Kate Houghton

1 week ago | greatbritishlife.co.uk | Kate Houghton

Enforced idleness: having nothing to do, nowhere to be and nobody to please but oneself. It’s a hard thing to achieve – a day of stepping off the hamster wheel of day-to-day life and doing little more than remembering to turn up for your massage on time – but do it we must, on occasion. Whether you fly solo or take a spa buddy, a little enforced idleness now and again is a necessary balm for the body and the mind, and Cottons Spa, in Knutsford, makes it all very easy indeed.

2 weeks ago | greatbritishlife.co.uk | Kate Houghton

Simply brilliant. Just go. Remember A Knight’s Tale, the 2001 film starring  Heath Ledger and Paul Bettany? In the latest Manchester Gets It First world premiere, it has been brilliantly reimagined for the stage and A Knight’s Tale The Musical, hit the stage at the Opera House last month, running until 10 May, and is absolutely brilliant.

2 weeks ago | greatbritishlife.co.uk | Kate Houghton

While the exterior of Bryngwenallt Hall, with its imposing High Gothic Victorian architecture, sharp peaked gables, tower and crenelations might suggest dark and mysterious passageways and cluttered parlours darkened by heavy drapes, the reality couldn’t be more different. This is a glorious, light-filled, welcoming home, currently in the guardianship of Jed de Gregory and his partner, Caroline Ollier.

2 weeks ago | greatbritishlife.co.uk | Kate Houghton

There is history in every room of Knowsley Hall and the current incumbents in the long line of the Stanley family, who have made it their life work, are justifiably proud of their Great British heritage The Earl of Derby, Edward Richard William, is the 19th of the line, inheriting the title and estates from his uncle, Edward John, in 1994. He married the Hon. Caroline (Cazzy) Neville in 1995 and since then the couple have spent their lives working to restore Knowsley Hall.

3 weeks ago | northwichguardian.co.uk | Kate Houghton

Alan's compulsion to paint has been within him since childhood (Image: Kirsty Thompson) AT the age of 75 many people feel the need to relax, to engage with the world in a leisurely fashion, maybe take up a new, gentle, hobby. Not so Alan Hawkins, whose compulsion to paint means he is developing a body of work celebrating fellow residents at his retirement complex, in Timperley. "I’m three quarters of a century old,' he says.