Well, I’ve been home for quite a while now, but it has taken time to nurse the dead laptop back to life and attend to the business of “catch-up.” 😉 I’m hoping to dump all my photos this week and organize them so I can finish posting (and share some larger versions of ones peopleContinue reading “Yes, I’ll finish up the blog soon!”
Category Archives: 2012 Tour
Charming Lacock Village
On our way to our hotel near Bath, we stopped for several hours to enjoy a leisurely afternoon in Lacock Village. It was a gorgeous, sunny day with a light breeze–perfect for tea and strolling around!
Symington Collection
Thursday we packed up and traveled to Coalville in Leicestershire to enjoy up-close study of items in the Symington Costume Collection. Symington was a corset factory near Market Harborough from the 1840s on, and sample corsets were preserved in mint condition, including their boxes and advertising.
Hardwick Hall
Driving into Derbyshire Was every bit as enchanting as when my husband and I visited on our tenth anniversary, and it was wonderful to find the lovely village of Bakewell just as I remembered it. We checked into our hotel, which is where Jane Austen most likely stayed when she visited Chatsworth in 1811 and revised Pride and Prejudice. Standing in the room identified as Jane’s, you can look out the window and picture “Lambton” exactly as Elizabeth Bennett saw it in the novel, including the village green and the long road leading directly up to the inn.
Platt Hall Costume Study Day
The collection at Platt Hall includes over 20,000 items of clothing, a huge array of buttons, and ephemera including fashion plates and magazines. The curator closed the museum in the morning to admit our group, which was lovely. Half of us wandered all over the former great house, enjoying the clothing on display, much of which was collected by the late Dr. C. Willett Cunnington.
Quarry Bank Mill
Monday we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before journeying to nearby Styal for our tour of Quarry Bank Mill–a beautifully preserved cotton mill from the early 1840s, complete with the workers’ village, apprentice house, and gardens. If you’ve read Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South or watched the BBC film adaptation, you can imagine the setting perfectly.
Couple of quick photo additions…
Better pictures of that amazing black and white skirt of Cathy’s…
We’re here!
It was quite an adventure getting from Kenya to Manchester, including the last-minute surprise of a child’s expired passport, a long walk through Dubai Airport, and a running dash for the train to Manchester, but we did manage to get here at last. We met up as a group Sunday night for our first get-together and a marvelous evening of Show and Tell, starring Suzi’s gorgeous collection of historical bodices and corsets and some added attractions brought in by special guest Cathy Hay of YourWardrobeUnlockd.com.
Off to the UK in September!
The 2012 Historical Costume Tour begins on September 9, and we’re so excited about the wonderful itinerary!
2012 Historical Costume Tour!
Looks like it is going to be one FUN trip! I’ll be posting details about our itinerary over the next few months, especially as I want to showcase wonderful Manchester and Derbyshire! We will have a short London extension at the end of this tour, but London will not be the focus, especially as the V&A’s costume collection is not available for private study until they finish moving it to its new storage facility. So we’re headed northward to enjoy new stops, and we’ll bookend with the opening of the Jane Austen Festival in Bath with its Costumed Promenade–always a blast!
Historical Fashion Tours with Sense & Sensibility 