News from the Courtyard Shop

With its fresh make-over, new stock and designer interior, the shop isn’t about padded hangers and lavender bags.   Good on the eye, key brands are cleverly combined with local designers to give the shop a mix of must haves.  Gorgeous items include leading young artist Donna Wilson’s quirky creature furnishings, high quality meats farmed on the Harewood grounds, Sheffield based David Mellor’s exclusive tableware collection, sweet treats from Art of Mallows and Dixie Kitchen, and wine and beers, including Harewood’s very own Harewood Gold created from its home grown hops.  

The Courtyard shop is under the successful and experienced direction of shop manager, Lynne Melton-Long, who specialises in high-end retail.  Lynne has succeeded in giving the shop a new lease of life. “Our vision is one of excellence; we’re really excited to stock some of the country’s best homewares and confectionaries supporting local farmers and designers.  We want the shopping experience at Harewood to be good on the eye as well as the tummy.  I’ve worked hard to source designer brands from all over the UK, including renowned purveyors of cheese and chutney to Her Majesty Paxton & Whitfield (incidentally the only suppliers of UK made pickled onions), wines from Latitude Wines and gift items from master cutler David Mellor.  Local designer items include paperware from The Wit Shop from Hyde Park in Leeds, Catherine Lascelles’s meats from Gray Montagne and breads from Bondgate Bakery in Otley.  If we can support emerging designers and sell their wares alongside the big boys, then our customers can set their own style and really enjoy the shopping experience.” 

Lynne has a schedule of shopping events in the planning, with the first on 6th September with the Summer Night Market at the Courtyard, which includes live music, barbeque, wine and beer tastings, vintage clothing and loads more retail heaven.  

The refreshed and re-stocked Courtyard Shop is open 10am to 5.30pm 7 days a week and sells designer house and food items, much sourced locally for the freshest and the very best, and table and giftware items from the UK’s favourite designers and manufacturers, some of whom  rarely supply outside of London. Call in on your next visit!

 

Harewood in the News: The Harewood Medieval Faire receives rave reviews!

We made the news in the Independent's heritage section with our all-new event spectacular the Harewood Medieval Faire...

If came thee hither, what-ho an event we had!

If you missed it, look out for e-updates to be the first to get your tickets for next year's event! ...And don't forget, Medieval Harewood continues this summer with artists’ works & finds from the Gawthorpe dig, ceramics & stained glass workshops, and Castle, dig and theatrical tours.

Read more and book workshops & tours and online...

The proof is in the tasting... A new Ale for Harewood made from our very own hops!

Harewood Gold

Harewood Gold made from Harewood Hops

If you follow the path around the Lakeside at Harewood, you'll come to the Walled Garden, the oldest garden at Harewood. It was already under construction when building at Harewood House began in 1759. Its purpose was to provide the kitchens there with the finest fresh fruit and vegetables.

Horticultural skills of the very highest standard were nurtured there; new and exotic plants and food crops were introduced and specially designed buildings made to grow them in. It was extensively refurbished in the 1930s, with modern glasshouses replacing most of the old hothouses.

Today the Walled Garden is still a working kitchen garden growing a wide variety of both heritage and modern varieties of fruit and vegetables as well as several varieties of hops...

The Walled Garden is enclosed by old red brick walls, built at great expense, as brick wasn’t as cheap as stone, but prized for its heat retaining properties. Hop growing is a classic use of these walls – 7 different varieties grow here including Fuggle, Mathon and Whitbread’s Goldings Variety. 

Wharfebank's Martin Kellaway & Harewood Head Gardener Trevor Nicholson

These hops are now hand-picked by staff and volunteers every September, reviving a tradition to produce Harewood’s own modern brew of bitter and pale ale. 

Harewood's new Ale will be available this winter and throughout the year in 2012 to purchase from the Courtyard Shop.

Look out for our Harewood Gold event next September... 'Harewood Gold: From Hops to Ale'

Find out more on our Gardens Webpages... http://www.harewood.org/grounds/gardens

City Dweller reporting from Harewood

Armed with a well deserved glass of wine in one hand and yet another deadline in the other, I feel ready to tackle this issue’s column...
It’s the dreaded 6 week holiday, a time feared and dreaded by most working parents. Except teachers, as they have the holiday too so are able to take care of their own kids. That’s not a dig by the way, teachers work really hard and I am full of admiration and respect for anyone who goes into teaching and does it well. But how do you entertain your kids for that long? Get other people to take care of them? Well you may have to rely on family and friends, but if you do get enough time off from work to enjoy the odd day out can I thoroughly recommend Harewood House www.harewood.org. I recently went there with Adam O’Neill who does our ‘drivetime’ show here on Capital and we had a marvellous time exploring the house and gardens. Unfortunately, we forgot to go below the house to check out how the other half lived, which I will do on my return. It’s wonderful place and has plenty going on; a grand historical house, kids play areas, a lake, bird garden, including penguins
and flamingos. My favourite part is the specialist gardens, especially the Himalayan garden and Cascade.
Its beauty is overwhelming and I could have stayed there for hours blissfully dreaming the day away, but my son was more interested in climbing and going on the zip wire. Entrance prices vary as you can purchase a ticket for the grounds only or a full ticket which includes a tour of the house. It’s well worth a visit. Staying on a garden and outdoor tip – have you checked out the gardens at Roundhay Park? The winning canal lock garden from Chelsea fl ower show is on display alongside a couple of other previous garden entries. The canal gardens by Tropical World have been massively improved since my last visit and
these gardens are free to have a gander. There is a small fee to go into Tropical World, which is great on a wet, cold day as it is reminiscent of a tropical climate. The park itself is excellent to yomp around with lots of open space, woodland, lakes and a folly in the form of small castle. Go on, get out there and have some fresh air.

Buy this month's City Dweller to read more from Jo Jo!

Out Of The Fire!

Behind the Scenes at the foundry with our photographer Colin Davison...

'Very dusty and quite dangerous!' were the first words Colin used to describe his experience of the foundry where two new Antony Gormley pieces are being made for Harewood...

The foundry process is only one part of the production, done one at a time, the piece is prepared ready at the studio, made from polystyrene blocks carefully and precisely cut and assembled to plan, then sprayed with a ceramic coating to create a shell of sorts around the polystyrene.

The piece is then buried in hard-packed sand, this is called 'ramming'. A day or two later, 'blowback' sparks fly as the hot iron is 'poured', the sand acts as a barrier to contain the hot metal once the polystyrene has burned away... and then it is all left to cool completely...

A couple of days later the piece must be 'knocked out' and excavated from 2 tons of sand, it's a strange and gruesome sight, black with ash and rough around the edges... the piece is then ready to go to the studio to be 'fettled', essentially cleaned up ready for oxidising and then on to Harewood ready for the exhibition!

A specially commissioned film documenting the process of the two pieces being made will be shown alongside the exhibition at Harewood, including an exclusive interview with Antony Gormley himself... don't miss the show this summer!

Find out more about the exhibition and visiting Harewood on our website here... www.harewood.org/gormley

Announcing Gormley at Harewood

At last night's private view to launch Harewood’s Epstein exhibition Finding Adam, Diane Howse (Viscountess Lascelles) announced that sculptor Antony Gormley will be showing two new pieces of work in the Terrace Gallery later this summer.

Our current exhibition 'Finding Adam' explores the epic journey of Sir Jacob Epstein’s magnificent alabaster sculpture Adam from his origins in Epstein’s studio in London to Harewood House in Yorkshire, via Blackpool, New York, Cape Town and the Edinburgh Festival, as well as celebrating his return from cleaning and exhibiting at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

"Adam and Epstein are a very hard act to follow," said artist/curator Diane Howse. "I knew of Antony’s relationship to Epstein’s work and all of us here are huge fans of Antony, so we’re thrilled to have two pieces by him in the Terrace Gallery later this summer. It’s very much in keeping with our policy of showing the best of contemporary art alongside our historic collections, something my father-in-law Lord Harewood set in motion when he brought Adam here in the 1970’s. Yorkshire is rapidly becoming the place to see modern sculpture: the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the Henry Moore Institute are well-established of course and they are about to be joined by the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield, which opens later this month. We’re proud to be playing our part in this celebration, not only with the Epstein exhibition, but also by showing work by one of Britain’s finest living artists."

Antony Gormley adds: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to show two works at Harewood House, long associated with ‘Adam’, Epstein’s powerful evocation of masculine yearning carved from a massive block of English alabaster.

My material is iron. Smelted and cast in Wednesbury, it also engages with the block but uses the language of architecture to interpret the male human body as an unstable space made up of individual cells fused and propped together. The room in which the works will be shown is supported by four stone columns that make you aware of the load path of the building. I hope that these two works, in which columns and masses describe an unsteady vertical stack twisting through 90 degrees, will allow the viewer to think about his or her own body as a vertical tower.”

Antony Gormley's installation will open to the public in the Terrace Gallery at Harewood on Saturday 13th August and will run till 30th October.

You can read more about the forthcoming Gormley exhibition on our webpage here... www.harewood.org/gormley

Don't be late for this very important date!...

The giant mushrooms have arrived, stallholders are setting up in the sunshine and the children's funfair is ready to go! We're all set for a fantastic Easter at Harewood and an extravaganza of all things Alice...

It's been a busy week setting up for the Mad Hatter's Tea Party event and Head Gardener Trevor Nicholson has even created our very own rabbit hole for the White Rabbit! You can see it in the West Garden at Harewood if you visit anytime this Bank Holiday weekend...

Jam tart making, easter trails, tea service displays, rabbit biscuit decorating, story telling shows, hotch-potch paint-a-pot, performing arts and craft activities will mean there's something to keep everyone entertained...

Enjoy!

Visit our website to see what's on, book tickets online and read more about Harewood...

Hello! magazine at Harewood

This week's issue of Hello! magazine (18th - 25th April) sees Harewood as the back-drop to an interview with Coronation Street star Katherine Kelly.

If you visited Harewood one sunny Sunday a couple of weeks ago you may have seen Katherine and the Hello! crew, who visited for the photo-shoot in Harewood's award-winning Gardens and Grounds.

Photos were taken in Harewood's lakeside gardens where the cherry blossom was in full bloom, on the Terrace with Harewood's breathtaking 18th Century facade and fountains in the background and also in the West Garden where thousands of bulbs and spring blooms grow beneath the canopies of the trees above.

Katherine herself remembers visiting Harewood as a child so it was a fitting place for an interview which coincides with the announcement that Katherine will be leaving Coronation Street this year... we'll have to wait and see how the storyline pans out on the soap, but it's guaranteed to be a finale to remember!

The full interview with Katherine Kelly is in Hello! magazine, out now.

Read more about Harewood's Gardens on our website and check out Opening Times and Prices...

Adam arrives safely back to Harewood

Sir Jacob Epstein’s iconic sculpture ‘Adam’ returns to Harewood House today from the Royal Academy of Arts, where he has been displayed in the landmark exhibition ‘Modern British Sculpture’.

Click here to visit our website and watch the video to see Adam restored to the Entrance Hall here at Harewood and to hear from Anna Robinson (Head of House and Collections) as well as Jim Barrett (MOMART).

Finding Adam opens at Harewood House on 22nd April and explores the sculpture’s strange and epic journey from Louis Tussaud’s warehouse in Blackpool, to the Edinburgh International Festival, to his present home here at Harewood.

Read more about the Finding Adam exhibition here...

Image credit: The York Press

Justin Fletcher (aka Mr Tumble) confirmed for Harewood's Children's Festival

Preparations are well underway already for what is, by far and away our biggest event of the season.

This year we've planned a real Children's Fest with a whole host of characters and entertainment. We are thrilled we have been able to secure award-winning CBeebies presenter Justin Fletcher (aka Mr Tumble) for an appearance on the Monday and we've got our fingers crossed for sunshine!

It helps us with event planning if our visitors pre-book online ahead of the event. As an added bonus for doing so, you can pre-book tickets online now to be entered into our prize draw to win a VIP experience on the day…

Click here to read more or to book now...

New plans for Terrace Cottage...

You may have seen a building nestled in the trees near the Adventure Playground at Harewood; Terrace Cottage. Previously not open to the public, we're pleased to be opening the cottage up to visitors in the near future as the venue for our Second Hand Bookshop. We'll have Paperbacks and Hardbacks, books for adults and children - and a comfy area for you to enjoy the books at your leisure. Our plan is to make Harewood sustainable - and the bookshop will be the ultimate recycling facility.. Bring along a book, buy a book, donate a book.. and the cycle repeats.. (All proceeds go to the Harewood Charitable Trust).

Keep an eye out on our website news pages for updates!

Nature Fest goes down a treat!

Our all-new event for February half term went down a treat with everyone!

The plan was to host a week of nature-themed fun and activities for little ones and adults alike...helping our visitors to make the most of Harewood and the great outdoors at this time of year - and blow those winter cobwebs away!

Nature Fest: Go wild outdoors at Harewood this February half term turned out to be a fantastic idea and a wonderful event.

Whether they had a thirst for knowledge or an enthusiasm for the outdoors or just wanted to have fresh air and fun at the Harewood, our visitors unanimously approved the new event!

With so much going on visitors we're spoilt for choice: grow your own, meet the bugs, storytelling sessions, nature trails, Bird Garden walk-talk-feed tours, cookery demos in the Old Kitchen, willow weaving and Garden trails to the Walled Garden to see the work going on there developing Harewood's original Kitchen Garden.

If you missed it this year be sure to join us next year!

visit our what's on pages to find out about forthcoming events and more...

The art of illusion at Harewood: Scagliola or Marble?

Buckingham Palace and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London are just two famous buildings that feature Scagliola, a marble imitation that was first developed in the Baroque era. Today it is often more expensive than real marble because it is so complicated to make. Only experts can determine Scagliola from the real thing.

Deutsche Welle, Germany's equivalent of BBC-World, visited Harewood this week with Michael Koumbouzis of the Leeds-based 'Scagliola Company' to explore Harewood's collections...you can see the footage on Euromaxx (Deutsche Welle's daily life and style magazine show) here.

Visit the House from 22nd April 2011 to see if you can spot the scagliola and marble pieces we have!

http://www.harewood.org/house

Adam has left the building...!

‘Adam’, an extraordinary piece by one of Britain’s most important twentieth century sculptors Sir Jacob Epstein, and one of the most important items in the Harewood modern collection, was carved from a single piece of Derbyshire alabaster in 1938 and 1939.

On 11th November this year, Adam left Yorkshire for London for conservation prior to being displayed at the Royal Academy... Removing Adam from the Entrance Hall here at Harewood was a considerable feat of engineering in itself, requiring an A-frame, winch and trackway, as well as scaffolding to support the steps and undercroft of the House and a Hiab outside the building to lift the sculpture on to a lorry... a big job for the scaffolders and art handlers, and the beginning of a long journey for Adam...

Adam was uncrated today at the conservation studio where he will remain until the New Year whilst cleaning work on his surface and repairs to his base take place.

We are filming the process - short snippets of which will be available on our website in the New Year and the final film will be shown as part of the exhibition here at Harewood in the spring when Adam returns... check out our website for details: www.harewood.org/findingadam

Bigger and Better than ever!

This year's Autumn Glory was better than ever and we had record numbers of visitors to prove it!

This classic Harewood event has always been popular but this year's event was bigger and better including dry-stone walling demos, glass blowing, the West Garden transformed into an enchanted forest with giant toadstools, fairytale gateways and tipis as well as an all-new craft market with unique hand-made craft goodies on sale in our cosy (and massive!) 3-tipi tent on the North Front.

The West Garden tipis were full of delighted children taking part in seasonal fun, storytelling and activities... and the weather was perfect!

If you missed Autumn glory this year you missed a treat! Join us next October Half Term for entertainment and seasonal fun and to see the grounds and landscape showing their glorious autumn colours! More details will be available on our website in the spring...