Travels with "Peedie Charlie and 2017 Adventure

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!

Redditch - Stock Green - Middle Road, 2 July 2017

Kiwi Nissan

Marg really wanted to go here!!

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.

Bit warm that day@Saltaire

"Salt's" Mill @ Saltaire

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.

Ashbourne Village and YHA Peak District

Rugeley Lower Lodge Farm

Lower Lodge Farm, Rugeley

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.

16.Anne, Marg

The old and the new ....and us!!

Anne and Marg

14.Bull Market!!

Beautiful Anglo-Saxon sword handle reproduction. Birmingham Art Gallery

Don't buy Whisky in Brmnghm...What the ******

Back of Baddesley Clinton House

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.

FirstAirBnB Bury St Edmunds

Arrgghhh 'the good old days'!!

A small part of the ancient and truly massive St Edmund's Abbey, a real surprise to see the size of it!

Another one of UK's smallest pubs

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.

Kersey Pub 1379

Aldeburgh beach sculpture....all pebbles, what sand??

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.

Ely Cthdrl, the right tower Does lean!

Ely,Towards the high altar

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.