Mrs Hudson Says... July 2022

Every month, Mrs Hudson, along with her three children and Dinky the Irish Wolfhound investigate the best family and dog friendly heritage attractions that the UK has to offer.

Read on to see where the Hudsons have been this month.

With the summer holidays approaching, my first task at the start of this month was to get the kids to write out a wish list for the next six weeks so we can start to plan what we can do during the holidays. Naturally there were several very optimistic suggestions, I don’t think we’ll be heading off to watch the tennis or making our way to Edinburgh at any point! Unusually, all three children had several of the same ideas on their lists!

As the school term was starting to wind down, the kids had several trips throughout the month. The boys had another trip to Stone Henge, as well as a trip to Salisbury Cathedral to see the Magna Carta – which Florence and I did a couple of months ago – it saved me doing another trip at least!

Florence had a couple of trips too, she got to enjoy two trips to the coast, which I was a little jealous of, especially with the warm weather, as well as a trip to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour at Leavesden Studios. I was bit jealous of that one too, and she has done a very good job of keeping it quiet as it was on Elwood’s list of things to do! We’ll have to try and arrange a trip at some point.
With the kids out and about, it gave me  more free time, so I had the chance to explore with Dinky. One afternoon, knowing the kids would be back late, the two of us headed over to Stourhead near Frome in Somerset. The estate is now managed by the National Trust and dogs are welcome in the gardens and the surrounding lands. It has always been one of my favourite nearby places for walks, it changes with every season and every time I visit, I find something new to discover. It was relatively quiet when we went, as it was a weekday, so Dinky and I took our time and even had a little lounge by the water’s edge as we made our way around.

Image: Stourhead

School finally broke up in the last week of the month, we had wanted to get the kids out and about with a walk along the Kennett and Avon Canal with Dinky, but that will have to wait until we have a few cooler days. Instead, to escape much of the heat, the boys and I took a trip to the Army Flying Museum, which is the otherside of Salisbury leaving Florence to a pre-arranged day out with one of her friends. It will be a sad day when she decides she is finally too old to hang out with her mum and brothers anymore, she did agree to our trip to Longleat the following week though, so I have her for a little longer at least. Bertie was amazed at how much stuff they had in the army Flying Museum, it was like a TARDIS in there! As always, Longleat was a big hit with everyone. Considering it is so close to home, we don’t spend as much time there as we could. We opted for leaving the car behind to journey around the safari park – we learned our lesson there once before when a curious monkey made off with one of the windscreen wipers!

Image: One of the new friends we made at Longleat

There were actually a couple of safari parks on the combined list, so we might end up befriending some more monkeys soon.

Florence suggested putting all the suggestions into a bowl and each of them picking out something for us to do each week – so our August will be as much of a surprise to me as it will be to them!