#tixall

June 24th - This week, I passed through Tixall, which is something I tend not to do much now Shugborough’s gates are open more. Tixall really is an odd little place with a lost village feel to it: From the gazebo overlooking the river and canal valley, to the lost avenue, ridiculous but gorgeous gatehouse and the bottle lodge.

July 2nd - A ride out to Brockton, Milford and Tixall marred by mechanical problems, a headwind and tiredness, but a good trip all the same. Tixall is as beautifully incongruous as I remember, and the Chase was as gorgeous.

September 25th - Tixall, the supporting village for the Shugborough Estate, lives in the shadow of its stately brother. But the little hamlet - not much more that a set of converted farm buildings, a huge, folly gatehouse, pepper pot lodge and chapel is beautiful, mores at this time of year.

The grand avenue - stretching across the lane - is still gorgeous, with a sense of sad, melancholy Ichabod as cows browse over the once neatly cut fields around the stone gazebo. 

The pepper pot lodge - designed to mimic the towers on the gatehouse - is a lovely, peculiar curiosity.