Lyme Park

This summer we visited the National Trust property Lyme Park home of the Legh family for more than 500 years. We went not only because it bares the name of the street that we live in, but primarily to see the house, gardens and lakes used as the exterior shots for Pemberley; the home of Mr Darcy in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (my sister in-law Jean and I are fans).

Lyme Park is an easy hour’s drive from Hartington (a bit longer if your husband takes you down the green lanes!!!!). When you pass the Lyme Park gatehouse you enter a large country park and it is about a mile drive before you catch sight of the grand house perched on a hill.

We arrived late morning and went around the gardens, then had a picnic near the car park in the pouring rain before going around the house in the afternoon.

We brought the traditional memento the National Trust Lyme Park guide and a fantastic guide for our children. I have to say that the children’s guide was very good and really made the house visit an enjoyable one (well done to the National Trust).

The staff and volunteer guides were really friendly and helpful, one of the treats was to be able to sit in a comfy sofa in the Long Gallery and gaze out of the window at the views that generations of the Legh family have enjoyed.

During the day we also went on a steam driven carousel (again in the rain, who cares, it makes you grow, that’s what I tell the boys).

I have to say for those of you who are now thinking 'sad people', we were not the only women wandering about looking for ‘a man in a wet shirt’.

Whether you want a stroll around a lovely country park, see the splendours inside the house or just, be honest, want see where Mr Darcy was filmed, you are guaranteed a very interesting day out at Lyme Park.

If you are fan of the BBC's Pride and Prejudice, Sudbury Hall near Ashbourne was used for the interior shots of Pemberley; this house is not a grand as Lyme Park but does have a magnificent Long Gallery, spectacular plaster moulded ceilings and also houses The National Trust Museum of Childhood.

Derbyshire is a popular location for both television (remember Peak Practice) and films. During 2004 the new Pride and Prejudice film was shot on location at Haddon Hall (the Inn at Lampton) and Chatsworth House (Pemberley) as well as Keira Knightley trying to throw herself off a rock near Carl Wark. OK, a slight exaggeration, she was tied in, they CGI'd it out later.

Finally the day was completed when all the boys went off to the playground leaving Jean and I to take a stroll through the gardens just as Mr Darcy and Miss Bennett did (Paul had offered to take a shirt with him to give us the wet shirt effect but we declined).