Historic House spotting this Christmas

[essexbearhunter]

My mild interest in Patrick Stewart's 'A Christmas Carol' suddenly went stratospheric when the roofless gable of Kirby Hall came into view, masquerading as Scrooges' old school in the Christmas Past section. Nice use of one of the rooms with the semi-circular bay windows for internal shots (including damaged plaster ) and the shell of the Long Gallery for exchanges with the ghost.

Cranford did not fair so well (I got irritated with it and switched over) but made a note to find out where the extra-ordinary black & white marble floor of 'Hanbury Court' was from . You need to visit Syon House to see the original.

Anyone else been history-spotting this Yule?

 

[Penners]

Well, if you're concentrating on history, let's have a look at your use of the word "Yule".

It's actually nothing to do with Christmas - just one of those pagan feasts that have been absorbed into the general mish-mash of pagan and Christian celebrations that make up our modern Christmas.

Yule is actually an old Germanic/Norse feast, generally thought to have started on the 21st December, to celebrate the winter solstice.

 

[essexbearhunter]

Well, if you're concentrating on history, let's have a look at your use of the word "Yule".

Mmmm, yes, I'm glad that I did use Yule -or the Tesco-minded amongst us might have mis-understood and taken the "Christmas period" to be from Mid October (if they could somehow shoehorn it in with the fireworks & pumpkin sales) to 16:30 pm on December 24th (when they start scraping the tinsel off the windows in preparation for the next Sales Event).... and that was definitely NOT intended.

(In fairness to Tesco's, I ought to add that it was actually in one of their competitors that I saw the stripping of the tinsel this year)

 

[Moo]

(In fairness to Tesco's, I ought to add that it was actually in one of their competitors that I saw the stripping of the tinsel this year)

Do you honestly believe that T*S*C*O weren't at it too?*


* they were merrily filling the bins with tinsel and cardboard reindeer antlers at our local branch.

 

[DaveBrigg]

Thanks for the Christmas Carol info. I've had to watch this film several times, and it's not always easy to tell what is real and what is film set. Some of the more historically minded pupils spotted that Scrooge was a relic from Star Trek though. I've managed to miss most of the telly over the last couple of weeks, but junior received the latest Harry Potter DVD, which will probably be liberally sprinkled with old castles and cathedrals.

 

[ilona73]

I too watched Cranford etc.. but alas i spent the entire yule with horrendous D&V so spent most of it in bed.....
Instead i wandered round my own historic landmark and counted the endless list of jobs that need doing that i foolishly thought could be done in a year.... 6 months ago
Hah! what a steep learning curve it has been!
Heres to the next yule and hopefully by then i might actually be getting somewhere!!!

 

[judrop]

Brympton House near Yeovil in "The turn of the screw" spine tinglingly good ! Nothing like ghosts and ghoulies this time of year . Nicely filmed and atmospheric. A*

 

[essexbearhunter]

Brympton House near Yeovil ...

I had never even heard of Brympton before your posting.

Looking at their website http://www.brymptonhouse.co.uk/ It looks stunning! Love the stone porches and the panelling.