Life on the Estate

Tatton 365 Mansion Exhibition

With only a month to go until the start of the Tatton 365 exhibition, I am in the final stages of preparation. The selection process has been a bit of a mission to say the least, and has so far taken the best part of two full days, just to narrow down the final choices. The tricky part has been trying to represent life over 12 months, as I have thousands of images to go through. However, we're almost there now and it's time to get the images framed, prepare press releases and all of the other aspects related to the exhibition.

 Life on the estate is currently at its busiest and I'm still popping in to sneak the occasional opportunity where possible. It would have been interesting to keep a record of the hours I've spent on the estate, but there have been plenty of early mornings as well as the occasional very late night.
The project has been a joy to work on. I've met all sorts of people and have got to know quite a few of the staff who are fortunate enough to work there. The more time I have spent at Tatton, the more I have wanted to shoot and it's become a bit of a second home over the last year.
I've put together a video clip which tells a bit about the exhibition...

...and there will be a dedicated page opening on my website before the start of the exhibition, http://www.markwilliamsonphotography.com/home

 Tatton 365 opens to the public on October 6th and will be on display in the mansion for the month of October. I hope you enjoy the work as much as I've enjoyed shooting it.

Her are a few taster images.

Mark Williamson

Falling Antlers!

A note from the Rangers

The Parkland deer are now “cleaning up” their antlers, which mean the velvet is coming off them. The antlers have been growing since spring; they have been soft to the touch and fed with minerals by blood vessels. When growing they were soft to the touch, now they are known to be in “hard horn”. The velvet is shed by scraping them against fallen branches or tree guards. The hard antler underneath is a sure sign autumn is just around the corner and the beginning of...........the Rut!

Fun Farm Athletics!

 

OUR RARE BREED BRITS GET GOLD!

It's all going on down at the farm in July and August with Tatton joining in on the Olympic fun... I went down to visit the team at the farm, where the ducks are going quackers over swimming, the pigs are trotting mad for the 100 metre sprint and our rare breed Hebridean sheep are baa-battling to the finish to get Gold!

Tatton Park farm athletics goes on until 27th August and there is one race each day from 2pm down at the farm. Audience participation is also encouraged with welly throwing and the long jump for human bystanders.

See last week's winners below from the Farm Athletic events!

FARM ATHLETICS MEDAL TABLE

GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE
Annie (the Hebridean sheep)	Oliver     (the Hebridean sheep)	n/a
Jogging Jemima(Duck)	Loopy Louis (Duck)	Dashing Donald (Duck)
Tiptoe Tallulah (Pig)	Bolting Betty (Pig)	Get up and go Gertrude (Pig)

Caroline Jackson, Marketing

RHS Round Up!

The RHS show was soon in full swing after a glorious spell of sunny weather, and Tatton’s garden team were in high spirits having been awarded a Silver Gilt for their entry ‘A flight of Fancy’.

Linking in with the Tatton Park Arts Biennial 2012, the imaginative concept behind the garden design is that the last Baron Egerton, who collected plants and garden styles from many continents, including the famous Japanese Garden, sent plant material to other countries, including pea and bean cultivators to his estate in Kenya. Combining  his passion for plants with his interests in exploration, early radio cars, and was a pioneer aviator it helped launch our concept for the 1930’s style rocket, landing on a desolate planet where 1000’s of seeds spill out onto the baron land and flourished into a mass of colour.

What went into the show...

The build took 2 weeks from start to finish, and much of the garden’s features were grown or recycled from Tatton’s own gardens including 3-4 tonnes of the rocks and boulders that make up the Moongate!

Since we started growing the plant species in early May we have nurtured them daily to ensure they are at their best for the show.

We have lots of varieties of plants and vegetables in the garden this year ...see if you can spot them! They include pineapple plants from Tatton’s very own Pineapple house! We also have bananas, cannas, runner beans and cucumbers – all from our conservatory, and palms from our fernery...

...We even have a small rock pool which represents life on the flourishing side of the garden.

Simon (far right) with Head gardener Simon Tetlow (centre) and Bob Buckley (far left)

By Simon Kellet, Garden Team member

If you visited the show this year we would love to hear your comments about your personal show highlights and your thoughts on Cheshire East’s exhibit by the Tatton Garden team.  Leave us your comments below!

For more info on Tatton Parks garden click here.

Hey there!

I'm Kat Robbins and I'm doing work experience here at Tatton Park in the Marketing Department. I'm currently at Nottingham Trent University studying Broadcast Journalism and in October I will be going into my third and final year. I have been at Tatton for just under a month and am thoroughly enjoying it! I have been editing the Tatton Times that is the three monthly staff magazine as well as writing press releases and designing the Christmas Leaflets and flyers. I am enjoying the marketing and PR side of Tatton and feel it will really boost my portfolio and give me a really valuable experience. 

And... this is me.

 (completely coincidental that I have Tatton Park behind me, Honest. Good to know it's being promoted in Alderley Edge too though eh?)

My favourite part of Tatton are the gardens and the Parklands, the Japanese Garden is my particular favourite part out of the gardens. I love the Japanese and oriental culture and I find the gardens very close to a real Japanese garden. I was very impressed with the knowledge the tour guides have when I went on the tour about a week ago, she was particularly thorough with cultural information. 

I would love to travel around the world and aim to go the year after next, after I have completed University. South East Asia will be my first point of call.

I can't quite get my head around the fact that a 'normal-ish' (apart from being completely wealthy) lived in this Mansion, I can't imagine walking around the rooms, shouting 'When's tea?' or calling to the dogs or cats outside in the gardens!

I took some photos when I went down to the farm last week, these are them! I'm rather partial to photography and love to take photos wherever I am of my favourite bits - of life - I guess!

Kat x

The return of a masterpiece to Tatton Park’s Collection by Caroline Schofield

For the Mansion Team the end of May brought with it the delivery of a very large packing case and a stressful but gratifying job! As you can imagine it isn’t every day that you move a great painting by the artist Van Dyck, but when the Mansion team welcomed his painting of The Martyrdom of St Stephen back to Tatton it was everyone to the ready. As you can imagine it isn’t every day that you move a great painting by the artist Van Dyck, but when the Mansion team welcomed his painting of The Martyrdom of St Stephen back to Tatton it was everyone to the ready. This internationally-important painting from the Tatton collection was being returned from a prestigious exhibition held at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London which ended on May 27.Iconic 17^th century painter Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599 – 1641) left his native Antwerp in 1621 for Italy to study the work of earlier Italian painters Titian, Veronese and others.

 During his travels he painted the portraits of the wealthy and powerful, becoming something of a celebrity as an artist. In spring 1624 he reached Palermo in Sicily. Not long after his arrival Sicily was struck by a violent outbreak of plague, and until recently it was believed that he left for safety. The exhibition, ‘Van Dyck in Sicily: Painting and the Plague 1624-1625’  explored newly-found evidence that he in fact remained on the plague-stricken island, and during his time there produced major paintings along religious themes, such as his St Rosalia in Glory and the Tatton St Stephen.
Van Dyck biographer Robin Blake said ‘Whether created in the heat of the epidemic, or as ex voto offerings after it was over, the paintings played a major role in the imagined drama of their city’s deliverance’.

Strange to think then that a painting produced on a Mediterranean island by the great master of 17^th century art should be wending its way home to a 19^th century English country house. According to records, in 1793 its interesting journey had taken it to the Church of San Pascual Bailon in Madrid, after which it was sold and imported into England by the dealer William Buchanan.

In 1814, when he was busy furnishing his fine new mansion at Tatton, Wilbraham Egerton acquired it for his collection from the Delahante sale at Phillips Auction house on 3^rd June, at a cost of 700 guineas. Since that time it has graced the drawing room at Tatton with its sombre beauty. Safely back in position the painting, measuring six feet by five feet, took the strength of seven people to lift back into place on the silk lined walls. As you can imagine lifting something extremely heavy, fragile and important to hang against delicate silk, battened to the walls some 100 years ago is a ‘bottle tester’, but with the aid of art handlers and the team everything went without a hitch. 

It is always a great honour for Tatton to be asked to contribute to major exhibitions, not only does it allow us to share access to our collection, but it also highlights the quality of the objects in our care and gives Cheshire a plug. Bringing together Van Dyck’s Sicilian works was a fantastic achievement by curator Xavier Salomon at Dulwich, but we are very glad to have St Stephen back. If you want to come and see the painting please do. Our team will be happy to show it to you.

Caroline

Tatton's Medieval Fayre

The Old Hall comes to life with the sights and sounds of the 15th century....

It’s that time of year again when the Old Hall at Tatton turns into a Medieval Fayre, Encampment and Battleground...unfortunately a very muddy one particularly on saturday, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of anyone. Luckily most tents went up on friday before the torrential rain came and the grounds of the Old Hall were transformed into a riot of colour, flags and re-enactors.

It was surprisingly busy on saturday and just when the muster for the battle started the heavens opened but all the soldiers, knights and archers stood their ground and went out to the battlefield...and came back!

Sunday started with much better weather and the sun made everyone feel brighter too...A lot more visitors arrived and soon the grounds were packed with people wanting to see the tournament, falconry, demonstrations of guns, and the final battle outside on the flat ground. As always there was plenty to buy and have a go at, children’s activities in our Education tent, and tasty thing to eat and drink. The Old Hall itself was open and with guides to tell you all about its history and give you a feel of what it was like long ago.

Then came the muster for the battle again, it looked a bit threatening with some black clouds in the distance and as the intrepid archers went out into the field, including the elite few of the Tatton Archers, the weather seemed to clear. An exciting battle started, arrows flew over from both sides, the guns fired and smoke billowed across the field, a few injuries tended by the Red Cross (not so lucky in the original battles). There were lots of shouts and cheers of encouragement from the crowd and then it was all over and the victorious winners marched back to camp.

A great weekend enjoyed by all despite the British summer weather.

Margaret Clark

History Interpreter Guide