Day Trip to Dunham Massey

As part of one of the panels I am on, I entered a competition to win a free trip to 1 of 3 north west National Trust parks. For going I will get £30 in love to shop vouchers plus and extra £5 if I make a video. I got picked! I can't remember what the other 2 options were but I got Dunham Massey. I have never been before, and I certainly wouldn't pay to go, its quite expensive and I live next to Heaton Park.

I went with my daughter, my mum, her fella and my 2 youngest sisters. The tickets gave us free entry to the house and garden. When you first walk onto the house grounds there are loads of Deer! Just standing there eating grass while everyone walked about.

 I really wish I had my good camera, which I haven't bought yet. In the gardens you get to do a little bee quiz, there are clues dotted about and you fill in a sheet of paper. My sisters who are 5 and 6 enjoyed it, my daughter was a bit too young. I liked the gardens, I just kept seeing plants that I liked and wanted for my own mini garden. The picture below is my mum, sisters and daughter :)

After the garden we went to the house, if you can even call it a house, the kids went between castle and palace. I would love to live in a stately home, it was just gorgeous inside! 

There was an object hunt in the house but nothing to mark off so I don't think the kids enjoyed it as much. The rooms just reminded me of all the furniture that I have had in my various houses through the years, the house I grew up in was full of victorian furniture.

 These were two of my favourite rooms, the library, I have always wanted to have a room I could have as a library, I love books this room is perfect for me, and the kitchen was huge! It had 3 parts, this bit, another bit where all the food was stored to left and what I'm guessing was breakfast room to the right.
In one of the rooms there was a bit of dress up, so of course I had a go, even as short as I am I had to bend down to look in the mirror so I look even more short.

After the kitchen you could go outside to the dairy room and the washroom. There was a woman outside in period dress doing the washing and the kids could join in. Lily even had a go:

 Then she must have got the hang of being a servant because she wanted to push a cart in the washroom.

On the grounds, which you can walk on for free, was a lovely band playing live musical, classical, made it feel very posh, the kids liked the music and they clapped at the end of each song, would have been more relaxing for me if I wasn't chasing after a 2 year old. On the way out we ran into more deer just lounging around, you could get very close

All in all it was a very nice day, and I was grateful to have the opportunity to go because other wise I would never have had the money to get there.