This is an adventure playground for 5 to 15 year old children on the fringe of Braunstone Park in Leicester. It was originally opened in 1965 and recently re -opened after a £31,000.00 facelift. Well Ladies and Gentleman I bring for your delight a rather interesting and beautiful building located off a country lane in the middle of nowhere in Northamptonshire. Sir Thomas Tresham was a Catholic in protestant Britain. His faith and refusal to convert to the protestant faith resulted in significant regular fines and eventual imprisonment. At age 15 he inherited large estates from his grandfather giving him a rather privileged start to adult life. Between 1581 and 1605 he had paid penalties in the sum of £8,000 (£1, 240, 00.00 in todays terms) He was imprisoned for 15 years until his release in 1593. He designed and constructed the lodge himself using alternating light and dark limestone. He designed it as a protestation of his faith - everything relating to the number 3 signifying the holy trinity - God the Father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit. The structure is three sided - the walls are 33 feet long and there are triangular windows throughout and there are three floors to the lodge including a basement. Even the year of construction - 1593 is perfectly divisible by three with no remainder (though it is believed that construction did not actually occur until 1594 - but that would not have fitted in with his thinking so 1593 adorns two sides of the lodge with his initials being on the third). I wont put up any of the history of Victoria baths, purely because there is so much information out there it's very easy to find and there's lots of information on their own website here. They have open days when the public can visit, take the tour and then wander around at leisure - dates here. If you are within reasonable travelling distance I'd urge you to visit - this is a very, very special place. History of the site here and an excellent article here. Here is the start of the last linked article: The Victoria Baths is a building of enormous historic and cultural value, in the heart of Manchester. Built in the 1900s, it provided washing and leisure facilities until its closure in 1993; private baths and laundry were housed there along with three swimming pools and the Turkish Baths. If you watched the restoration series on television with Griff Rhys Jones you may remember that this won the first ever series back in 2003. It is still a work in progress and the plans are to open the baths once more for public use.This was my third visit to this wonderful place and was an organised visit just for our group of 30 people so we had plenty of space and room to ourselves. Enough with the words now on to the pictures. A lot of pictures on this one, but it is such a wonderful place, I hope you'll excuse my indulgence,
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AuthorJust an amateur Photographer Archives
December 2017
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