So, this weekend, the youngest came home for a short break from uni, and looking for somewhere different for a daytrip, we plumped for the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It was a beautiful sunny day, but crisp like the best winter days should be. We've been to the park before, but each time we see something different, sometimes because the exhibitions have changed, sometimes because we had inadvertently missed something on the previous visit, but spotted it this time.
Last time we specifically went to YSP to see the poppies from the Tower of London which had just begun their tour of the country.
So, this weekend, there was nothing specific happening that we knew of and we didn't go to see anything in particular, so we felt free to have a good old wander around the grounds of Bretton Hall. We took a map, and ended up walking along the Upper Lake path, which we'd not done before, and I was impressed with the Greek Temple, the lovely little shell grotto and the boathouse.
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| The Greek Temple |
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| The Greek Temple |
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| The Shell Grotto |
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| The Boathouse |
But, the thing that struck me most was the obelisk, not particularly tall, but, like all obelisks, striking. This particular one was built post-1720, to mark the spot where the previous Bretton Hall had been.
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| The Obelisk |
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| Information board about the obelisk |
Of course, you know what I'm thinking, don't you? There's an obelisk on the Garendon Estate, built as a folly, not marking anything specific, as far as I know. And I've blogged about this briefly in a previous post. Needless to say I was surprised to come across the obelisk at YSP.
And then something else weird happened. I follow a Facebook Page about Southampton, because my eldest is a student there, and guess what appeared in my Facebook feed? Yes, another mention of an obelisk, this time in Mayfield Park in Southampton!! I do happen to be familiar with Mayfield Drive in Loughborough, but I've never been to Mayfield Park in Southampton. A further coincidence is that there is a Mayfield Bowling Green in Mayfield Park, and my son who is studying in Southampton is a bowler! I shall have to ask him next time he phones if he knows of the park and what it's like. In the meantime, I've had a quick look around the internet and found that the obelisk was erected in honour of Charles James Fox, a Whig politician, and it's made of Portland Stone, like the base of the Loughborough carillon! Wikipedia also has a [short] list of other obelisks in the country, so if you happen to want to find others, this could be useful!!
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| Eldest bowling, but not sure where! |
Anyway, best away, and see what other coincidences next week has in store for me.
