Thoresby Park / Thoresby Estate various photographs part 2.

Above: This was the road, after leaving the church, which led down to a small rise turning right and up to the Woodyard and Edwinstowe beyond. Top picture is 1985. Bottom is 2015. This area has been completely re-landscaped and covered over to become fields. There is no longer any road nor any public access to that part of the estate. 

Above: Oil painting (1959) depicting a fox hunt gathering in front of Thoresby Hall. The artist, Guy Marson (1906 / 1973), was a friend of Lady Manvers at the time and I believe he either stayed in the Hall or perhaps one of the flats around the courtyard. 10" x 8" prints were made from this work and during the early sixties they could often be found framed and hung in many an estate worker's home. The original would hang inside the Social Club at Perlethorpe Village Hall. Guy Marson was buried in Perlethorpe Church, his gravestone picture below.

Above: The Carpenter's Grave, Perlethorpe Churchyard.

It is well reported that successive Pierrepont / Manvers families held their estate workers in high esteem. In the 1960s, joiners like Gran Gilliver could as readily find themselves repairing or making new parts for Victorian and Queen Anne furniture from inside Thoresby Hall as they could making new window frames or doors for the estate’s places of residence. Of some prominence in Perlethorpe Church graveyard is a remarkable headstone for one such joiner, Alfred Middleton. Buried there after his death in January 1935, the tools of his trade are carved into the base of a rustic cross.

You can read more about Perlethorpe churchyard on THIS LINK, and THIS LINK.

 Above: The Tank Roads of World War 2. Below: An armoured car on permanent display in Thoresby Courtyard. (2017).

The wooded areas close to Thoresby Hall retain the concrete roads which were put down at the start of World War 2 when Thoresby became a training ground for soldiers bound for France. It had been thought by the MoD that Thoresby, Clumber and Rufford might offer a similar terrain on which to learn their skills as that of mainland Europe.

You can read more about Thoresby at War on THIS LINK and more about Proteus Army Camp on THIS LINK.

 Above: A new Beech Avenue?

 Persons staying at Thoresby Estate's  Sherwood Hideaway have access to several walk ways through the woodlands. The planting along this one seems destined to become a replica of the original Beech Avenue which lies parallel, very heavily overgrown, a few yards to the west, although still visible on aerial photographs. (More about Beech Avenue on THIS LINK).

 Above: Two mobile firebuckets from Thoresby Hall. These were auctioned off via Sotheby's when the Hall closed to the public.