It is off to the left (south) of Miles Cross Hill that ascends (west) out of Alford towards Ulceby Cross (Lincs.). It is about two miles from Alford. The North Sea and The Wash are very faintly in the distance on the horizon of the view below.
Note: The Estate is right on the boundary of the AONB Lincolnshire Wolds and at a guess part may be just inside The Wolds. You can see a helpful boundary map here.
Here's a copy/paste of what The Heritage Day wrote about the Well Estate:
Well - the
Art of Landscape
St. Margaret's
Church, Well Vale, Well, Lincolnshire, LN13 0ET
Ever wanted to look at a picture and
then walk into it? Capability Brown did.
You can too. See the Temple on the
hill, the lakes in the Vale. Displays, refreshments, talks are inside the church.
Opening Times
Sunday 9 September: 1000-1600
Booking Details
No booking required
Directions
Signage from red telephone box centre
of village.
End of copy/paste.
Credit for the photo below:
Well Vale Hall
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Richard Croft - geograph.org.uk/p/2054580
This is the view of The Hall from the top of the hill nearby St. Margaret's Church.
Below is a comparison photo that I took:
The above Hall (house) is currently (Sept 2018) for sale by the vendor (Mrs. White - a recent widow I believe) as I recall at around £1.7 million if you've got that in your back pocket, to spare. Interestingly the land around the Hall - the estate, is owned by Willoughby Farms (Ltd.) - or Ms. Gay James. Willoughby Farms owns thousands of acres all around Lincolnshire including the land right next to my own property. I can state that they do look after their land and I would guess that they are very successful business people and efficient farmers. They own a number of other interests - for example The Crematorium in Alford, Birdsong (natural burial ground near Sloothby) and the newish posh butchers in Alford on the site of the old post office. I gave that butchers a good old go when it first opened (2017) but I got a bit fed up with being let down, despite the politeness of the (male) server. By let down, I mean things not being available and comments like you need to get here early or on a certain day or whatever. I have found this to be a common attitude problem towards customers here in Lincolnshire - there seems to be a built-in approach as follows:
A) If you don't sound like a local Lincolnshire person you tend to get treated less well. - Well that's been my experience.
B) There is an assumption that customers of anyone associated with land owners or farmers have to accept whatever they get without question (a hangover I think from most workers being agricultural workers and the tendency for 'the populus' to have to show deference to land owning farmers etc.).
I don't do deference. I do do respect - but even that I prefer to have a little evidence of worthiness rather than any assumption that I will bow and scrape. We were all born equal in a sense - we come in naked and withered-looking and we go out often the same way and we all have to visit the lavatory most days too - so wealth, money and status don't much work with me but morality (I don't mean the kind associated with marriage and sex), decency, mutual respect, working with principles and ethics and straight-talking go a long way with me.
Interesting to me that the house and land are separate entities nowadays and I could see the difficulties that that scenario might promote and chatting to the organisers at the church I got a distinct impression that the 'relationships', let's say, were not harmonious - but that's heresay and may not be accurate.
Gay James, I understand, is an equestrian (like us) but I am sure that the two beautiful (loose and free-roaming) horses that greeted us at the gate and driveway (see pictures below) would be valued somewhat higher than our own working hacks. Strikes me as ironic that after we moved-in to our home about six years ago (in 2012) all, as far as we could see, adjacent or nearby land owned by Willoughby Farms had their access points newly gated in such a way as to discourage if not prevent any horse riders and/or dog walkers that may be inclined to use any non-crop-damaging field-periphery walking/hacking activities that the local population might have liked to have indulged in.
- Pity that, but in fairness, would I like walkers (maybe with dogs) and other horse riders plodding around my pitiful amount of land? Then again, if I had thousands of acres - would I mind?
Horses on the estate:
- Quite an amazing sight really, crossing a cattle grid, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, looking up and seeing two gorgeous horses effectively saying:
"Hello are you mum? - Car doesn't look quite right but we'll go up the hill with you in case you have a carrot or two for us ..."
"D'you think that's mum?"
"Nah - probably it's a church day, better get out of the way - never know they might not know anything about horses at all. Might not even like horses!"
Thoughts ...
Imagine that - getting home and
one's horses are not out in a paddock out of sight but actually greeting you as you drive into the sweeping drive that climbs the hill to (well, someone else's house).
In fact, Ms James, we understand lives in the smaller house near the drive entrance.
One wonders if she might consider buying the big Hall (at a price)?
It occurs to me that some potential buyers may not be keen on a great big house surrounded by someone else's land. - A rather bizarre situation. - Wonder who will buy the Hall?
Below is the view of the lake as one continues the climb up towards St. Margaret's Church at the top of the hill.
The Lake:
The Church:
Books on display:
The church interior from the rear looking back:
A short video of what I saw of the views from and around Well Vale Estate (apologies for the loud wind noise):
End.
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