In the stocks at Middleton

Middleton Hall, near Tamworth, is one of those attractions that kids get dragged to for "educational reasons". I find the hall fascinating as it has architecture from a number of different periods, as well as the Robert Peel Museum, but the poor kids must hate it.
The one thing the kids can do is insist their parents take a turn in the stocks - which, they must think, is probably what their parents deserve...

Jazz in the Hall

The Jan Harris Quintet play easy-listening swing standards, and their style matched beautifully the small but perfectly-formed concert room at Middleton Hall. It showed me that jazz can work quite well outside the pubs and clubs where I usually see it...

Middleton Hall is an old manor on the Warwickshire-Staffordshire border that has been lovingly restored by a volunteer-group of conservationists; and they were holding an open day.

The painting behind Jan, of the woman in the blue dress, is of Cassandra Duchess of Chandos. She was born at the hall in 1670, and was an historian and a painter. The painting itself may be modern though I think.