Lord and Lady Clitheroe

Lord and Lady Clitheroe live in this country manor in Downham. (It looks like something out of Pride and Predjudice!) Their family (whose actual name is Assheton) owns the entire village of Downham -- all 45 homes. Downham is significant in church history as it is one of the places where Heber C. Kimball had great success. So much success that almost every person living in this small community joined the church. We always take the missionaries there as part of the church history tour. (I believe I have blogged about this previously)

The family of Lord and Lady Clitheroe have owned the entire village for 400 years. The very first time we went to Downham we met Lady Clitheroe in the village and since then have been anxious to get better acquainted. We stumbled onto a contact -- a member of the church who knows their son. He arranged for a meeting between us and so last week, we bought a bouquet of flowers and showed up at their door. (of course they knew we were coming!) We were ushered into their library that looked just like something out of the movies, offered us a glass of elderberry juice and had a most delightful (the English would say "brilliant") visit. They are both in their late 80's. They have been to SLC and told us all the details of their visit. They also have a scrapebook that contains pix of of SLC in about 1886 that were taken by his grandfather who made an around the world tour and for some reason included SLC. They seem to believe that they have no Mormon ancestors, but it would seem reasonable that they did -- thus the trip to SLC.
The back of the house is almost prettier than the front because it is covered with vines.

This is the view out their library window and yes, those are sheep!

...and this is Pendle Hill ..... oh yes.....with the man in black being President Walker. They own the property all the way to the top of this small mountain.

The entire grounds are covered with magnificent trees -- few flowers but beautiful and unusual trees.