Hodsock Priory

I decided I wanted to do some snowdrop shots this year, after seeing something online about Walsingham Abbey being open for a month just for the carpet of snowdrops.  When it came down to it, I couldn't face the thought of 3 hours each way in the car, so I found somewhere a little closer to home.

Hodsock Priory - which has never been a priory - is only an hour away, up near Worksop.  It's an old country house with one of Nottinghamshire's only 3 remaining Tudor brick buildings - in this case a gatehouse.  It's been in the same family for over 250 years (originally Mellish but now Buchanan - I think the property must have passed down through the female line at some point) and is only open to the general public for a month in winter for the snowdrops, and a couple of weekends in May for the bluebells.  (I'll be in Rome for the first and working for the 2nd, so we won't be able to get to that.)  They've turned it into a wedding and event venue to keep the money coming in.

They had a heated marquee set up in the grounds, so we had a nice lunch before exploring.  Broccoli and stilton soup for Mol, sausage rolls made locally for Ma and me.  We were seriously lucky - we'd picked the 1 day of perfect weather last week, with lots of blue sky and no wind.

So here are some of my best shots.

The Tudor Gatehouse

Photograph of Mol taking a photograph of Ma taking a photograph.... Love shots like that!

There are primroses in there as well

Snowdrops and hellebore

It was a real Spring day in fact - not just snowdrops but iris, croci, primroses, daffodils, aconite and hellebore.  And with no wind much warmer than expected.  Never knew there were so many different types of snowdrop.