A Chilly Day and so many Scarecrows!

Gardener scarecrow 'Mr McGregor'

©Margaret Clark

A walk in the gardens on Sunday 12th Feb was a big surprise as to how many families had ventured out on such a chilly day...it all looked very pretty but as the mist came down and the landscape vanished we wondered if the scarecrows came to life when everyone had gone home. Some of them did look a bit worse for wear slumped against trees as though they’d had a good time the night before! Very inventive, particularly Darth Vader but I did like the Pirate, he seemed to be ready to dash off somewhere...
 

The monument in the mist

©Margaret Clark

 Janet and Sheila were doing very well on such a cold day in the marquee with the children’s activities making their own mini scarecrow...but we were glad to get into the restaurant and a hot drink and of course a cake!



Good to see so many people in Tatton on what was not the best of weather.



Margaret Clark



An unusual sighting..

An unusual bird has been seen on Tatton Mere recently. Rangers have spotted a female Smew from Scandinavia.

This bird is rare in Cheshire and Tatton is one of (if not the!) best place to see them in the county as we have one here most winters.

The majority of smews in Britain are females, they are known as "redheads"....because they have a red head. The males are even rarer; there have not been seen in Cheshire for ages.

Darren Morris, Tatton Park Ranger

Winter Wildfowl Watch

The Winter Wildfowl Watch held in the bird hide on Melchett Mere on 15^th Jan was a great success.

Melchett Mere in the summer

The weather was stunning, a beautiful winter's day with  bright sunshine over the mere illuminating various species of Wildfowl. Their stunning plumage was viewed with the aid of telescopes set up in the Allen Hide.

Members of the Knutsford Ornithological Society and myself helped members of the public to use them and help identify the birds. Goldeneye, Teal, Wigeon Mallard and Pochard were seen along with Great Crested Grebe and Little Grebe. Woodland species could be seen on the bird feeding station including Coal Tit, Nuthatch and a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers.

Between 30-40 visitors called into the hide during the session and were very well received. The visitors also included many children which was especially pleasing as their reaction to seeing new birds through a telescope in such bright conditions was great. A Buzzard perched in a tree was the children’s favourite!

Darren Morris, Tatton Park Ranger

Where there's muck... there's silver gilt!

During the low season we take the opportunity to do our annual "winter clean". Each room is checked and cleaned from top to bottom using special conservation techniques.


Before and After!

 
The Mansion team have just started working on Tatton's fabulous silver gilt collection.

Tarnish from the silver underneath had come through the fine gilded layer on a number of items, taking away their gleam. Under the direction of our Regional Conservator from the National Trust the team removed tarnish very gently using cotton swabs and silver dip.

The results were quite startling!

See our before and after photograph of a Paul Storr candleabra. Storr was a nineteenth century English silversmith.

Karan Knowles, Operations Supervisor

Follow in the footsteps of your heroes in 2012

Enjoying our container gardening course!

If you are a budding Titchmarsh, Monet, Attenborough or Robin Hood, Tatton Park’s adult and family learning programme has a course or workshop for you!

From lectures, talks and tours to practical sessions in watercolour painting or the skill of the longbow - there are nearly 60 adult and family learning activities taking place at Tatton in the coming year.

The rich diversity of the historic estate provides a fantastic inspiration for and backdrop to these participatory events. Many are centred on the 2,000-acre parkland. You can also learn the art of pruning in Tatton’s Victorian kitchen gardens, explore the skill of poultry rearing in the working rare breed farm or enjoy the striking setting of the mansion staterooms for musical performances and talks.

New activities this year include a practical poetry workshop, taking inspiration from Tatton’s beautiful gardens and a children’s cycling event exploring parkland routes and the fundamentals of off-road skills.

You can find out more on our website, or here's a selection below!
Wednesday, February 8: Deer walk and light lunch
10am-noon. £12 per person. Minimum age 16 years. Work up your appetite and join the rangers for a guided walk of the winter parkland. See Tatton’s deer in their natural surroundings and finish at the Stables restaurant for a light lunch.

Thursday, March 15: ‘Musical Melodies’ performance and talk
11am-noon. £7.50 per person. Penelope Cave shares recently discovered research which uncovers the importance musical entertainment played in the social world of the aristocracy in the early 19th century. Tune is as Penny plays examples of some of the musical pieces the Egerton family tried to master, using a Dettmer piano made in 1815.

Thursday, April 26: Meet the Housekeeper and Butler
11am-noon. Adults £7.50, children £3.50. Step back in time and join Miss Cork the ever-efficient housekeeper to Earl Egerton and Mr New, his formidable butler. Be on your best behaviour as they show you around the magnificent mansion and demonstrate their daily duties in this stunning setting.

Saturday, April 28: Home to Roost

10am-noon. £14 per person. Meet us at the farm and learn all you need to know about keeping poultry in your back garden. The course includes information on chickens, ducks and geese. Learn about feeding, housing, breeding, health and even get advice on showing.

Booking is essential for all. For more information and to book, please contact Education on 01625 374428 or email tattoneducation@cheshireeast.gov.uk

Join in our winter wildlife events in the parkland

January is the perfect time to blow away the cobwebs and work off the Christmas pudding in the historic parkland at Tatton Park, in rural Cheshire East. There are two parkland events this month to encourage visitors to pull on their walking boots and experience the wildlife of this stunning 1,000-acre deer park.



White deer in the snow

©Gary Cross



On Sunday, January 15 enjoy some winter wildfowl watching at the ‘Allen Bird Hide’ overlooking Melchett Mere. Members of Knutsford Ornithological Society and a Tatton ranger will be on hand to help visitors to identify different species of birds and also to help inquisitive twitchers use a telescope for fantastic, close-up views. Winter Wildfowl is a free, drop-in event between 11am-2pm for both beginners and experienced bird watchers. Park entry charge of £5 per car applies.



The hide is positioned on one of the most beautiful areas of the parkland, at the water’s edge of Melchett Mere off Knutsford Drive and provides a stunning view across a 500 metre stretch of water into the meadow and rough grassland of the deer park.



Winter visitors to the mere include many species of wildfowl including; goldeneye, teal and tufted ducks. Cormorants, shovelers and little grebe are often sighted and a juvenile whooper swan has recently been seen on the mere. Visitors may be lucky enough to see a smew, a rare duck which has in the past been spotted at Tatton in early January. Bird feeders around the hide also encourage many woodland birds such as finches, tits and the impressive great spotted woodpecker.

If deer are more to your delight, join the rangers on Tuesday, January 17 for a Deer Walk and Light Lunch.

Tatton Park is one of the best places in the North West to see these extraordinary animals up close (and not quite personal). A deer park since 1290, Tatton is now home to over 400 Red and Fallow deer, who roam freely within its 1,000 acres of parkland.



Enjoy a walk through the stunning winter parkland and learn more about the deer and their habitat from Tatton’s expert ranger team. The walk will finish with a light lunch at the Stables Restaurant. This activity takes place from 10am-12pm and costs £12 per person (minimum participant age 16 years). This activity must be booked in advance; please call 01625 374428 or email tattoneducation@cheshireeast.gov.uk

We hope you can join us!

Eleanor Gorsuch, Marketing

Winter work in the parkland

A walk through Tatton's parkland will reveal several areas covered by Rhododendron bushes, which in recent years have been found to be susceptible to a plant disease called Phytophthora.  Imported from Europe and America, Phytophthora are virulent fungal infections which attack the plant through its roots, often in wet ground, causing the blackening and wilting of leaves, as well as cankers and lesions in the bark of some species. Phytophthora can be transmitted to other plants through ground water, wind and even on people's clothes and footwear.  The Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) class Phytophthora as a notifiable disease. 

It is important that Tatton takes measures to protect itself from this disease and especially the important plant collections in the gardens.  In this respect the Ranger team are being pro-active: we will receive training on how to identify the disease and begin to remove some areas of Rhododendron, particularly those areas closest to the gardens.  This will be labour intensive and we are happy to recruit a team of volunteers to help with this and other tasks on the estate.  Should you be interested in volunteering, please contact the Ranger team on 01625 374414.

Take a walk on a cold frosty morning and look in the rushes and long grass. Amongst the foliage are strings of crystal droplets sparkling in the early morning light.  No matter how cold it is, the spiders living in the estate spin webs to catch their prey all year round. On a frosty morning they hang like festive baubles, glittering.  They show perfectly intricate designs the arachnids produce.  An average spider in warmer months will produce a new web every 24 hours and they are constantly updating and repairing them.  To do this they eat the old web to recycle silk for the new one.

Winter deer feed   ©Peter Spooner

The Red and Fallow deer herds are given supplementary feed daily through the winter.  This consists of carrots, haylage and mineral enriched dairy nuts.  The feeding starts once the cold weather sets in and garzing becomes limited.  Normally we would be feeding by the end of November, but due to the prolonged mild weather this has not been necessary.  The daily deer feed is an excellent opportunity for the ranger team to assess the condition of the herd.  The long line of carrots put out ensures the smaller and less dominant animals are able to feed and enables us to carry out census work accurately.  This winter there is opportunity for the public to witness the feed and observe the deer from the relative comfort of a passenger trailer.  The dates offered are 20th and 21st December (now sold out), 14th and 15th February.  Please book in advance on 01625 374428 as places go very quickly.

There will also be the opportunity to see some of the numerous species of wildfowl that visit Tatton during the winter.  Come along to the Allen Hide between 11am and 1pm on Sunday 15 January - there will be members of the Knutsford Ornithological Society present to give advice and to help you identify the various species with the aid of a telescope.

Darren Morris, Ranger Team