Roche Abbey and Kedleston Hall

This past weekend, drove to South Yorkshire to see Roche Abbey, a 12-century abbey ruin in the middle of a gorgeous valley. It was about an hour's drive from Ashby and at the bottom of a valley, accessible only by a 1-lane cobbled road. (The shocks on our car suffered greatly that day...)

The abbey is one of the most complete in England, mainly because the foundations have been almost completely excavated, so the historians can see the actual footprint of all the buildings. A map on site shows which area was which and the remains of the church are pretty spectacular. The monks there were Cistercian, wearing all white robes (a replica of which they have in the visitors center--kind of spooky). They also built the abbey right over a fast-moving stream, which was pretty ingenious thinking when you see the layout of the abbey.


Roche Abbey

After we left the abbey, we headed south to Kedleston Hall, just outside of Derby. For all the ID people who remember their History of Interiors class with Nancy, this was the first house built by Robert Adam, the great 18th-century architect. For non-ID people, Adam was one of the first architects to not only design the building and the interiors, but design furniture as well. (For example, he would design a chair specifically to go "right there," if that makes sense.) History of Interiors was my absolute favorite topic in school, so this was almost like a pilgrimage for me.

It was a completely spectacular home. We couldn't take photos inside (major bummer), but it was truly amazing. They have restored it to it's original colors and condition, and most of the furniture is original to the house as designed by Adam. Even Kev, who isn't necessarily into interiors, was amazed. The family that has had the land since ages ago still lives in one wing of the house, which has helped to keep the house in such good condition. The grounds and gardens were also designed by Adam, and it was a really gorgeous setting overall.


Kedleston Hall and grounds

Once we finished going through the house, we had lunch in the picnic area near the car park and then went across the field to this massive antiques fair they were having on the grounds. There must have been over 20 huge tents, all filled with various stalls of folks selling furniture, collectibles, knick-knacks, etc. Plus, there were people outside in tents (kind of like at an art and wine festival), so we just walked around everywhere and had a look. Kev bought a small soldier figurine, and we got some homemade fudge, but that was the total of our purchases.

It was a complete swamp on the ground, so the organizers had spread straw all over the mud, but it wasn't helping very much. It was muddy and squelchy, and when you went inside the tents, the mud smelled and there was no air moving at all--humid and stinky--yuck! I said to Kev, "Hey, if we went over there and scooped up some of the muck, we could make an adobe house!"