Savile Town Marina, Dewsbury, South Yorkshire

The Chauffeur spent the first part of the morning removing the worst of the mud and road grime from the Sorrento, a job more labour intensive here than say, at home, using the old fashioned bucket and sponge; remember the days? So we headed off north in a smart looking vehicle, west to join the M1 then north until we turned off after about twenty miles, to head back west to Harewood House, one of the Treasure Houses included in our two-for-one voucher, our destination for the day. 

This, like all grand houses has had several incarnations, the first being way back in 1366 when a “licence to crenellate” (or fortify) was granted to Sir William de Aldeburgh. (This was the pre-cursor to council building permits.) Over two hundred years later, in 1601, Sir William Wentworth, owner of Gawthorpe Hall, acquired Harewood Castle, which he left to decay keeping Gawthorpe as the centre of his enlarged estate.

Between 1753 and 1771, the current family came into the picture, when Edward Lascelles inherited Harewood and commissioned architect John Carr, interior designer Robert Adam, then only in the early years of his brilliance, and a local furniture maker, Thomas Chippendale to build Harewood House. Once the house was finished, landscape designer extraordinaire Lancelot “Capability” Brown, he who has popped up all over the country, began work on the grounds, demolishing Gawthorpe Hall and sculpting 1,000 acres of parkland. This was the crowning stamp on a masterpiece, which was immortalised by the great artist JMW Turner in 1797. It should be noted here that the Lascelles had accumulated wealth to enable their generous spending by way of their involvement in the slave trade in Barbados.

In the early 1840s, when the 3^rd Earl of Harewood inherited the House, already married with most of his thirteen children, he and his wife, capable Louisa, they had Charles Berry in to modernise the property. Extension to accommodate their growing family, creation of the parterre terrace garden and refurbishment of the interior were part of the brief. Again it was deemed a masterpiece, hosting Queen Victoria and the Russian Czar, though not at the same time.

The House was again the centre of royal attention when HRH Princess Mary, great granddaughter of Victoria, married the 6^th Earl of Harewood in 1922, and they moved into the property seven years later.

This superb house was offered up as a convalescent hospital for soldiers during the Second World War and we were told that the exquisite plastered ceilings were timbered over during that period. We were glad to hear that because how would a wounded soldier, having come from the chaos of war, have coped with the vibrancy of those patterned ceilings?

But by 1950, the House had done its dash in dazzling to impress or offering solace to the needy; the coffers were low and the grounds were opened to the public. In the 1970s the 7^th Earl and Countess of Harewood created the Bird Garden and the first adventure playground was opened. In 1986 Harewood became an independent charitable educational trust to maintain and develop Harewood, its collections and grounds for the public benefit. Word, words, how they can be twisted; this whole business of “charitable trusts” all seems a bit dodgy to us.

Since then, a wide variety of art has been exhibited in the galleries created in the house, a Himalayan garden has been created with a centre piece of a Buddhist stupa, which no doubt excites the spiritual types, and in 2014, Harewood hosted the start of the Tour de France.  

Of course there are several cafes and restaurants to relieve the visitor of surplus cash, and a shop to finish it off. However it is a wonderful day out and there is so much to do here. The bird garden alone is entertainment, with a great number of international birds, caged apparently for breeding and conservation purposes.
These included a wonderful variety of weird and wonderful birds from Asia and other exotic far off places: parrots, pheasants, owls, guans, flamingos, cranes and more.  The walled garden keeps several local gardening types occupied and today was full of a variety of squash, beans, berries, hops and dahlias. The lake is currently playing host to geese in plague-like numbers, such a ruckus as I have never heard before. Even I who love the sound of birds say that! The Chilean flamingos penned in a corner of the lake fascinated us and the one kookaburra obliged with his long drawn out comedic laugh. The statues in the garden and the entrance hall certainly impressed; the Lascelles must have a thing for giant genitals. The first is “Orpheus”, by Astrid Zydower astride the parterre installed in 1984, and the second, an alabaster block titled “Adam” by Jacob Epstein with no doubt as to his sexuality, acquired in 1961, relocated to its place of honour in 1976 . 

Chris was particularly taken with the ceilings in the house and the beautiful doors fashioned from mahogany from Barbados, and the birds, while I enjoyed everything about our day. 

On the way back we called into the local Asda Superstore, a good indicator of the local populous, and there we did find a very large number of folk of Middle Eastern origin, the men in long loose robes and the women also wrapped most modestly. But I did think the 1% “white British” was a huge exaggeration, we pale faces, either British or antipodean, made up at least 10% of the folk filling the busy store. And best of all, we have established we have an excellent superstore and fuel outlet so very conveniently located.