Rufford Abbey

Visited Monday 2 June 2014

Just a few miles up the road from where my grandparents used to live, but I don't remember visiting as a child. It was probably not even open to the public then.

Parking is free mid-week outside school holidays, there's loads of room for kids to run, and anything else is a bonus!  We spent Monday afternoon there.

The abbey began as a monastery, now in ruins, then became a private house.  

There's a rose garden with a heliochronometer - ok, sun clock - and very accurate it is, so long as the sun is shining.

The abbey building is almost like vertical crazy paving, with different styles of brickwork in a kind of patchwork.  

The main area, open to the sky has a fine collection of grotesque figures - more recent than  the abbey.

Below is the cellarium, with the monks' refectory area.

Outside we visited the sculpture garden and children's garden.