THROUGH MY LENS - Mount Stewart Volunteers visit to Bangor Castle (Part 1)

The Mayor of Ards and North Down Councillor Richard Smart invited volunteers to a reception at Bangor Castle to thank them for all the work they do for Mount Stewart House and  Gardens and East Down area.  422 volunteer names were put in to a hat and 40 were picked out at random to attend this function and I was fortunate to be one of them. In this first photograph on the left side of the photo is Marje Grant, a house guide and Helen Laird who works in the gift shop.

This is a photograph of all of us taken by the Spectator Newspaper before we were given a guided tour of the castle.  BAngor Castle had belonged to the Ward family who sold it to the council in 1941. Only some of the ground floor room are as it would have been and all of the rooms upstairs are now offices.

 Above is the room where the Major had the reception for us with drinks and canapes after which he gave a very eloquent speech, followed John Kerr,our General Manager who thanked the Mayor for his kindness in acknowledging the work of Mount Stewart volunteers and then Aileen McEwen who is the  Volunteering, Learning and Community Involvement Officer, thanked all the volunteers for all the hard work they had done over many years. Lady Rose who stil ljves with her hisband at Mount stewart also gave a speech,

This room in the Ward’s day was a music room however when the then Bangor Borough Council bought the Bangor Castle in 1941, they used it for their Council meetings and still do today although one can also get married in this room and that is how it is set up in this shot.

This is beautiful dining room.

This room is used for some meetings nowadays.

On Wednesday I will show you the beautiful ceilings in detail etc

I am linking with THROUGH MY LENS.

Many thanks for your visit and also your comments.