After the weekend storms, bank holiday monday turned out bright and beautiful so we headed of to the Shugborough Estate. It was our first visit since the National Trust had taken over all of the estate after Staffordshire County Council surrendered the lease with the National Trust.

The context of the house and estate are being reinterpreted to highlight previous owners of the estate in their place in history. The late Lord Lichfield’s apartments are now fully open by timed ticket. We didn’t get to see these on this occasion, we weren’t offered them as we should have been when we arrived at the entrance to the estate. As the day was so beautiful and sunny we decided not to pursue the matter when we were informed of this as we entered the mansion.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that the gate on the blue bridge barring access to the wider estate had been removed. This allowed us to follow an enjoyable walk that led to the red bridge and the Chinese Pavilion.