*A Lovely Christmas Fair*

On Sunday we went to a really lovely Christmas fair at Helmsley. I had been looking forward to it for a couple of weeks, so when the day arrived I was so excited!



It was held at Duncombe Park a stately home owned by Lord & Lady Feversham, and look isn't it just absolutely beautiful. I had to take a couple of photos just to get most of it in!



Helmsley itself is a really beautiful town, and here is a photo from the long (long long) driveway up to the stately house looking down on towards Helmsley.
The driveway up to the house is so long in fact that they had a mini bus service on to take people up! We walked though as you had such amazing views and it was such a wonderful walk on a beautiful Autumn day.



Here in these above photos is the ruined Helmsley Castle which you can visit too.



This is the Ionic Temple that you pass on your way up to the big house.
The grounds are absolutely enormous!!! We only saw a fraction of them and there's another temple over the other side of the grounds.



Anyhoo on to the fair. All the stalls were actually placed in different rooms of the house, and there was so much to see with lots of lovely stalls. It cost £3 each to enter but this gave you admission to the house too, so really it was such a bargain!
I actually only bought a Christmas garland, but as James said the rooms were so stunning that they tended to take your focus away from the stalls a little!

If you want a better look at any of the photo's just click on them to make them larger.



I managed to get a few photos in the house before a very kind lady who worked there explained to me that they didn't allow photography in the house. But she was so lovely and kind about it. But ssshhh, don't tell anyone I've showed you these.

The photos really don't do a thing for the rooms as they were incredibly beautiful, just look at that bedroom above. Really I didn't want to leave any of the bedrooms. They was such an adorable one that I just wanted to live there but I didn't manage to get a photo of it.



I actually had a hard time taking photos as everything was so huge that they just wouldn't fit in the camera frame! The beds were absolutely enormous!
This room above was really beautiful, and smelt so wonderful of roses. Apparently the kind lady from before explained this is used for brides on wedding days, although only for the day as they don't offer overnight accommodation at all and the bedrooms are rarely used.

They were all so beautiful though not to be used, I didn't take anymore of the bedrooms as there were lots of people about and really I shouldn't have been anyway (although I didn't know at the time)!



This was the dining room but it really doesn't show any of the beauty or grandeur of it at all.
There were two little craft stalls in here, lucky things, such beauty to look at.



As we were walking back down the driveway back into Helmsley we were overtaken by about 20 horses but I only managed this shot, if only I had have been ready with my camera a few seconds before I would have got the most amazing shot of them all trotting by. But I popped this one in for you as you can just about see the most amazing view in the distance.

If you are ever up this way, really do visit Helmsley in the North Yorkshire Moors as it is such a beautiful place and definitely make the trip to visit Duncombe Park as I really can't explain how beautiful the place is and the grounds it is set in is just divine.
Please visit the website and have a good look around for more information on the estate as it is definitely worth a visit, I promise you. They even have a tea shop on the grounds, now I know that has a lot of you tempted doesn't it!
Visit the website *here*.

There are a lot of Christmas Fairs around at this time of year, but this really was a wonderful one and one I will definitely be visiting again.