Groombridge Place has a few claims to fame. In his day, Arthur Conan Doyle regularly visited the estate, and he set the Sherlock Holmes mystery "The Valley of Fear" there - although Groombridge Place is called "Birlstone Manor" in the novel. Also, Groombridge Place played both the interior and exterior of Longbourn, the Bennet family home, in the 2005 movie of Pride and Prejudice (the one with Keira Knightley, not the BBC series)!
After looking around the gardens and the ACD and P&P displays, and having a game of chess (my first ever - hence the outcome pictured below), we headed into the enchanted forest. *Cue mystical tinkly music - actually wind chimes hidden in the trees!* The first sight we saw was an incredibly cute animal called a "zeedonk" - a cross between a zebra and a donkey - and its adorable little companion (not sure what it is)!
Continuing into the forest involved surviving an obstacle course (like a mini Go Ape, but less than a metre off the ground), testing out giant swings, encountering dragons and dinosaurs, seeing tiny Wind-In-The-Willows-type houses in the riverbank, passing a face-painting fairy at a gypsy camp, and exploring a fort and a teepee! We even saw some Jurassic umbrella fern trees that had come all the way from Australia. :)
Overall, Groombridge was fun to visit but it was very much aimed at entertaining young kids (particularly as it was advertising "school holiday fun"), so was a bit over the top for us! The house itself was surrounded by scaffolding and we couldn't get particularly close to it or see inside. So we did end up preferring our second destination of the day, but I'll tell you all about that in the next post. :) Goodnight!
3 comments:
Needed some students with you Ben!! but looks as though you both enjoyed the visit.Is that a new hat Anna.?
Sort of - I actually got it the day we went to the Bognor Birdman Festival last year, but have only worn it once or twice! :)
The peacock saw you coming with the camera and he was showing off just for you!!!!!!
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