Sherlockian Sojourns #54: As Seen on Screen - 'Stepping into the Lyme-light'

Having spent two days touring filming locations of ‘The Irregulars’, it was time for some locations from the Granada adaptations. Therefore, having checked out of my hotel, I was again at Longton for the 8.28 train, this time alighting at Stoke-on-Trent, and catching a train going to Manchester Piccadilly.

Alighting at Adlington (Cheshire), I started on what I knew would probably be a ‘fools errand’, walking the short distance to the drive down to Adlington Hall. The Hall started life as a simple Saxon hunting lodge, a base for hunting by Earl Edwin and his men, and was built around two great oaks, which still stand today. During the Norman conquest, William the Conqueror threw Earl Edwin off the land, and took the land into Norman hands. The Norman Earls held Adlington for seven generations, until it passed to the crown in 1221. Henry III passed it to Hugh de Corona, whose granddaughter, Ellen, married John de Legh. De Corona bequeathed the estate to Ellen’s son, Robert. Five further Roberts followed this first Robert de Legh. Thomas Legh built the Great Hall between 1480 and 1505. The rest of the house followed in the 1580s, overseen by Thomas’s great-grandson, another Thomas Legh.  During the 1740s, Charles Legh transformed Adlington from a medium-sized Tudor manor into a large Georgian house. He built a new West Wing, including a ballroom occupying the full length of the first floor.

Unfortunately the Hall and Gardens were currently closed to the public, but as they appeared in multiple Granada dramatisations – ‘The Solitary Cyclist’, ‘The Speckled Band’, ‘The Abbey Grange’, ‘The Last Vampyre’, ‘The Dying Detective’, and ‘The Golden Pince-Nez’, I was keen to see if I could get any photos of the Hall from the nearby lane. Unfortunately, due to the curve of both drives to the Hall, this proved impossible, with my only being able to take photos of outbuildings.  [I will be keeping an eye out for any future open days]

    

I therefore made my way back to Adlington Station, catching the next Manchester service, for a few more stops to Stockport (where an emergency training exercise was taking place). Here after a twenty minute wait, I caught a train to Disley.

Turning left out of the station, I walked alongside the A6 for around fifteen minutes until I reached the entrance to National Trust property, Lyme. The house was once home to the Legh family and comprises a 1,400 acre estate with a medieval herd of red deer. The mansion house was built and rebuilt, embellished and enlarged throughout its ownership by the Legh family, with each generation making its mark and creating the house as seen today. Its Library contains the Caxton Missal, the most valuable book owned by the National Trust. It is the earliest known printed book that bears the stamp of William Caxton, the father of British printing, and is the only near-complete copy of the liturgy of the mass according to the Sarum Rite (used before the Reformation) in existence.

The house is most famous for its appearance as ‘Pemberley’ in the 1995 BBC dramatisation of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. However, its Sherlockian credentials are that it appeared in three separate Granada dramatisations.

I arrived just in time to catch the free shuttle bus from the Admission Hut to the House, a journey of around a mile. On my arrival, I handed over a voucher for free entry, and was given a house entry ticket.

I spent around an hour wandering round the many rooms, taking photos in all rooms, focusing on those that appeared on screen. The first of these was the Drawing Room, the best preserved of the Elizabethan house, which appeared as the Duke of Holdernesse's study at Holdernesse Hall in ‘The Priory School’, with its imposing stained glass windows. It was here that Holmes & Watson told the Duke the truth about his son's disappearance.

  

A little further along was the Saloon, the grandest of the rooms created by Giacomo Leoni, which was designed as a lavishly decorated receiving rooms for guests. This appeared as the private office of Lord Holdshurst in the Foreign Office, in ‘The Naval Treaty’. It was here that Lord Holdhurst entrusted the titular treaty to his nephew, Percy Phleps, and where Holmes & Watson later met with him to discuss the theft of the treaty.

Walking up the impressive Grand Staircase, I found myself in the Long Gallery, which appeared as the hallway leading to the Duke's study in 'The Priory School'. As with several other rooms in the House, the ceiling contains bosses showing the severed arm of a Frenchman with a flag, commemorating the rescuing of the Black Prince's standard at the Battle of Crecy in 1346 by Sir Thomas Danyers, whose actions led to his being given the lands of Lyme Handley as thanks. Danyers granddaughter, Margaret, who inherited the land, married Sir Piers Legh I.

    

On exiting the House, after briefly visiting a secondhand bookshop, the gift shop (where I bought a guidebook and some postcards), and the Chapel (which featured in ‘Brideshead Revisited’ (1981)), I made my way out to the Lake (famous for an emerging wet Colin Firth), taking several photos of the House, which also appeared as the exterior of the Duke of Lomond’s country house in ‘The Three Gables’, being where Holmes & Langdale Pike attend a grand party to see Isadora Klein, and where Klein to her annoyance later finds that pages are missing from the manuscript recovered from The Three Gables whilst standing on the rooftop balcony.

     

Exiting back through the main courtyard, I made my way up a sharp incline to the top of a hill, and ‘The Cage’ which appears as the folly at Mycroft’s country house in ‘The Irregulars – Episode 3: Ipsissimus’.

    

Continuing along the top of the hill, and passing a large herd of deer, I slowly made my down, ending up back at the Admissions Hut. 

I retraced my steps to Disley Station, catching my third Manchester Piccadilly train of the day, but this time actually made it there.

Following signs at the station, I made my way to Manchester Metrolink’s Yellow Line, catching a tram to Heaton Park. A very short walk up Bury Old Road took me to my first point of interest – a giant mural commemorating the late Victoria Wood. This was painted on the side of the ‘Sword and Sparrow Tattoo Company’ on Bury Old Road, not far from where she was born, in 2019. The mural is the work of acclaimed street artist AkseP19, who is known for his photorealistic portraits of pop culture icons, and was created as part of Prestwich Arts Festival.

 

Crossing the road, I made my way into Heston Park, and after a fifteen minute walk found myself at Heaton Hall which appears as the main clerks office of the Foreign Office in 'The Naval Treaty’ and as part of Isadora Klein’s residence in ‘The Three Gables’.

Unfortunately the Hall is only open a few days per year, so I had to make do with photos of the outside.

 

Retracing my steps (and buying an ice lolly from a nearby ice cream van), I returned to Heaton Park tram stop, continuing my journey into Bury. Here it was another short walk to Church Gardens, and a bronze life sized statue of Victoria Wood unveiled on the 17th May 2019, created by Sculptor Graham Ibbeson. The Committee who worked on the initiative of providing a permanent memorial for Victoria Wood in her home town of Bury was made up members of Victoria’s family, members of her Literary Estate and Bury Council. It was agreed that Victoria Wood would be represented performing at one of her stand up shows, with microphone in hand and wearing one of her iconic long jackets.

    

Returning to Bury Interchange, I caught the Metrolink Green Line to St. Peter’s Square, and Manchester Central Library, the exterior of which appears in an establishing shot of ‘The Parole Officer' (2001)  [which is surprisingly true to life], which also showed Manchester Metrolink tram No. 2001 (luckily a tram passed by at exactly that moment).

 

However, my destination was the impressive Wolfson Reading Room inside which appears as the circle room in the London Library with a round oculus skylight at the top, in ‘The Irregulars’ Chapter 7: ‘The Ecstasy of Death’.

 

On my way out, I passed the hands from Manchester Town Hall (visited in a previous sojourn), whilst the Town Hall was under repair.

A short walk away was my hotel, just off Canal Street. Having dumped my excess baggage, I made my way out again, for my evening’s entertainment at HOME Arts Centre  – a stage version of the film ‘I, Daniel Blake’, starring David Nellist (Mike Stamford in ‘Sherlock: A Study in Pink’ & ‘Sherlock: The Abominable Bride’) and Mischief Theatre’s Bryony Corrigan. The play was very moving, with the audience as one standing to applaud at the end.

Waiting outside the theatre, I was able to briefly meet ‘Stamford’, emotionally tired from his bravura performance. However, he still stopped to sign a photo of Mike and John, and posed for a selfie.

 

Walking back to my room, I mused on a very busy day. Having watched an episode of ‘Law & Order UK’, I retired for the night, to be ready for the final day of this mega sojourn.