Day to Day with the Dea's: Wimpole Estate and Farm

We set out on another adventure today by visiting Wimpole Hall and Farm down near Cambridge. The hall was first built in 1643 and is the largest country home in Cambridgeshire County.

We brought along a picnic lunch to enjoy out on the grounds in front of the house. Kevin and the kids hopped on a log for a seat.

People here take there walks very seriously. When you go to an outdoor shop they have loads of walking gear and books on walks to take all over England with all the foot paths available. Well this couple was all decked out and we LOVED the red sock they were sporting.

Inside the house was pretty neat as most stately homes do and we did find some new and interesting things at Wimpole. I loved this picture because it is just the laid back attitude of sit back, relax and have a glass of wine to finish out your day. The women looks as to say "Cheers, my dear!"

The library was quite amazing with all the arches and ornate decorations on the walls and ceilings. It seemed so neat and clean and bright where as other libraries seem so dark.

Another interesting feature of the house was this bathhouse with a deep pool bath that even had stairs to get down into. Along with a 100+ year old shower next to it!!!

This house was so big that it had it's only chapel in it and if felt like a mini Sistine Chapel with all of its ornate paintings and wood work.

In the basement they had lots of rooms that the house servants would use, but what caught our eye was the bells system set up that they could see what room they were being summoned.

We loved walking around in the gardens behind the house.

There was also a walled garden which was getting prepared for the year. I felt like we were entering our own "Secret Garden" (love, love, love that movie) and we even found Humpty Dumpty sitting up on the wall.

The National Trust is great about making their sites fun for the kids as well. They also have a "Go Green" project like most places seem to do these days and the head gardener walked out and gave the kids their own set of cress seeds to grow at home. Here they are showing them off to us. Wimpole Gardens and Farms grow a lot of produce that is sold to help with funding the estate. We even bought ourselves a few stalks of rhubarb to bring home to make some yummy crisp.

The Wimpole Farms was our main attraction for the kids today. They have loads of animals and in a working farm setting which was really cool. Kevin and I loved the barns because they were so big, but the cool thing was that they all had thatched roofs.

Kevin was telling Addison all about the days when he helped Grandpa Mike raise cows on the farm when he was younger. I put in a few words on how I used to help Grandpa Jeff raise piggies, turkeys and even a stubborn pigmy goat for a while on our farm.