I’ve been invited to take part in the “Five Photos, Five Stories” challenge by Jude of Travel Words. The challenge is to “post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or a short paragraph, and each day nominate another blogger for the challenge”.

My five photos are from our recent Lake District holiday. The weather wasn’t very good so we visited a lot of houses. I’m going to take them in chronological order and ask “Who lived there?”

Sizergh Castle – who lived there?

In Sizergh‘s case, the question should be – who lives there? The estate belonged to the Strickland family from the 13th century until 1950 when they handed it over to the National Trust, but the castle is still their home. There was a gap after 1688 when, as Catholic Royalists, the Stricklands went into exile in France with the court of James II, but other than that they have been there all the time. I find it hard to imagine what it must be like to have such a clear and continuous view of one’s family history – do you?

I always feel a little shy passing these challenges on and I’ve noticed some other people do too. I’ve spotted two ways of dealing with this recently – and I’m going to copy both! First, the open challenge to every reader. If you’d like to do 5 Photos 5 Stories  let me know in the comments and I’ll give you an “official” nomination.

Second, a shout-out to blogs that I enjoy. I’m guessing that if you’re reading this you might also be interested in other British-based travel bloggers, so I’ve selected a few of them. First up, Restless Jo. I’m including her today because she runs a regular theme, Jo’s Monday Walk. Click on the link to see where she’s taking us this week. Thanks also to Richard at A Bit of Culture whose latest post is on part of the South West Coast Path and who first alerted me to Jo’s walks by taking part in one. I recommend them both.