Castle antics - part one

Tixall Gatehouse
Photo from the
Landmark Trust website
8pm Friday evening. We’re searching for the castle. The Husband has stopped the car to look at the map and accompanying instructions that have been printed from the Landmark Trust website. The Seven Year Old, The Baby, and me, sit in the back of car trying to be helpful by remaining silent. 

Surmising that we are “very close” to the castle, The Husband stops the car by a gate to a field, abandons the map and leaps out of the car in favour of surveying the land.  In the thick darkness of the Staffordshire countryside, me and The Seven Year Old exchange nervous glances, we’re feeling a little exposed and vulnerable as we sit in the lit up car with the doors open not knowing that The Husband is only a few feet away. 

“I can see it!” declares the Husband from the darkness.  From the back of the car we crane our necks expecting to spy the castle-like building far into the distance.  But no.  Instead, silhouetted against the moonlit sky looms our magnificent home for the weekend, we are separated by only a field and two fences.  We squeal in delight and marvel at its beauty.  All we need to do now, is work out how to get to it.




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