5 July Blog
We are staying in an Air BnB
in Worcester as the camper-van has been delayed yet again. The good news is that we
have a date when it will be ready, this coming Friday. Yeah!!! In the meantime we
are enjoying exploring this part of the country, visiting friends and family
and staying in a lovely converted barn in a tiny village. The village names
around here just great and today we found the village of North Piddle. South,
East, West Piddle still to be found. North Piddle was just a collection of a
few houses with no public toilet!
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| Redditch - Stock Green - Middle Road, 2 July 2017 |
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| Kiwi Nissan |
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| Marg really wanted to go here!! |
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| North Piddle....really |
When the last blog finished we
were leaving Harrogate to travel South. The day we left got up to 34 degrees so
it was great to have the air con in the car. We visited a fascinating village
called Saltaire. In the early 1800s Titas Salt wanted to build quality houses
and amenities for the workers in his mill.
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| Bit warm that day@Saltaire |
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| "Salt's" Mill @ Saltaire |
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| The magnificent Saltaire Theatre |
The village is now a suburb of
Bradford. The workers’ houses even had stained glass windows and the theatre
was beautifully decorated. The mill is now a collection of galleries, shops and
cafes with many of the galleries displaying unique works by David Hockney.
We travelled to a YHA near
Ashbourne in Derbyshire at Ilam Hall. This grand old house was going to be
demolished when it was bought in the 1930s and gifted to the YHA. A fascinating
place to stay with kitchens in the cellar and huge lounge rooms. Unfortunately
not built for the heat and we sweltered in our room with a window opening of
5cm…..health and safety. The grounds are right on the edge of the Peak District
National Park so we walked some of the tracks in the morning. It was great to
catch up with Joy, who belongs to Marg's family, in Ashbourne. We then went
hunting for the house that Marg's grandmother lived in as a child in Rudgeley
and despite only knowing the name of the house we found it.
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| Ashbourne Village and YHA Peak District |
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| Rugeley Lower Lodge Farm |
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Lower Lodge Farm, Rugeley
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Friends John and Anne in Birmingham made us most welcome. Apart from driving through the centre of Birmingham in the 1970s we had not visited before. The four of us headed out and explored the Bullring, new library for its view over the city, the art gallery, canals (we learnt that Birmingham has more canals than Venice) and the Jewellery Quarter. The art gallery had impressive Edwardian tea rooms and the best part was seeing the Staffordshire Hoard which was discovered by someone with a metal detector in 2009. An amazing collection of intricately carved gold jewellery and ornaments. All well presented setting the items in the context of Anglo Saxon life.We headed out to a National
Trust property at Baddersley Clinton. This is the one of the oldest houses we
have been in with some of the areas dating back to the 1300s. It has a moat
which originally was to keep the wild animals out. We were lucky enough to
visit at the same time as a school party so we listened in on talks and
demonstrations of medieval clothing and musical instruments. In the scullery we
learnt what a thwart is for, butchering a carcass. The gardens were great.
These National Trust properties have fully planted veggie gardens and of course
the old fashioned roses were at their best.
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| 16.Anne, Marg |
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| The old and the new ....and us!! |
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| Anne and Marg |
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| 14.Bull Market!! |
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| Beautiful Anglo-Saxon sword handle reproduction. Birmingham Art Gallery |
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| Don't buy Whisky in Brmnghm...What the ****** |
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| Back of Baddesley Clinton House |
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| A Thwart, butchering animals with a drainage hole for blood to make black pudding from. |
We met Ed's family for a
lovely lunch and an exchange of family news before travelling to Suffolk to
stay in an Air BnB near Bury St Edmonds.
Suffolk is a part of the U.K
that we hadn't been to and it was great to explore. Apparently it is the area of the UK that Tolkein based Hobbiton on.We had a lovely lodge (like
a NZ motel unit but with its own deck and fenced garden. Bury is a great wee
town with the another of the 'smallest pubs' in the UK, The Nutshell - I think you could just get
10 people in if they are all standing. Before Henry 8 dissolved the monasteries
the Abby at Bury was on a par with Compstella de Santiago in Spain for the number of
pilgrims who visited. The ruins of the Abby are huge and what fascinated us was
that centuries later houses were built using the walls of the ruin. Nearby there
is a church where Henry 8 sister Mary Tudor is buried. After being Queen of
France she married the Duke of Suffolk. There is also a beautiful cathedral
with extensive painted ceilings. Really interesting items in the cathedral's
treasury including some medieval sheet music.
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| FirstAirBnB Bury St Edmunds |
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| Arrgghhh 'the good old days'!! |
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| A small part of the ancient and truly massive St Edmund's Abbey, a real surprise to see the size of it! |
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| Another one of UK's smallest pubs |
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| Second AirBnB |
When we arrived at the lodge
we asked about viewing the All Black test the next morning. The owner explained
that we couldn't get it on our TV but he found a local rugby club which was
screening it. So we asked if they minded a couple of kiwis viewing the match
and were told that anyone passionate about rugby was welcome. So the next
morning we joined them trying to keep a low profile but anyone one who has
joined Colin to watch a game will realise that this was not possible!
On one of the days we headed
for the coast and the village of Aldeburgh which is famous for its fish and
chips. Lovely cod but chips over here are cooked in beef tallow and taste
strange to us. We started feeding the seagulls with some of the chips until we
saw the notice of the 2000 pound fine. We did a bit of the coastal walk then
headed for the villages of Kersey and Laverham the later boasts 300 listed
houses. It was really interesting to see so many houses from around 1300s. To
get to the villages we drove through the country-side that Constable painted.
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| Kersey Pub 1379 |
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| Aldeburgh beach sculpture....all pebbles, what sand?? |
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| Back to Doug's pub for a bit of a losing... people came up and shook my hand after it with big smiles!! |
We also visited Ely and the
interesting cathedral where we had a great guide who told us all the gruesome
stories behind the graves and artifacts. Wandered around the old town that is
in the middle of the Fens so there is water everywhere. As we had heard that
the camper-van was delayed another week we decided to return to Harrogate to
pick up our stuff and to swap the rental car for a cheaper deal. Great to have
the support of Doug and Isabel in all of this.
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Ely Cthdrl, the right tower Does lean!
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Ely,Towards the high altar
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We headed South again staying
the night with friends from Porirua College days. Len and Sandee for the past 5
years have been teaching in the UK for 6 months and returning to NZ for the
rest of the year. They are going home soon as the school year here ends in a
couple of weeks. They have been living in a the ancient village of Corby Glen
about half an hour North of Stamford. The night we stayed they were having a farewell
barbecue so we met many of their friends. Surprisingly for people who are not
church goers Sandee and Len have been involved in bell ringing and we went to
see this happening the next morning.
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Marg, Sandee and Len
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| "The church of Len and Sandee"!! @ Corby Glen |
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| Lutteral |
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| Lutteral Psalter reprdctn |
We found our converted barn OK
and have spent a lovely afternoon in Cheltenham with Richard and Anna, friends
from Ellesmere Collage days.
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| Col, Richard, Marg |
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| Col, Richard, Anna, Marg and much Brancott Savvi Blanc!! |
