New arrivals at a Nottinghamshire landmark are melting the hearts of visitors.
Newstead Abbey – best known as the ancestral home of Lord Byron – has been home to peacocks for hundreds of years.
And five new members of the family have arrived after peacock Indy hatched chicks.
Jonathan Brown, the abbey’s site co-ordinator, said: “They’ve appeared in the cloister garden – the Mary Garden – which is deep in the heart of the abbey which is a very protected area and a very sensible place to have your babies.
“Indy was donated to us by Beauvale Priory a couple of years ago and she’s chosen a real sort of secure place away from foxes and other animals that could potentially attack them.
“There are five baby peachicks approximately ten days old and they’ll stay here until they are old enough to fly out by themselves.”
It comes as a new exhibition explores Newstead’s connection to the beautiful birds.
Peacocks: The Pomp of Power, running into next year, is a display of artworks and objects from Nottingham City Council collections exploring the history of the birds in Britain and at the abbey.
The abbey, near Ravenshead, dates back to 1170 and is now a public museum and gardens.
