gardens but of more interest and my main reason for visiting - Haden Hill House Museum next to the Haden Old Hall.


Haden Hill House Museum in Cradley Heath is a Victorian gentleman's residence furnished in period style, surrounded by 55 acres of award winning parkland. The house also holds a variety of temporary exhibitions throughout the year.
The House was built in 1878 by George Alfred Haden Haden-Best who did not wish to live in the Old Hall next door where he grew up with his sisters, aunt and uncle. Haden Hill House has plenty to entertain younger visitors too and the museum has a lively programme of events and activities for all ages as well as a popular selection of activities for schools.
Haden Old Hall is semi-detached to the Victorian house. The Hall was probably originally built around the late 1600s and evidence suggests it was later split into two farm dwellings. By the time Mr Haden-Best inherited in the 1870s he wished to build a new house to live in. The Old Hall has been rebuilt and restored many times over its lifetime and what you see today is largely a copy of the building which once stood there. We don't know how much of the historic fabric remains.
We believe he intended to eventually demolish the old hall and build an extension to the Victorian house in its place, but this never happened.
Although the Victorian house is furnished as a museum with Victorian objects, Haden Old Hall is now just a shell after it was damaged by fire and partly restored. (Taken from the info on the Sandwell Council website)

I had a great afternoon there and thoroughly enjoyed wandering round the rooms before having afternoon tea. I think Sofia and Donald, (who will be back in November) have something to say about this!

"Sofia, how long has she lived in this area?"
"Forty years Donald."
"How far from her home is this gorgeous house?"
"Five miles but I don't think she wanted people to know that!"
"It's taken her forty years to just pop down the road?"
"Er.. yes."
"Well, at least she practises what she preaches even if it does take forever!"

The Morning Room

Until next week, have fun, Lady M xxxxx

October!

February, Green Monday kite flying contest in Paphos!

Hello Everyone,

Where would we be without memories? As the end of each year approaches I tend to wander down memory lane and am horrified when I realise that events that occurred twenty years ago seem like only yesterday. Right now I'm wandering back to February, the beginning of this year when I was in Paphos. A 'Green Monday' tradition is kite flying and the pic I'm sharing with you is of me about to be a Mary Poppins and 'let's go fly a kite'. I had fun but was it so long ago?

October! An interesting month, particularly the origin. 'Octo' meaning 8, it was originally the eighth month of the year with November (Nov)  nine and December (Dec) ten. In 46 BC, Roman times, the New Year started in March. Julius Caesar, as Emperor of Rome, reorganised the calendar and made it start in January. He kept the old names apart from the seventh month which he named July after himself. The calendar became known as the Julian calendar. When Augustus was Emperor, he felt that he was as important as Julius and named August after himself.

Later, on 4th October 1582 Pope Gregory introduced the Gregorian calendar. He realised that the Julian calendar worked on the theory that a year lasted for 365 days and 6 hours, thus  Julius Caesar had introduced a leap year every four years. In reality, a year was only 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 46 seconds. As a result of this miscalculation, the world was more than a week out of place, so to correct it, in 1582 the day after October 4th was October 15th! Well, you have heard the saying, 'every second counts'!

Some other events in October throughout the years:

1853  The Crimean War began.

1889  The Moulin Rouge opened in Paris.

1536  William Tyndale, the man who wrote the English Bible, was executed.

1769  Captain Cook discovered New Zealand.

1085  St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice was consecrated.

1899  The Boer War began.

1915  Edith Cavell was executed by a firing squad.

1492  Columbus saw his first land in discovering the New World; he called it San Salvador.

1822  Brazil gained independence from Portugal.

1775  The US navy was founded.

1792  President Washington lay the foundation cornerstone of the White House.

1793  Marie Antoinette was executed.

1707  The First Parliament of Great Britain.

You can't say my blogs are not informative or educational!

Happy October!

Have a great week,  Lady M

A little light reading 7



Hello Everyone,

 

 

 

This is the final week in my  'A little light reading' series. My last two works, or #7 and #8 as I think of them, may only be purchased in Kindle. The Kindle app may be downloaded to all devices.

 

 

 

WRITE IT! PUBLISH IT! MARKET IT!  was published in 2016 as an aide to all those who wanted to bravely hike into the publishing world...

The Blurb

"How do you publish a book? This author first self-published fifteen years ago in a different publishing climate. But, that question is one I have been asked on numerous occasions. Originally, I produced a small booklet, "Write It! Publish It! Market It!" with advice and information for going through the process from writing to marketing: what to write, copyright, editing, proof reading, typesetting/text blocking, jacket, ISBN, blurb, page numbers, pricing, printing, promoting, libraries, shops, networking, marketing. I had discovered that it was a long and complicated process with many pitfalls. Print on demand (PoD) made it easier for authors to become publishers because it was possible to have small print runs. Then the e-book arrived, a new concept in publishing. I have updated my original booklet, including appropriate websites and adding my self-publishing story plus a chapter from one of my six books. This publication may be used as guidance for aspiring authors. Good luck to all of you who enter the publishing arena with your own work."

  

Well, writing a book begins with sitting down and writing that first sentence! Procrastination is not an option!

 

 

Life is... was published in June this year as a result of postings on Facebook! I think that answers a popular question of where do authors get their inspiration from!

 

The Blurb

 

"I like most people on the planet, have become a great fan of social media and in particular, Facebook. During the last six months I have been posting daily. Firstly, it was 'Words of Wisdom' and then I moved on to 'Life is…' Some of my thoughts were philosophical, others humorous. Sometimes I added photographs and emojis or I dedicated certain sayings to individual people. On a couple of occasions I even added a short story telling the inspiration behind the quotation, for example…'Life is about turning left instead of right and having an adventure!'
I noticed that I was getting a lot of those 'like' clicks and friends seemed to be enjoying my humble daily offering. I had an idea… put all of my posts into a short book and publish them. I have placed one of the 'Words of Wisdom' on each page and the' Life is…' quotations follow with some illustrations, either photographs from my albums or downloads from the Net under creative commons licence. All the acknowledgements may be found at the end of the booklet after information on my books.
I hope that those of you who download this will delve into it on the dark days and find that it puts the smile back on your face.
How would I describe it? Humorous, philosophical, satirical, stimulating, inspirational, illuminating, intriguing, thought-provoking, fresh, invigorating and delightful.
Enjoy!"

Lady M xxxxx