Shadow Play - Brodsworth Hall, South Yorkshire

Less fog this morning and a huge amount of sunshine saw me leap out of bed (despite having an hour less in it!) and head off, camera at the ready, to Brodsworth Hall.

Built in the Italianate style of the 1860s by the fabulously wealthy Charles Thellusson, Brodsworth Hall was occupied by the Thellusson family for over 120 years. The 'grand rooms' on the ground floor recall the house's Victorian heyday, but elsewhere in the house, Brodsworth's gentle decline during the 20th century is much more apparent. The last resident, the indomitable Sylvia Grant-Dalton, fought a losing battle against subsidence and leaking roofs for 56 years. Following her death in 1988, English Heritage made the bold decision to conserve the interiors 'as found', rather than replacing or restoring them. Thus the house appears as she used it, making do and mending as funds and resident servants dwindled.

It's still too early in the season for the house to be open (I think it's next weekend that the shutters and doors are flung open) but the gardens, for me, are the real draw. They have been wonderfully restored to their original splendour as 'a collection of grand gardens in miniature' and work continues to reveal new features, along with vistas last enjoyed before the First World War.

Armed with my trusty macro lens, I set about capturing a quite stunning array of new spring growth coming to life and I could very well have shared the fruits of that joyful labour with you here, but it was the shadow play at the doors to the Hall that really struck a note with me when I got home and loaded up my shots complementing the subdued background as the mid-morning sun burnt off the earlier mists.

It's also a fitting memento of a very pleasant few hours lost in time and nature at one of my favourite places to visit nearby.