The Squeee

Through PeriodDramas.com , we learn that Haddon Hall (outside Bakewell in Derbyshire), the Thornfield of no less than three different Jane Eyre adaptations ( Gainsbourg/Hurt 1996 , Wilson/Stephens 2006 , Wasikowska/Fassbender 2011 ), is to have an exhibition of the costumes of said productions. Last year, they displayed costumes from the 2011 production, but now they're getting ones from the previous two as well. Yay!! If it was just the 2011 costumes, I wouldn't be that tempted to go - been there, seen those - but with the other two adaptations as well ... awwww, I'll totally have to. Just imagine, seeing Rochester's deep green coat ... wow. Also, the 2011 costumes are incredible : Mrs. Fairfax's apron. I loved it in the film. It's even more wonderful to behold in real life.

Item 3 in the Christmas Giveaway is a souvenir notepad from Haddon Hall , which I picked up when I was there for the Jane Eyre behind the scenes tour in October ... which I still need to write about. It has the same picture that I have on my keyring and shows Haddon Hall in all its Thornfieldy splendour.

This is totally lifted off a flyer I picked up when I was on said tour this Saturday just gone. It's a fun event, and you get to learn a lot not just about Jane Eyre '11, but also bits about '96 and '06, as they were all using Haddon Hall for Thornfield Hall. Tickets are selling fast, and this is the last of these you can attend this year! My recommendation would be to dress warm, but not too warm, as you do walk around quite a bit. Costumes from Jane Eyre '11 on display at Haddon Hall Sunday 23 October 2011 10:30 am If you would like to know more about what happens when a film crew takes over Haddon Hall, why not join us for our special "Behind the Scenes" tour? Stroll through the house and find out which rooms were used in which scene. Haddon Staff, involved with the filming, will share anecdotes and trade secrets with you. There is also the opportunity to visit parts of the house not normally open to visitors. Enjoy this unique experience f...

If you would like to see some footage from See Film Differently's Jane Eyre premiere at Haddon Hall, there's a little film here: Both the Squeeze and I completely managed to evade being captured on film, apparently, despite me wearing my "Team Edward Rochester" t-shirt. Nice to see the bit with Cary Fukanaga (doesn't he kinda remind you of Johnny Depp?), as that seemed to be cut off when we were actually there, due to some terrible lag in the system. Also, there's an event on next Saturday, which I'm hoping to attend. And yes, I know, I still need to type up about the screening. Things got in the way, I'm afraid. Considering making it a Sunday Matinée post, which means it's still a few weeks in the future, as it's currently occupied by the German travel diary. Or maybe I'll reschedule. We'll see. P.S. If you want to live in a place that inspired Charlotte Brontë, Thornton Hall in Thornton near Bradford is up for sale , for th...

So, we finally made it to North Lees Hall outside Hathersage in north Derbyshire. ( Previous post about this day is here , by the way.) We drove up to the house, parked on the side of the field where other people were parked, tried to get an overturned sign to stay up in the wind (it wouldn't), and walked up to the old house. First impressions, aside from fangirly glee of being somewhere where Charlotte Brontë had been and been so inspired by, was that the house itself is rather on the small side, but wow, the views of the Derbyshire hills from there are extraordinary! How's this for a view? The reason behind going to North Lees Hall in the first place is of course that it's one of the buildings that inspired Charlotte Brontë to write about Thornfield in Jane Eyre . In fact, the description of Thornfield Hall does ring true with North Lees (which also, as it happens, was the ancestral home of the Eyre family), with a tower and turrets and the surroundings, nestled...

Part 4: South Wingfield The final stop on the journey before heading home was to be Wingfield Manor in South Wingfield. It's a bit further south than all the other places we'd been to during the day, so would make a good stop on the way back home to Nottingham. Getting to South Wingfield wasn't a problem. There were roadsigns. We could even see the ruins from the road. How to get to Wingfield Manor, however, was another matter. There were no roadsigns at all. We couldn't find a place to stop to take pictures either, so had to go in a big circle back and see if we could find a place the second time around. The first time, when we had reached the post code for the hall according to the website, all we saw was a road saying that wasn't a public road to the manor so sod off. It was a lot clearer than the Hathersage "satnav users, this is a private road, y'all, just so you know" to say the least. I looked with timorous joy towards a stately house: I...

Chatsworth As we were leaving North Lees Hall, a man in the car next to us suggested popping to the church for another interesting historical building to view, and there's the grave of Robin Hood's buddy Little John to view as well. By the time we actually reached Hathersage, we couldn't be bothered trying to navigate those narrow streets in order to find the church, and as we both felt like a pit stop would be a good idea, we decided to skip it and press on. The satnav got instructions to take us to South Wingfield via Matlock Bath, and on the way, we spotted a sign for the Chatsworth Farm Shop. As a sister-in-law had mentioned some kind of speciality tea she had only been able to find there, and we said we'd be going to Chatsworth for a visit at some point and would we mind awfully having a look for it and buy some for her. We didn't mind at all, and as we saw the sign, stopped by for said pit stop. Hills as far as the eye can see.

Hathersage Driving through some narrow roads, made worse because of parked cars on the side of it, meaning that there really was only space for one car to pass at a time, we followed the satnav to the post code for North Lees Hall, i.e. S32 1BR. The Heritage site had said to "turn into Coggers Lane" in Hathersage, which was a road sign we never saw, so eventually, up on one of the hills, we came to a turn-off where the friendly female voice said we should "go left". It had a sign informing satnav users that it was a private road. Private and unpaved. We thought that as the Hall is rented out as holiday accomodation, that might be it (not that any other signs said "North Lees Hall this way", but we hadn't seen any down in Hathersage either). They might just not want people using it as a through road or something. There have been stories in the news about very small towns that have had a lot of lorry traffic going through all of a sudden, because of ...

Our little outing to go and see North Lees Hall turned into a big sightseeing tour of Derbyshire, from which we managed to return unscathed. Not that rural Derbyshire is full of crooks (like, for instance, the fictional county of Midsomer - where you're either a murder victim, witness, suspect or an actual murderer), but rather because it's full of very steep hills and very narrow roads. You might say north Derbyshire is breathtaking ... for all the wrong reasons! Bakewell We began the tour in Bakewell (passing Haddon Hall on the way). Bakewell is a town famous for their eponymous tarts and puddings, which are more or less full of almonds. I have made Bakewell tarts before and last week, I also tried making a Bakewell pudding, following the Hairy Bikers' recipe . Now we were back, to check out the original stuff. We did just that before we went to Haddon Hall last summer, and now we were trying to find the same place. Having just got ourselves a nice pasty each, the r...

One of the country houses that litter the countryside on this little island that I'd love to visit is Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. And last Friday, had the day off and went to see it! Or, rather, we went to the Chatsworth Country Fair. It was a big show, located in the grounds of the house (the park?) but entry to the house and gardens wasn't included - and as the show was big, we were too busy walking around there to go to the house itself. The Squeeze has promised we'll go back and see the house properly at some point. Chatsworth House - Pemberley '05 I got a proper belt so my trousers won't keep falling down and a proper whittling knife (by Mora of Sweden - oh the irony!) and had a look at plenty of dog things (not that we have a dog), lots of tweed and Australian leather hats. Another thing was the animals - ferret racing, for instance. Got to pet a very relaxed little ferret (they're super-cute). There was also a falconry display, but we didn't...

For those who are inclined to look at old buildings, a bunch of them will be open next weekend. Amongst those, North Lees Hall in Hathersage (Derbyshire). Thursday and Friday by appointment, open 10-16 Saturday and Sunday. One thing I didn't realise until ... yesterday is that North Lees Hall is actually not just some country house you can go visit whenever you like. It's a holiday cottage. Rent-a-castle or perhaps rather rent-a-manor. Which means, the only time you can see the place on the inside is on one of these open days - unless you want to cough up £455 for a three-night stay in the winter (low season), or a whole lot more during the summer months. The place does sleep six, though, so if you're a few people, you can always stay together for a few nights and share the cost. Wouldn't it be fun to get six Jane Eyre -ites together for a weekend at the place that inspired Thornfield? :) Anyway. This realisation, i.e. it's open day or I won't get to see it ...

While trying to find a photo to go with part two of Country Roads , I came across this: It was three stories high . . . a gentleman’s manor-house . . . battlements around the top gave it a picturesque look’ In 1845 Charlotte Brontë stayed at Hathersage vicarage with her friend Ellen Nussey and regularly visited the locally important Eyre family at North Lees Hall.  Charlotte’s letters reveal Hathersage as the village Morton in Jane Eyre (published 1847). The landlord of the George Inn was a Mr Morton at the time Brontë stayed here and she borrowed the Eyre family name for her heroine.  There’s a reference in the novel to ‘Mr Oliver’s needle factory’ in Morton, and there were several needle mills in Hathersage then. The novel’s crenellated Thornfield is clearly based on North Lees Hall. Robert Eyre is said to have built seven houses for seven sons and you can still see North Lees, an impressive Tudor manor just a short pleasant walk from the village. ...

It's always fun to go places where they've filmed things, especially if it's something you're really into. For instance, I think I'd die and go to fangirl heaven if I were to go to Minyip in Australia (the town of Coopers Crossing in The Flying Doctors ). Australia is a bit far to travel, but Derbyshire isn't, it's just next door. :) "the most complete and most interesting house of [its] period" Growing up, every summer, we used to go on family holidays in the caravan and travel around Sweden and go to museums, old houses, glass-blowing places and a number of other things. It wasn't just swimming and eating ice cream, no, we got to do Boring Cultural Things. At the time, I wasn't perhaps not very appreciative of it, as I never had any stories in class that quite measured up with my classmates who went to Crete or the Canary Islands for their holidays. What had I done? Gone gallavanting up a boring mountain up north somewhere and seen so...