Chatsworth House and Market

Our last trip out of the year was a visit to the Club’s Chatsworth site in early December. Checking my records I made this the seventh visit to Chatsworth since we started caravanning and latterly motorhoming, but not all at Christmas. We decided to book for three nights from the Sunday. We don’t usually travel on a Sunday but at least one contributor on Club Together mentioned they always did so because the traffic was lighter, particularly with fewer HGV’s so we thought we would give it a try. It certainly had advantages in terms of less traffic on the M1 but with Sunday being a popular arrival day at Chatsworth there was quite a queue to book in but we eventually found a pitch and set up just across from reception. 

On the following day our eldest son Paul and his wife, Marisa and Marisa’s parents,  drove up for the day so that we could all have a tour of the house and a look round the Christmas Market. Marisa comes from São Paulo in Brazil and her parents are in the UK for a holiday. They have visited in the summer before but I don’t think they quite appreciated how cold it can be in December! Belmiro, Marisa’s dad, had never seen snow close up so he was hoping that he would see some during his visit. Fortunately it held off for their visit to Chatsworth but he got his wish the following weekend! The place was manic with cars which were being parked on all the spare land from the House to almost the campsite. 

Our house tickets were for 2.00pm so we had time to have a look round the market which we had not seen before. We also took them up to the Stable Yard so they could look around the shops and see the old stables. Tickets for the house are timed at every fifteen minutes in order to prevent large crowds forming at pinch points in the tour which makes it more comfortable for everyone. Every year they have a different theme to augment the Christmas decorations and this year it was the stories of Charles Dickens. Marisa’s parent had never been to anything like a Stately Home before so they were quite excited to see the House. Tour over we all had a hot drink and a bit of a walk along the side of the house to see the fountain before it was time to go our separate ways.