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A Rampart surprise

A Rampart surprise

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Some time ago (March 2012) I did a little walk which involved passing an ancient earthwork called the Rampart (See this post).

I did the same walk this morning and, to my great surprise, I found the Rampart ditch was full of water. Admittedly the water couldn't be seen because it was covered in Duckweed but it was there all the same.

It is very dry here at the moment so I suppose that the water is left over from all the rain we had last winter.

For those that don't know Duckweed is a small, floating, aquatic plant that has a small root hanging in the water below and 2 or 3 leaves and it propagates very quickly hence the total cover.

It was a nice walk with no other surprises. smilies

 

More of the same but more of the difference.

More of the same but more of the difference.

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A week ago I said we planned to return to Hampstead one day; well this is one day! Same place – different bits.

It all started so well. Today (Tuesday) was forecast to be this week's sunny day and, surprisingly, that is how it turned out; right to the very end. We went to Hampstead Station (Northern Line) via the tube and emerged into the sunlight.

We turned south along Heath Street (You can go north along Heath Street as well) and then right into Church Walk. A very pleasant street with lots of Georgian Houses. It turned out that this part of Hampstead was mainly Georgian so not very old at around 200 – 300 years.


And it wasn't called Church Walk for nothing you know.

It was a Georgian church and we didn't go inside as it was about to be invaded by a large party of what appeared to be visitors on a tour of Hampstead. We didn't see them again.

We turned right further along into Holly Walk which runs alongside a separate piece of ground used as the churchyard and you should notice a couple of large memorials just behind the railings in the next picture.

That lane led us up to Mount Vernon where we noticed this house together with another rather nice little lane called Holly Berry Lane. The plaque on the wall says:

"The Watch House – In the 1830s the newly formed Hampstead Police Force set out on its patrol & nightly watch from this house"

It was an arresting sight and so was looking back down Church Walk from the top.

There are plenty of nice little corners in this part of Hampstead and it is hilly.


One of the things we had planned to do on our next visit to Hampstead was to see two National Trust properties – 2 Willow Road and Fenton House. We discovered before we left home that they are both closed Mondays and Tuesdays and, of course, this weeks sunny day was Tuesday so we didn't even go near 2 Willow Road but Fenton House was in this area so we caught a glimpse of it behind its rather fancy gates. Next time perhaps?

We saw the Holly Bush Inn which is Georgian and a mere 200 years old. It did, however, have a menu posted outside and the various dishes did sound nice but it was too early for lunch so we passed by.

We were on top of a hill here and we wanted to head for Flask Walk and Well Walk which were on the other side of Hampstead High Street so we needed to head down the hill. From High Street we turned into Back Lane

which led us into Flask Walk. Flask Walk displays two distinct aspects. The top alleyway part with its shops and the lower part with its leafy residential aspect.


Why 'Flask' Walk? It recalls the centuries-old practice of Londoners climbing up to the two villages, Hampstead and Highgate, to fill leather flasks with pure spring water rather than risk the cholera-riddled infected waters of London.

On the way down Flask Walk we came across this building. Since many of the worker's homes in Victorian Hampstead had no running water, this public building provided both drinking water and facilities for bathing.

I don't need to tell you the date because it's on the building.

On our route we were going past Burgh House and Hampstead Museum and we thought we'd have a look round but, no, closed Mondays and Tuesdays. They seem to have a thing in Hampstead about closing on Mondays and Tuesdays but we did at least see the outside. It is, like a lot of Hampstead, Georgian.

We joined Well Walk and went past one of the original Chalybeate wells originally promoted for the medicinal value of the chalybeate waters (water impregnated with iron). Keats, the poet, and Constable, the painter, both lived in this area for a time.

We eventually joined East Heath Road on the edge of the 791 acres of Hampstead Heath. We were headed for one of the places we missed last time because we became lost on the heath and eventually ran out of time. So will we get lost this time? Of course not. *cough*

We started off along a well marked path in a wooded part of the heath.

We were looking for an obvious junction which we found and where we turned left arriving, eventually, at Viaduct Pond. See, I told you we wouldn't get lost.

The viaduct carries another path across the pond. We made our way up the side of the pond onto that very path then took a smaller path through the woods ahead and finally emerged onto a larger path. We knew where we were now so turned left and headed for our next destination. Just to be safe we asked some people coming from the opposite direction who told us that we were indeed going the wqrong way. Whoops! Lost again. If you do go to Hampstead Heath no matter how many maps you take you will get lost. It is a nice place to get lost though.

They did gives us some directions which we managed to follow and finally arrived on the path we wanted.

That's Amanda on the path and just ahead of her is a right turn which we need to take. This is what we were looking for.


It is Kenwood House run by English Heritage and, best of all, entry is free. They have a place for refreshments called the Brewhouse Cafe which is where we now repaired to have lunch. The food turned out to be very good. I had poached salmon with roast new potatoes and cous cous and Amanda had free-range pork sausages with apricot chutney and roast new potatoes. Can't you just picture those little sausages gambolling around in a big field? Lovely! The main courses were just £9.50 each. Good value.

There is also a very nice outdoor area where you can choose to eat your meal or refreshments if you so choose.

After lunch we went into the house which, you may remember, is free.

The original house dates from the early 17th century and the orangery was added in about 1700. In 1754 it was bought by William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield who commissioned Robert Adam to remodel it from 1764-1779. Adam added the library (one of his most famous interiors) to balance the orangery, and added the Ionic portico at the entrance. In 1793-6 George Saunders added two wings on the north side, and the offices and kitchen buildings and brewery (now the restaurant) to the side.

The house does not contain much furniture but it does have an extraordinary collection of paintings including a self-portrait by Rembrandt and paintings by Vermeer, Gainsborough and Landseer to name but a few.


The first picture above is the Library, added by Robert Adam, and the second picture is the Upper Hall with Amanda sitting at the table waiting for dinner. I didn't have the heart to tell her it probably wouldn't arrive.

Out in the grounds is this rather grand bridge.

Except it isn't anything of the sort. It's a fake. Just a wooden facade painted to look like a real bridge. The back looks quite different.

It was created around 200 years ago. Don't believe everything you see.

That was our Hampstead trip for the day but we had a little more time so we went, via the tube, to Lancaster Gate and into Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens. Just inside the gate is the Italian Gardens.

I was looking forward to photgraphing the fountains – but – no fountains. Sorry fountains are closed on Monday and Tuesday. I don't actually know if that is true but they definitely weren't running. Not one little drop. I don't know why but it was disappointing.

However there was something unusual.

No not the non-fountain but what's behind it. Oh! You can't see it? I'll move round a bit then.

Can you see the Heron perched on the edge of the bowl now? This one is obviously hoping for a fish dinner and, because it's so used to all the visitors, it hasn't taken fright as it would do normally and flown away.

So that was the end of our day – or was it?

We caught the Central Line to Liverpool Street Station for our train home except that there wasn't one. No trains running on the main line to Norwich. There were hundreds of people standing around on the main concourse all looking at the departures board. I've never seen so many 'Cancelled' and 'Delayed' indicators. Who do they think they are – an airport?

We had planned to get a train somewhere between 6:00 and 6:30. So much for planning.

We eventually learned that a train had damaged the overhead power lines which supply electricity to the trains motors and that this was just north of Chelmsford (one of the places our train goes through). This left just one track operating for trains going both ways so all trains were having to take turns to share this section.

Then just before 7:30 there was an announcement that a train was leaving for our neck of the woods but that induced a torrent of people and by the time we got to the train we would have needed a shoe horn to get in. We didn't bother.

Then, shortly after, another announcement said that a train going to Harwich International (north of our station) which wasn't going to stop at our station was having two additional stops which did include our station. We got to the train to find that there was room but only if we were prepared to stand. We had no idea how long we'd have to wait if we didn't get this one so we decided to take a chance.

It did actually leave on time, about 7:40, and we crawled for 30 minutes to the next stop. When we started again we picked up speed and we going quite well for some time until we stopped and waited – and waited – and waited. We must have waited there for about an hour then started a stop-start journey through various stations until we finally arrived at ours. After we'd been standing for 1 and a half hours two younger people offered us their seats and we collapsed into them before they changed their minds.

That journey took a total of 2 hours 45 minutes instead of the normal 55 minutes.

We were very glad to arrive home especially as it was 10:30. What an end to an otherwise nice day!

Time for a Change, some Oxo and a secret!

Time for a Change, some Oxo and a secret!

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The change in question is New Change and if you want to be precise – 1 New Change. For those of you that don't know, New Change is a short street on the eastern edge of St. Paul's Churchyard in London and there is a large shopping centre there that takes up the whole street. As it is the only building in the street it's number must be 1 mustn't it?

A sunny day saw us arrive at Liverpool Street Station from where we walked the short distance to Wormwood Street to catch the number 100 bus. That was a surprise because it turned out to be a single deck bus which is unusual in London. We alighted near St. Paul's Underground Station and walked the short distance to 1 New Change.

We have been here once before (A Later Date), late in the day, when the weather wasn't so good and the sun was in the wrong place. This time the weather was good and the sun was in the right place.

A lot of people don't realise that 1 New Change has a roof terrace which is freely available to the public. There is a restaurant up there too but you aren't obliged to use it. There are lifts up to the terrace and they are outside the building and the walls are made of glass. Why would the lift walls be made of glass? Because you get a nice view of St. Paul's Cathedral on the way up and down together with some interesting reflections.


The roof terrace is quite large and you get a good view of the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral and the London Eye is just visible on the left-hand edge.

You can even see visitors on the Golden Gallery at the top of the dome.

Looking in the opposite direction the Shard is rather obvious.

It was now time to move on so we went down in the lift and back to the bus stop where we caught the 100 bus once again to continue our journey across Blackfriars Bridge to the south side of the River Thames. This is where we were going.


The Oxo Tower is another shopping centre on the edge of the Thames and it has a publicly accessible viewing gallery looking out over the river on the sixth floor. This is the view east towards St. Paul's.

This is the view west up river showing the restaurant terrace on the left over looking the river.

This interesting view shows the river apparently choc-a-bloc with boats and the bridge choc-a-bloc with buses. I've never seen so many London buses in one place before.

We left the viewing platform and went back down to earth. Just behind the Oxo Tower is a nice little park.


Back on the 100 bus and we're off to Barbican for lunch. Reasonably good food for a very reasonable price – a main course for £9.50. After lunch we walked to Finsbury Square to catch the number 271 bus north. At Archway we changed onto the 210 bus for the last leg of our journey to visit somewhere secret.

As it's secret I'm not going to tell you anything about it except to say that it's on Hampstead Heath near Inverforth Close and it's known as London's Hidden Garden. It is actually called Hill Garden or the Hampstead Pergola but it's called the Hidden Garden because so few people seem to know about it even though it's free. There were only relatively few visitors there when we were there.

There is a lovely ornamental pond.


Then there is the Pergola.

We thought 'goodness that's a long pergola' as we could just see the cupola at the very end. We wandered along slowly until we reached the little building.

Amanda reached it just before I did and that is her silouette in the doorway. I can remember, as I was climbing the steps, that I thought that the pergola was very long indeed until I reached that doorway. Then I realised that there was more – lots more.

The house beyond the pergola is Inverforth House once a single private residence it is now converted to apartments. The original house was built in 1807 but was rebuilt in 1905 which  greatly altered the original structure.

The pergola went on ahead to a junction where it branched both left and right. We looked back to the cupola.

The branch to our left was a cul-de-sac but the branch to our right went on, and on.

What an extraordinary place this is. We left, finally, back past the ornamental pond. This garden is one that you really should not miss especially as there is no entry charge.

Oh, I forgot. It's a secret and I haven't told you anything about it so you won't be able to go after all. What a pity! You don't know what you're missing.

We headed off across Hampstead Heath with a printed copy of a nice map available on the Hampstead Heath web site showing the various paths which criss-cross over the heath. Unfortunately the paths on the ground don't always match the paths on the map and you will get lost especially in the wooded parts which are extensive and plentiful. Now that's an order. We got lost so I don't see why you shouldn't.


We did, eventually, find our way to the Highgate Ponds of which this is Highgate Men's Pond.

Now that we actually knew where we were we were able to successfully navigate to the top of Parliament Hill for the view. We could see the top of the Gherkin, the dome of St. Paul's and the Shard.


It was getting late and we had yet to find our way back to Liverpool Street Station and thence to home so we called it a day. One thing we've learned is that there is a lot more to see here so we plan to return some day.

 

The Good, the Bad and the Ugley

The Good, the Bad and the Ugley

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Yesterday we were thinking of going on a day trip but in the end we decided not to. Why did we not go? Because we had worn ourselves out the day before on another day trip.

We had decided to go shopping. We wanted a mower lift, a coiled hose that stretches to 100 feet and a drill bit sharpener plus some other items. Those every day items that everyone needs. smilies

These were to be purchased from a shop in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire. It was only 33 miles from us so it didn't take long to get there and we duly purchased our items and stuffed them in the car.

We walked off into Bishop's Stortford to have a look around. As we were walking away from the shop we noticed the unusual roof.

Shops don't normally have what appear to be strange tapering chimney pots. The reason for those is that the building used to be used for malting. Malting is a process that converts the starch in cereal grain, usually barley, to alternative forms of sugar used in brewing. The conical chimneys of these distinctive buildings emitted a rich aroma of roasted malt, a smell not unlike that of roasting coffee, that permeated the air for miles around.

Those days have long gone but the buildings remain and this one has now been converted to a shop.

We were now in Bridge Street with the 16th century Black Lion Inn just ahead and to our left. This looked to be a fine timber-framed building. There were other nice old buildings in this street.


After walking up Bridge Street we found ourselves in the Market Square with the Corn Exchange on the right and the church tower and steeple showing above the buildings in the distance.


 We wanted to see more of the church so headed in that direction. The continuation of Bridge Street westward is High Street and we spotted a very nice timber-framed building.

This local tailors was one of the oldest businesses in the world until 2013 when it closed. Part of the building dates from about 1360, with modern additions around 1545.

A little way up from here, near to where High Street changes to Windhill, we found the church. A rather large, impressive building in a rather small churchyard making photography difficult. It is unusually long at 170 feet with a spire 180 feet high.

Although there was probably a Saxon, and later, a Norman church on the site, the only surviving fragment of those times is the font. The church seems to have been completely rebuilt in the early fifteenth century and it was altered and restored in both the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.

Immediately opposite the church is the Boars Head Inn dating from around 1420 (Tudor).

Samuel Pepys frequented this inn and is recorded as having dined here on 26 May 1668.

Just above this point High Street changes to Windhill a wide and attractive street tree-lined on one side.

You can see evidence of the malting industry again in the form of that tapering chimney and the fact that the house is called 'Oast House'.

So, back down Windhill then High Street to this junction where we turned left into Basbow Lane.

We had spotted some colour-washed houses at the far end when we were on our way up the hill and decided to investigate on the way back. This is what we found.

A nice group of old, pretty houses. At the end of the lane there were some steps down to Hadham Road and an interesting building at the bottom of the steps. The building is, apparently, timber-framed covered in plaster and dates from the 17th century with alterations in the 18th and 19th centuries.

We went back down Bridge Street and crossed the road into Castle Gardens where we saw all that's left of Waytemore Castle – the mound on which it was built.

The River Stort runs through the park and the southern part is navigable.

We followed the riverside path for a while and saw yet more evidence of malting in the form of those tapered chimneys.

We had had enough walking by now so headed back to the car having seen most of the interesting parts of Bishop's Stortford and it wasn't until we were headed out of town that we realised we had missed a bit. A group of old buildings on the junction of Dunmow Road and Stansted Road. Oh well, next time perhaps. That was the 'good'.

We headed north into Essex, through Stansted Mountfitchet, and this is when our situation turned Ugley. In fact it was precisely at this point.

Ugley is a very small village just a few miles south of Widdington. It has a lovely little church which unfortunately was locked.

The road to the church was narrow and they don't come much narrower than this. No hope of seeing out to the sides either.

There was a group of attractive thatched cottages and a few modern houses round about and that was 'Ugley'.

We decided to travel the few miles to Widdington. Remember Widdington? We visited that village in July 2010 and wrote a blog report. We saw a medieval barn there but were unable to see inside because it wasn't open but today it was open.

Now is that impressive or is that impressive?

We had come to the end of our day out and so headed home. Most of the journey back is on the A120, a fast dual carrigeway that is rarely busy, but suddenly we found ourselves being diverted off the road near Braintree with no signs to offer an explanation. We had to make our way through Braintree town centre and eventually to home. That was the 'bad'.

The other day trip I mentioned at the top of this post will happen another time. Wait and see. smilies

 

 

Cold Turkey

Cold Turkey

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I am not your average Englishman. I don't drink tea and have drunk coffee for most of my life and can remember drinking the coffee substitute Chickory Essence during world war II before I reached my teens.

I keep two sorts of coffee – caffeinated and decaffeinated. Caffeinated for the first half of the day and decaffeinated for the latter part. If I drink caffeinated coffee in the afternoon or later then I often wake during the night and find it difficult to get back to sleep. Decaffeinated coffee in the afternoon cures that problem.

You may remember that Amanda and I both caught a rather nasty viral infection about 5 weeks ago and although most of the symptons had gone I still felt way under par from time to time; very little energy and often very tired. I ascribed this to 'post viral syndrome'. smilies

Then one morning recently as I was preparing some caffeinated coffee I noticed the word 'decaf' on the jar label as there was also on the other jar. Sometime in the recent past I had obviously managed to substitute decaffeinated coffee for the caffeinated coffee and was having decaffeinated coffee all day. smilies

So I went back on to caffeinated coffee in the morning and the next day most of my symptoms had gone away and I felt much better. I had, of course, been suffering withdrawal symptoms after not having caffeine. I am a drug addict. smilies

I wouldn't have believed the difference had I not experienced it myself. smilies

 

It’s Friday – so it must be Paddington to St. Pancras

It’s Friday – so it must be Paddington to St. Pancras

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Just over 4 weeks ago Amanda and I were planning a day trip to London as the weather forecast was good. However one evening about 5 days before that planned trip Amanda started to feel nauseous and then spent most of the night vomiting into a bucket by the bed followed by a bad cough the next day.

Nice! smilies

A day or so later we realised that Amanda wasn't going to be well enough for the day trip and discussed the idea of me going on my own.

However (yes, another 'however') a few days later I suddenly developed a bad cough too but without the vomiting. It was now patently obvious that neither of us would be well enough for the trip so it was postponed until another time. smilies

We both spent the next four weeks doing very little except sitting around feeling unwell which is why there has been nothing posted on the Blog. I still have a cough but am slowly beginning to feel better so I planned to meet Marie who had been staying on the Isle of Wight and was spending her last day in London before flying home the next day. I say 'I was' because Amanda still wasn't feeling well enough to tackle the trip to London. smilies

Marie and I were going to walk, along the Regents Canal, from Paddington Basin next to Paddington Station to St. Pancras Station.

I did manage to get myself out of bed at 6:15 AM and was on the train 3 hours later heading for Liverpool Street Station. Thirty minutes after arriving at Liverpool Street Station I was at Paddington and walked to Sussex Gardens, in the rain I might add, where Marie's hotel was.

Luckily the rain didn't last very long and we set off for Paddington Basin along Sussex Gardens and turned left into Sale Place. At the end of that was the entrance to Paddington Basin. We went in only to find that part of it had been drained for building works but a short walk along the basin soon left the building works behind and we were beside the water.

Out of the far end of Paddington Basin onto the canal and it's only a short walk to Little Venice. Having been here before on a sunny day I must say that it looks far more attractive in the sun than it did today under cloud.

If you want to see pictures of Little Venice then you can see that Blog post here or the web site pictures here.

We made our way through Little Venice onto the arm of the Regents Canal which took us, believe it or not, through Regents Park to Camden Lock and the markets with another rain shower on the way. In our blog post about our previous trip I wondered whether the market was alway seething or whether it was because it was a Saturday. This time it was a Friday and it was still seething.

One useful fact we discovered this time is that there are public toilets in the Market Hall building.

We had lunch here leaning on a rail overlooking the little canal basin in the market. Our choice was from a stall selling Caribbean food but the range of food here from different countries is nothing short of astonishing. We wandered past Camden Lock and down the canal path which went past the eastern arm of the market with yet more food stalls.

We were now on the home stretch from Camden to St. Pancras and as you can see the weather was slowly improving.

Marie was fascinated by the canal locks and stopped to take a photograph of this one.

Although this part of the canal wasn't especially picturesque it was interesting, just the same, with many different features along the way.

That path on the left is the one we are following and this photograph was taken from that path which should give you an idea of how it changed direction.

The final lock that we passed was St. Pancras Lock shown here with a narrowboat emerging.

Shortly after this we left the canal where York Way goes over it and found our way to Battlesbridge Basin.

This where you will find the London Canal Museum. That's the building between the two bow-ended buildings in the left half of the picture. It has a blue board with lettering in white.

From here we walked along York Way to Kings Cross with St. Pancras next to it. We were both pretty tired now, me especially, and Marie wanted to go to Seven Dials to do some shopping so we parted company in the Undergound at St. Pancras until our next meeting.

I need more exercise. smilies

Today I met a Saxon earl.

Today I met a Saxon earl.

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It was a lovely sunny morning today, we don't have many of those at the moment, so I thought I'd buy some socks, as you do, which means a journey to Maldon.

Whilst I was there I decided to go and see my old friend Byrhtnoth – a Saxon earl who lives in the middle of the River Blackwater some distance from the town centre. It was, however, a very pleasant walk through Promenade Park although the air temperature was cool enough to make ones fingers cold when walking along but there was significant heat in the sun. I have to say, though, he didn't appear to be in a good mood as all he did was wave his sword at me.

I know how he feels.

Walking back through Promenade Park presented a nice view of the quayside in Maldon.

Instead of continuing through Promenade Park I elected to go along the quayside where a number of the old sailing barges are moored and this is Thistle and Hydrogen with one of Hydrogen's sails being given an airing.

Then it was back to more mundane things i.e. sock buying and thence back home.