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In our campaign to “save” money by visiting as many National Trust sites as possible we knocked off another last week, Erddig, a stately home near Wrexham.
Of course whilst you are there you buy lunch so the free day out costs £40 but it was an enjoyable day and whilst we are sure we have been before being old and forgetful we did not remember much about our last visit which was probably 30 years ago. The most interesting aspect of the house is that the owners, who lived there for 250 years, did not throw anything away despite being hard up and unable to pay for the upkeep of the house. It was eventually left to the National Trust in 1973 by the last owner, Phillip Yorke. He was a little eccentric (and never married and had no heirs), he regularly rode the penny farthing bike in the picture to and from Wrexham. Prince Charles came to open the restored building, he invited Phillip to dinner the night before the opening day to which Phillip replied, "I go to Wrexham on that night for Fish and Chips" so turned down the invitation.

After our holiday in Shrewsbury last week we thought we would go a little further this week so we have booked a hotel in Ruthin, a town which is only 60 miles away and only 30 miles from where we used to live in Glyn Ceiriog but which we have never been to before.

Perhaps we will find out why we have avoided it so it could be a dull holiday. We are staying in the rather grand looking red brick Castle Hotel shown in the picture. It is actually a Wetherspoons so good value we hope. The weather here in Shropshire has been a little grim for the past two weeks but we hope it will be dry enough to walk round the town. The only disappointment is there are no National Trust properties near by so no opportunities to save more money, we might pop into Chirk Castle on the way, because it is there.