Riddlesden Hall

Another beautiful sunny day.  We drove to Keighley to visit the National Trust property East Riddlesden Hall.  A 17^th century cloth merchants home of James Murgatroyd.  The house though was built long before then.  It dates back to the 16^th century but has been extended many times since then.  In the time of William Morris it was fashionable to have green wallpaper.  To colour the paper green they used arsenic.  It wasn’t long before people especially children began dying from arsenic poisoning.  It was discovered in the 19^th century that they were dying from arsenic fumes from damp wallpaper.  It soon became unfashionable to have green wallpaper.  There are extensive gardens, a river and a large pond and a large number of peacocks roam the estate.