A Roman temple folly in the grounds of the Hall.

I had some pictures of Wynyard Hall last year - this time I managed to see more of the estate, now owned by Sir John Hall, who started work as a mining surveyor and ended up the owner of Newcastle United Football Club and several other northeastern sports teams. The Hall was built by the 3rd Marquis of Londonderry, with money from the mines of Northumberland and Durham, owned by his wife: without that money he'd have been poor Irish aristocracy with barely enough to maintain him in the army. However, blood will out, and the subsequent Londonderrys didn't make such fortunate marriages and ended up having to sell all their properties to keep the wolf from the door, e.g., Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland is now owned by the National Trust. However, Sir John - miner's son - has done a fine job in restoring the Hall and now lives out his days in the ivy covered end of the building you see in this picture. By one of those oddities of history, through his daughter, Lady Frances, Londonderry was Winston Churchill's great grandfather

No doubt well ahead (in the taste stakes) of a certain mediocre product from the Midlands :-) I'll buy some next time I'm up there and try them.

Masham is best known these days as the home of Theakston's brewery and its Old Peculier, along with Black Sheep Ale. This is the town's church, dating from the 12th Century - the tower being built in 1150. The spire is presumably a later addition.

Rhododendron. The colours look different on different screens, my iMac shows what I think are the true colours - pinkish red, while my iPad shows a slighltly mauveish colour - your view may be entirely different!