A Tropical Yorkshire Day at Beningbrough Hall

Back at the beginning of August – a long time ago now, I know! – Ben and I decided to take Emmy for a bit of a day out to make the most of the nice weather. I’ve been trying to make the most of my maternity leave by going out to places I might not necessarily get the chance to while I’m working full time, and especially when Ben’s at home on the weekends. I’m very aware that we only get this time with Emmy as a baby once and I want to make the most of it!

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Anyway, Beningbrough Hall is a National Trust property that’s fairly local to us, one I visited a few times when I was younger. Ben and I have National Trust memberships and like to use them when we go away on trips around the UK, like our UK road trip and our minimoon, but often forget to get out and use them closer to home. I’d actually planned to visit Beningbrough Hall the day Emmy and I went to Fountains Abbey (which is another National Trust property nearby) but it turned out it was closed! Luckily we had the most beautiful weekend weather-wise around Yorkshire Day, so we grabbed our National Trust cards and off we went.

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Beningbrough Hall is a stunning brick built manor house from 1716. Over time, it was passed through generations of the Bourchier family, for whom the house was originally built, before it fell into disrepair in the late 1800s when it was neglected. It wasn’t until 1916 when it was acquired by a wealthy heiress that it was brought back to its former glory, and later passed to the National Trust in 1958. While the house itself is beautiful, it’s the grounds that are really outstanding. The hall is surrounded by manicured lawns, walled gardens, parkland and woodland.

Before this trip, Emmy and I had actually visited with Charley recently too. Rather than entering the house and gardens, we decided to spend the afternoon at the farm shop and walking around the parkland where we discovered a walking loop that was accessible for the pram, so that was brilliant. This time though, Ben and I decided that taking a 5 month old baby that is currently attempting to imitate the sounds of a pterodactyl into the house wasn’t the best idea, so we stuck to the gardens. Luckily it was such a beautiful day that there was really no need to enter the house anyway!

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So since it was the weekend around Yorkshire Day, Beningbrough had some small exhibits and activities happening to celebrate, including some signage with phrases in Yorkshire dialect designed to teach these to people and several easels and paints set up around the grounds. And of course, I decided we needed to take advantage of this! Now my sister thinks our painting is hilarious, but I beg to differ – Ben and I spent about 10 minutes creating this “abstract” painting of the hall together, and I’m pretty impressed with the results, especially for two people who can’t do anything artistic to save their lives! Emmy wasn’t quite so sure either though…

Anyway, I decided since it was a lovely day and we were visiting a lovely location that I would wear something lovely too. I bought this tropical palm print dress in the Collectif 50% off sale. I was a little bit annoyed when it arrived as it looked like the straps tied at the top so they could easily be undone for feeding; the website also said they were adjustable. In fact, it turns out the bow ties at the top are decorative, but the straps are at least adjustable with a slider at the back. Luckily it was easy enough to slide the strap down a shoulder and push the bodice down to feed in. I’m getting more creative in my breastfeeding outfits now so that they don’t just have to be button up or wrap style – I’m finding that wrap styles don’t really suit me all that well as they cut far too low on my cleavage and I feel uncomfortable, and buttons often gape. Now I’m 6 months (!!) into exclusively breastfeeding Emmy, I would have been getting reallllly bored of those styles anyway by now!

I’m actually really impressed with the fit of this dress too. I’m wearing a size 12, which is a still a size up from my pre-pregnancy size and it’s a perfect fit across the chest, pretty impressive on my current 30H/32GG bust. The waist belt ensures that it gets the nipped in waist to go with the full skirt too, and it’s super swishy and spinny! The tropical print worked perfectly for a day out in the gardens at Beningbrough too amongst their beautiful flora and greenery.

And Emmy’s outfit – that’s pretty important in an outfit post nowadays too! This dress is one my mum bought in the Debenhams sale for her a few weeks ago – neither she nor Ben’s mum can help buying Emmy presents everywhere they go seemingly! You probably already know that I’m pretty obsessed with gingham, plus the little colourful flowers on it are so cute too. The fabric was lovely and lightweight, perfect for the warm weather. And her headband was made by me out of a Primark jumpsuit that I decided I wasn’t going to wear but I was too late to return – I thought it might as well go to good use, and I love it much more as a headband.