Get closer to Nostell in new competition

And each week the Express will include a feature on one of Nostell’s nine “worlds”.

The National Trust property is calling on children, young people and adults to come up with wonderful works representing one of the Nine Worlds of Nostell, for local people to enjoy along with visitors from all over the world.

Shortlisted pieces will appear in a special exhibition in the courtyard, with winning works set to feature on new posters and other marketing materials for all to see and love for years to come.

Launched in association with the Express, Nostell’s team would love people to submit either a drawing, painting, poem or photo that best represents their favourite things about one of Nostell’s Nine Worlds:

Treasure House, Courtyard (including tearoom, book shop, shop and stables, Rose Garden (including the fountain and orangery), Kitchen Garden and Orchard, Menagerie Garden (including the Gothic Archway and Menagerie House), Pleasure Grounds and Lawns, Woodlands and Trails (including the woodland play area and cycling trails), Lakes and Waterways (including Boathouse, Druid’s and Swiss Bridge), Meadows and Vistas (Including the Obelisk Lodge).

Please visit Nostell’s website for full details of how to enter, including terms and conditions, before the closing date of 9pm on September 9, and look out for special features on each of the nine worlds in the coming weeks, starting with Meadows and Vistas.

Nostell ranger Richard Grayson said: “At this time of year the team are really busy carrying out our annual wildflower and butterfly surveys, along with surveying the watercourses and ponds to check on the health of the habitats we look after.

“We’re also assessing the new areas we’re allowing to grow rather than cut, like the orchard and land to the left of the treasure house vista, which means we’ll be able to create pockets of small wildflower meadows around the estate over the next few years.”

Wander among the wildflowers of Nostell’s beautiful meadows and watch butterflies meander on the breeze between petal, bud and leaf in a rhapsody of colour better than any artist’s pallet.

The meadows burst into life as the days grow warmer; an abundance of grasses gently swaying among flowers including trefoil, yellow rattle and ox eye daisies. Look out for the butterflies, dragonflies and moths that record in Nostell’s annual survey around August.

With picture-perfect views of the historic treasure house, rolling hills and majestic woodland, the vista is a favourite place for generations of families, many of whom see a seasonal visit as tradition.

Picnic blankets pepper the grassland among the daisies and buttercups as visitors enjoy time and games together, the house providing a magnificent backdrop to family fun.

You can find many unwinding with a great read discovered in the second-hand bookshop, a drink and one of our famous tearoom scones by their side in a little piece of Nostell Heaven.

Sheep Wash field stands on the site of an original mill and is nestled close to the Far Vista, home to quartet of small wooded areas named Chestnut Wood, Peggy Wood, Fox Covert and Longley Wood.

Reseeded in 2014, this area of the parkland is under development as it is returned from arable to meadow land.

A haven for wildlife, the Obelisk Park is a wildflower meadow slowly returning to a blueprint created in Victorian times.

Along with Nostell’s other outdoor worlds, the vistas and meadows are set to play host to simple pleasures and family play from tomorrow with the National Trust property’s launch of its ‘Get Set,Go!’ summer programme.