Feeding Foals: posted by Cheryl Burfield

Last week end we had a huge panic when someone, not realising that foals, just like human babies, start life drinking milk, fed the Shetland foal. He started to choke and one of my colleagues ran to the rescue. Luckily he was none the worse for his ordeal and the vet was called to give him a check up. Since then we’ve pulled wood shavings and straw out of his mouth. Once you ask a visitor ‘Would you like to eat your duvet and pillow’? they quickly learn the first steps of animal care!

The Shetland and Shire foals both seem destined to be ‘horses with no names’. Our visitors have been great in coming up with suggestions, and have provided us with plenty of food for thought, from a selection of coffee types inspired by the café culture, i.e mocha and latte, to flapjack, toffee and fudge. We’ve had everything from historical figureheads down to good solid ‘Sid’. Hula Hoop is fine until we split them up and need to call them in. This will not be an easy decision. Lets hope we feel more inspired by next week, and the foals start to characterise one of the suggested names.

Cheryl Burfield, The Chatsworth Farmyard & Adventure Playground

Art, religion and divorce: posted by Simon Seligman

I have just been having another look at Henry VIII's rosary, one of the new displays for our visitors this year. Although I have seen it before, this time I got a real buzz from the sense of connection with Henry as a real person, rather than a fictional character on TV. He must have held this fantastic object, with its unbelievably delicate carvings, in his hand, in fact probably commissioned it directly himself, and it has both his initials and those of his first wife on it. And that is its true symbolic significance; when he tired of Catherine, as she did not produce a son, he divorced her and ruptured his kingdom's relationship with the Catholic church in Rome, with historic results that remain with us today. I would guess that he never used this very personal object again, and it was later owned by various people, before eventually (in the 19th century) it was bought as an amazing work of art by the 6th Duke of Devonshire. One of the hidden joys of working here is the opportunity, again and again, to spend time with unique (and real) objects that have extraordinary stories attached to them, and the rosary is just one example.

Simon Seligman, Head of Communications

From the mouths of babes: posted by Liam Bergin

When you are looking to open new shops, you try and take into account a myriad of factors, logistics, staffing, present trends and fashions. So when we revamped the Farmyard Café and shop this year, and launched an entirely new Interiors shop, I thought we had taken into account most factors, but no, I should have also consulted a horde of marauding children.

I’m a parent myself, with 3 children under 5 , so I did a little research, and we carefully put together some new food options in the Farmyard Café, with healthy options , fruit, new smoothies, some fun jam butties, and a self service children’s ice cream machine, all of which have been received well. But ... because at certain times of the year the shop downstairs is closed, I also had some shelves built for the Café, so we can put a few pocket money toys on sale, and also for the convenience of people who don’t want to go downstairs to pick up a bucket and spade for the sand pit in the playground. But instead of solving a problem, I have created one, with frustrated parents being pestered by their kids in the café for the toys that they can see. So I need to come up with something else to put there; suggestions for what should be there would be fabulous.

In the stables, we converted an old storeroom into a new Interiors shop. It is a cracking space, where the original 18th century stable's features can be seen in their majestic glory. The original horse stalls gave us a superb opportunity to create a different style of room in each stall, to give a story to the shop. A kitchen, a boudoir, a study, a boy’s room and a girl's room are all laid out where the Dobbin and friends used to munch their hay. The high ceiling gives us ample opportunity to hang grand chandeliers and majestic mirrors above. Imagine our satisfaction when a young girl peered into the shop, and ran off to get her Mum. “ Mum, you should see what they’ve done in here.” she cried. We were delighted to have aroused such excitement. “They have turned all the little prisons into little shops” she continued. Oh well. We don’t all see the same thing in the same way, but I hope it doesn’t stop us continuing to look.

Liam Bergin, Retail Operations manager for Chatsworth House and Bolton Abbey

WEBSITE ACCOLADE: posted by Simon Seligman

It's funny to get a compliment from a source you never expect. The Duke's mother, the Dowager Duchess, wrote a piece for the Spectator magazine last week bemoaning the closure of her village post office, and the damage such closures do to rural communities. David Aaronovitch, a leading columnist in The Times, has responded in his column, in what I would call complete but respectful disagreement, and he ends by saying '…the Devonshires mourn the loss of the era of the telegram, and run one of the best websites I have ever seen.' James, our website manager, always thinks the site can be better, but even he looked pleased!

Simon Seligman, Head of Communications