Belton House in Grantham

We started the day with a free morning. All of the students decided to sleep in and relax this morning. Everyone seemed to need the sleep and they were all grateful for the morning off.

I took the bluebell walk and the woodlands walk. Both were wonderful. I saw lots of birds and amazing flowers.






























After lunch we took the mini coach up to Belton House, situated just north of Grantham. Built for Sir John Brownlow between 1685-1689, Belton House is often cited as the quintessential country house estate. Designed to impress, this classically proportional mansion sits in elegant formal gardens and looks out over 1300 acres of historic deer parks.
We started with a discussion by Melissa Maynard, National Trust tourism specialist. She provided an overview of how the trust operates and it's main mission. It was founded in 1895 for the purpose of preserving national heritage and open spaces. To date, over 500 historic sites and open spaces have been preserved. Melissa was a treasure trove of information and even provided some internal marketing research associated with understanding the typical visitor to Belton House.
Here is the class sitting on the lawn in front of Belton House during the discussion of the National Trust organization with Melissa Maynard.

The symmetrical house is used on roadway signs to denote a historical house. Here are the four students from Western.

After the tour of Belton House and gardens, a few students got dropped of at Asda in Grantham. Asda is the British version of Walmart. It is owned by the same company. The students described it as a huge Walmart with two floors and a confusing layout.
After dinner at Harlaxton, we had a wine and cheese reception at Harlaxton that included 7 local business community members. They ranged from a national bank manager to the local Rotary club members to an adviser to Harlaxton. The format was similar to speed dating with one or two business members and two or three students sitting at a small table talking for 15 minutes and then the students switched tables. The students really enjoyed the opportunity to discuss business differences between the US and UK. In addition, it was great to be in small groups and let the conversation flow naturally. I can understand why Marian University calls this their signature event of the class.
Here is a picture of the four Western students all nicely dressed.

And here is the entire group of students.

Overall, the students really enjoyed themselves. Afterwards, most headed into Grantham to enjoy the pub scene.