Images from a recent visit - yes, this actual current month…
- (and another one in 2022!) to Calke Abbey, Ticknall, Derbyshire, England.
(Shot raw and processed using: DxO PhotoLab Elite/ ViewPoint/ Nik Silver Efex, Adobe LrC/ PS with Tony Kuyper TK-9 Panels and Topaz Labs Photo AI).
You can find out more about Calke Abbey by clicking
Here.
Phil and Karen
1. Calke Abbey stands on the site of a medieval religious house established in the 12th century, initially as an independent community and then from 1172 as a ‘cell’ of Repton Priory.
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2. Following the fallout from the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the reign of King Henry VIII, a 99-year lease for Calke priory was negotiated in 1537 by John Preste, a Master Grocer of London. He converted the priory at Calke into a Tudor house.
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3. In 1622, Sir Henry Harpur bought the estate - and it stayed in the Harpur family for over 350 years, until it was handed to the National Trust in 1985.
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4. When Sir Henry Harpur, 7th Baronet, inherited the estate and title from his father in 1789, he started Calke's vast natural history collection, much of which was assembled by Sir Vauncey Harpur-Crewe, 10th Baronet. (It is the largest natural history collection in the National Trust, despite around half of it being sold off to settle death duties by Hilda, Sir Vauncey’s daughter).
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5. The research library of Sir John Gardner Wilkinson, an early scholar of ancient Egypt who spent 12 years studying there. His books accompanied field trips to the Valley of the Kings. He bequeathed his work to Sir John Harpur Crewe, 9th Baronet (his wife, Georgina Lady Crewe, was Wilkinson’s cousin).
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6. The National Trust decided not to restore most rooms at Calke, which had remained untouched for many years, but rather preserve them as they were found. (The interiors have scarcely changed since photographs were taken in 1886).
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7. Calke Staff photograph from 1910. (As presented above, with edited version below). The image itself is not ‘R System’ of course, but it was captured using an R System camera - with permission.
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(Sources: National Trust, Wikipedia).