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Kew 2 – The route march!

Kew 2 – The route march!

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Monday 25th July was forecast to be a fine day. Just one fine day in a run of unsettled weather so we grasped it, so to speak, with both hands. We used our Senior Railcards to get a third off the fare to London, £15.80 each, and as that includes a Travelcard (Zones 1-6) we then get to go right across London to Kew at no extra cost. Bargain! We present our 2For1 voucher when we get to Kew Gardens and get in for £12 for the two of us. Can't be bad.

On this, our second, visit Amanda is going to give the Princess of Wales Conservatory and the nearby Rock Garden a thorough going over while I have decided to march all the way round the perimeter, with diversions of course. It's a lovely sunny day, pleasantly warm with temperatures in the low seventies.

But first we both visited the Palm House to go up on the high level walkway and this is how we got up there.

It seems that, after a while, the spiral staircase was going to go on for ever but we got there in the end. The walkway is quite narrow but feels very sturdy and there's comforting steel railings to stop one falling off.

Looking out through the glass gave us a nice view.

Then looking the other way gives us a different view.

You may notice that it is quite a long way up and it's HOT and humid up here. Phew!

This Palm is the tallest 'house plant' in the world. You may be able to see that its fronds are touching the roof and the tree can be seen only as far down as the level of the walkway so there's a lot more of it below. We eventually came back down to earth, luckily without a bump, and went to see the view from the Temple of Aeoleus that is indicated as a viewpoint on the map of Kew Gardens. It wasn't really worth it. Most of it is now obscured by trees.

We decided to go for an early lunch which would then gives us a long afternoon for our separate projects. So we went back to the Victoria Gate to the cafe there. After lunch we split up and I turned left (south) and started my route march. If you want to follow my progress you can do so on this map: http://www.kew.org/ucm/groups/public/documents/document/ppcont_008324.pdf If you right click on the link you should be able to open it in a new window so that you can refer to it whilst reading.

My first diversion was to the Temperate House and up yet more spiral stairs to the high level walkway here.

It is rather similar to the walkway in the Palm House but with different plants of course. There is a very good view of the trees from up here and there is a person on the ground in the next picture if you can spot them in the shadows.

There is an excellent aerial view of the big fish in the pond from up here and I'll bet that they didn't even suspect that they were being spied on satellite style.

Out of the Temperate House and back to the perimeter path and onward towards the Pagoda.

This pagoda is not a small structure and there appear to be ten fairly substantial storeys – quite impressive. Having reached the first corner, south-east, I turned west and a little way further on I came across the Japanese Gateway.

I remember on our last visit when we crossed the lake on the Sackler Crossing that we'd missed seeing the Lily Pond so this time I made another diversion to see it. I needn't have bothered! It may have been nice had the water been visible but the whole pond was covered in some sort of floating water weed. Oh well, back to the perimeter track and Queen Charlotte's Cottage. On the way I came across some of these:

Back to Queen Charlotte's Cottage. It's not that easy to find as it is well surrounded by trees but I managed it eventually. The date it was built doesn't seem to be known but the earliest mention of it is in the 1700s.

After this I reached the next corner, south-west, where I turned right (north) and had a glimpse of the River Thames. The river is still tidal at this point and the water level was low with mudbanks both sides so the overall view wasn't particularly picturesque.

On my way along the west side, towards the Brentford Gate, I saw this rather attractive display:

From Brentford Gate I cheated a bit. On our last visit we saw Kew Palace so I cut the corner off and headed straight for the Princess of Wales Conservatory as it was in that area I had arranged to meet Amanda.

A quick call on my mobile 'phone and we met up outside the conservatory and Amanda took me to see the Secluded Garden she had already visited.

Then we went in to the Duke's Garden which was very colourful. By this time I could hear my legs muttering to themselves so I though it was time to let the poor old things rest. We made our way back to Victoria Gate where we had a cup of tea then we went home.

Two long visits and we still haven't seen everything that there is to see.

England’s smallest and England’s oldest – Monday

England’s smallest and England’s oldest – Monday

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"Just back from a short two night trip to the East Midlands."

'Oh – so that would have been pretty boring then'

"I knew you'd say that but you are quite wrong"

'What's interesting about the East Midlands then?'

"You really want to know?"

'Yes'

"Very well, you can't say you didn't ask"

—

Monday 2nd May 2011

We left home on a beautifully sunny morning and headed north. Our first destination was Oakham, the county town of England's smallest county – Rutland.

After leaving the A1 we went westward towards Oakham which would take us past Rutland Water. Rutland Water is an artificial lake, covering around 2.7 square miles, which provides a reserve supply of water in the driest and most densely populated quarter of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest artificial lakes in Europe with a 25 mile track around it for walking or cycling.

We travelled along the A606 on the northern side of the lake and the interesting thing is that although the road is at level higher than the lake it is not possible, generally, to see the lake because it is surrounded by wooded countryside.

Around 2 hours after leaving home we parked near Oakham to have a quick walk up a nearby hill to see if we could get a view of the town and of part of Rutland Water.

This is the town:

and this is part of the western end of Rutland Water:

We then drove in to Oakham, parked the car (parking is free on Sundays and Bank Holidays and today is a bank holiday) and set off to look round the town. We were, at first, a bit disappointed because the town, generally, didn't look particularly attractive but then things started to get a little more interesting.

We walked up Church Street (We remembered seeing the spire soaring above the town in the distant view from the hill we climbed previously) and found All Saints Church quite easily (couldn't miss it really) at which point I spotted an interesting house in Northgate Street opposite.

It had a nameplate on the wall with "The Manor House" on it but I have been unable to find any more information about it so I don't know what age it is but it is a pretty thatched house. We walked back to the church and followed the path alongside.

This led us into the area around the Market Place where we saw the Buttercross. In the shadow and on the right of the central pillar you may be able to make out the old stocks showing a row of holes for miscreant's legs.

A little further on and we saw the old town pump with an old style red telephone box behind and the Market Place beyond.

Leading off the Market Place was this little cobbled lane with a rather impressive gateway at the end.

A closer view of the gate shows a building beyond.

That is what is rather grandly called Oakham Castle. What you see is the only remaining part of what was originally a fortified manor house rather than a real castle. This was originally the Great Hall of the manor house and dates from 1180-90 and is the earliest hall of any English 'castle' to survive in such a complete state. We were sorry that it wasn't open when we were there as we would have like to have seen the inside.

This shows the whole building and it's relation to the church.

We'd now seen most of Oakham's interesting features, it didn't take long, so we headed for our next destination and our first stop for the night. England's oldest next!

 

Living on the edge.

Living on the edge.

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Yesterday, Thursday, started with a lovely clear sky and was forecast to stay that way until at least late afternoon so we decided to go and have a look on the western edge of Essex. This is supposed to be a thatched rooves area and it certainly seemed to be.

We started off in Widdington because it had a 14th century barn. Unfortunately it was open only on Saturdays and Sundays so we were not able to look inside – another day perhaps.

Priors Hall Barn, 124 feet long x 30 feet wide x 33ft high, is one of the finest surviving medieval barns in eastern England, dendro dated to the mid-15th century, with a breathtaking aisled interior and crown post roof, the product of some 400 oaks and little altered.

The view across the countryside from the barn was really quite nice.

Widdington is an attractive village with a good number of ancient buildings which did give us some thatched rooves and just how cute is this?

It looks just like a little face peering over the hedge and its hair is the same colour as mine. Then there was the beautifully made village sign and yet more thatch.

St. Mary's Church is a small traditional Essex church dating back to the early twelfth century.

Leaving Widdington we headed for Arkesden which is even further west and only a few miles from the Hertfordshire border – this could be bandit country we're heading into.

This turned out to be a really picturesque village with quite a lot of thatch.

We particularly liked this timber-framed cottage with brick infill.

There were a number of other villages that we passed through which were also attractive and there are others about which we've heard nice things so perhaps we'll have to go up that way again.
 

A power station that isn’t and a wobble that isn’t.

A power station that isn’t and a wobble that isn’t.

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Wednesday was a delightfully sunny day and we had planned our next trip to London today so it was off to the station and on to the train again.

We changed, as we did last time, at Stratford on to the Docklands Light Railway headed for Tower Gateway. We were luckier this time and managed to get one of the front seats (there is no driver – remember?). This is how it looked through the front window.

I asked Amanda if she was steering and she said "No, I thought you were" so things got a little tricky but we didn't come off the rails. smilies

We had to change at Poplar which meant waiting seven minutes for our train so we took a few more pictures of the DLR. This is Poplar Station looking back in the direction from which we'd come.

And this is from Poplar Station looking in the direction of where we were headed. You do like looking at trains don't you?

We had planned to start roughly from where we'd left off last time so after getting to Tower Gateway Station we walked the short distance to St. Catherine's Dock going past the Tower of London on the way.

Just ignore the plastic covered scaffolding around the towers; 'they' always do that to me when 'they' know I'm going to take photographs.

We were soon back in St. Catherine's Dock for a leisurely walk round. There are some very large privately owned yachts here and lots of flats overlooking the water. Anyone tempted to buy here? You could then invite us up to stay together with a trip on your private yacht.

From here we crossed Tower Bridge to Shad Thames where we didn't have time for a long look round last time. We walked through to the far end and guess what we found?

These.

The outside boat is a replica of a 19th century Mississippi Paddleboat but I haven't been able to find out anything about the other boat. We didn't expect to see these within view of Tower Bridge.

There are lots of eateries around here and we went into one called 'Teapod' (no it's not a typing error) in Shad Thames on our way back towards Tower Bridge and had some lunch. They offer tea, coffee and various snacks including such things as soup and afternoon tea with scones, jam and clotted cream. Amanda had a sausage sandwich whilst I had some meatball soup, with bread, which was absolutely wonderful. It is only a small place with just a few tables but we would recommend it unhesitatingly for a light lunch.

We walked back to Tower Bridge and continued past on the Thames Path where we looked across to the Tower of London. This is the view that I would like to photograph but without the plastic covered scaffolding. They do it on purpose, you know, whenever I appear with a camera so I suppose it will have to wait for another time.

Then on past HMS Belfast now moored permanently in the Thames for visitors to look around.

After passing HMS Belfast we spotted the entrance to a place called Hay's Galleria. It turned out to be a converted wharf with an arched glass roof housing some shops and restaurants together with an interesting modern sculpture.

Our next stop was where we had to deviate slightly from the River Thames. The riverside path ends at London Bridge so we went inland for a very short way to the first turning which continued in the direction that we had previously been headed. This brought us to Southwark Cathedral.

I took far more pictures inside than I did outside. That's mainly because the cathedral is surrounded by buildings so the space available in the precincts is relatively small. Those interior pictures will appear on the web site in due course (whatever that means).

After leaving Southwark Cathedral we once again found our way to the continuation of the riverside path and it wasn't long before we had our first glimpse of the dome of St. Paul's cathedral.

The bridge directly ahead is a railway bridge connecting with Cannon Street Station; the two square towers are at the entrance. Soon after, we found the Golden Hind, a full-size replica of Sir Francis Drake's 16th century galleon which has sailed the world covering over 140,000 miles in the process.

A little further along the riverside path is the replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre complete with thatched roof.

A few hundred yards along there is the Millenium Bridge and the Tate Modern. When the Millenium Bridge was first built it wobbled when people walked along it which I think some found disconcerting. That has been corrected and there is now no wobble. Pity really – it might have been interesting.

Behind the Millenium Bridge is the Tate Modern art gallery in a giant building which used to be a power station and has now been converted to an art gallery – some gallery. We went in to have a look at the building rather than the exhibits and came out with two interesting pictures. The first picture is of the old turbine hall of the power station.

I'm not sure if the item on the left is a section of scaffolding or an exhibit.

The second picture I took from the restaurant which is on the top (seventh) floor.

You can see the Millenium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral across the river. We set off across the Millenium Bridge hoping for a little wobble, but – nothing. Then just before we reached the far side I took this picture of St. Paul's Cathedral.

After leaving St. Paul's we cheated and caught the tube to Holborn. Our legs were getting a little tired by this time. When we came out of the station we saw Staple Inn – a timber-framed building which survives from before the great fire of London.


Then, having threatened our legs with dire consequences, they walked us a relatively short distance to Lincoln's Inn Fields. A group of ancient buildings, housing various members of the legal profession, and enclosed gardens such as you see here. At this time of year and in the late afternoon sunlight they looked very pretty.

At this point our legs mutinied and refused to go anywhere but the nearest tube station. So we toddled off to Liverpool Street Station to get our train back home.

That was yesterday, as I write this, and my calf muscles still ache and so do my thighs and I suppose we'll be silly enough to it again sometime soon.

Red, White and Blue

Red, White and Blue

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No, not our national flag but our first day trip of 2010, yesterday.

Blue.

The sky. A few weeks ago we saw the last, I hope, of the exceptional cold weather and it warmed up a bit but brought with it grey skies and a generous helping of rain. Then suddenly this week we have clear skies which, of course, brings sunshine so we couldn't afford to waste it and went to Anglesey Abbey again but to see the winter garden this time.

We decided to cut across country in a, more or less, straight line because we wanted to go through Haverhill, in Suffolk, to deliver a rather old colour laptop computer to a computer museum there. The road to Haverhill meanders across the gently rolling landscape of Essex giving us views of a coloured patchwork of fields in varying shades of green and brown bathed in the bright morning sunshine. We had to take it a bit steady as this road is very winding and going too fast can cause Amanda to get travel sick.

Passing through villages such as Coggeshall, Earls Colne, Baythorne End, New England (bit of a detour?) and Sturmer we eventually crossed into Suffolk and arrived in Haverhill about an hour after leaving home. Having delivered said laptop we set off again through Great Wratting, turning North-West through Brinkley towards Lode, which is the little village next to Anglesey Abbey, and we arrived at Anglesey Abbey about an hour after leaving Haverhill.

We shouldn't have been surprised, but we were, to find that the very large car park and the overspill car park were almost full with few spaces left only 45 minutes after opening time. It's apparently extremly popular at this time of year.

Red.

Dogwood. From the entrance we headed for the Winter Garden. We had been here before, last year, at the beginning of July and, although quite pleasant, it wasn't the best time for the Winter Garden in particular. This time was different.

What spectacular colour there is along this path. This garden is cleverly laid out and as one progresses along the path so the character of the surroundings changes. The initial startling colour is provided by the different dogwoods either side of the path. Some bright red, some white, some a glowing orange and some yellow.

Later even the trees join in the colour spectacular.

We finally left the Winter Garden feeling a little dazed by the surfeit of colour.  smilies We were next headed for the Woodland Walk passing some nice winter views on the way such as this avenue guarded by what at first glance appears to be a couple of lions but which on closer inspection prove to have human heads

and this tree sheltering a beautiful patch of spring flowers much as a mother hen shelters her chicks.

White.

Snowdrops. We eventually started down the Woodland Walk, renowned for it's Snowdrops, and yes, there are rather a lot.

There were plenty of other visitors around and that person crouched to the left of the tree, trying to look like a Snowdrop, couldn't possibly be Amanda could it? Well, yes, of course it could. There were Snowdrops all along the Woodland Walk in varying numbers and it was quite a show.

Lunch.

By this time we thought that a spot of lunch wouldn't go amiss so we made our way back to the entrance and the restaurant. We often don't have lunch at National Trust properties' restaurants for two main reasons. Their prices always seem to be rather inflated and because, in spite of that, their restaurants always seem to be very popular. That popularity may stem from the fact that there is often nowhere else convenient to go but it does, at lunchtime, make them very, very busy. Looking into any of the restaurants at this time makes me think that if we do buy lunch is there actually going to be somewhere available to sit and eat it?

Anglesey Abbey at this time of year is extremely popular, with visitors wishing to see the Snowdrops, for about five weeks during the Snowdrop season. Consequently the restaurant was even busier than usual but we decided to have lunch anyway and joined the very long queue which actually extended out of the door of the restaurant into the entrance hall.

The staff behind the counter were working flat out and were serving people as fast as anyone could reasonably expect. However my first gripe is that the food at the counter is nowhere near as hot as it should be so that by the time one has collected one's meal then queued a little longer to get cups of tea or coffee and paid for it, collected some eating utensils, found a table and started to eat the food is only just warm. I don't like the feeling that the food has to be eaten quickly before it goes cold. We also had difficulty in finding cutlery that was actually clean. Overloading the dish-washer, perhaps, to keep up with demand?

The only vacant table we could find was covered in plates, cups and left-overs from the previous users which wasn't very pleasant and we were wondering what to do with all this stuff when a member of the restaurant staff did appear and cleared the things away. Whilst she was doing that someone else come up and asked her to do the same to another table. There are some large stands which are obviously meant for visitors to put their trays and crockery but there are no notices asking visitors to do this and some obviously do not. Really I think that the staff were a little thin on the ground but couldn't possibly work harder than they were doing but there should be more.

My second gripe was that the beef I had in my Beef Stew was the worst quality beef I've had in many years. More than half of the pieces of beef were so tough and rubbery that it was difficult to get a fork more than a little way in without pushing really hard. I did complain to the restaurant manager who, I have to say, didn't even try to argue but immediately offered to refund the cost of the meal which I accepted.

Overall lunch here was not a pleasant experience and I'm not sure I'd want to do it again under those conditions even if the food was good. Incidentally Amanda's main course was fine although she didn't have the same as me.

Lode.

After lunch we left Anglesey Abbey and went the very short distance to the village of Lode to see what it was like. It wasn't generally a particularly attractive village but it did have some very attractive spots.

Now there's a nice bit of thatch!

Once again it was time to return home. I wonder how soon our next trip will be? :cool:

Springs and Things.

Springs and Things.

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Recently a friend of ours who lives in Royston, Hertfordshire invited us over for the day and took us to the village of Ashwell which is six and a half miles west of Royston.

We parked by the roadside next to the Ashwell Springs -the “well” from which Ashwell gets its name.

The water rises from several holes in the natural chalk surrounding Ashwell village and the average flow is between 1,300,000 gallons a day to less than a million. It is at its highest level in March and April and lowest in September and October.

The water seen here is clear but very shallow and the brown colour is actually the gravel laying on the bottom. In this area we saw a number of places where water could be seen to welling up from beneath and these springs are one of the main sources of the River Cam which flows through Cambridge not far from here.

Ashwell is a picturesque little village with a 14th century medieval church which has a positively massive tower. Not only is the tower very tall but its sides are also extraordinarily broad.

Inside the tower at its base we saw some medieval graffiti which recounts the Black Death, a great storm in the late 14th century and a drawing of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London before the great fire. Some individual letters are not easy to decipher, being scored into the stone, and it’s all in Latin anyway.

There are plenty of ancient timber-framed buildings in the village of which the Rose and Crown is one.

This is where we had lunch, our friend having had previous experience of eating here, and it was exceptionally good and is to be thoroughly recommended if you are ever passing this way. I have to be honest and say that just writing about it makes my mouth water.

There are plenty of other ancient buildings including the Forresters Cottages shown below.

The central hall was built first in the 14th century, with two cross-wings (the jettied gables) added in the 15th century.  The left wing housed the pantry and buttery on the ground floor and sleeping accommodation on the first floor.  The right wing was a solar, having the best rooms for the head of the house.  To the right of it (at the far end of the photograph) is a 16th century extension.

This is another group of ancient timber-framed houses with the central colour-washed house showing some pargetting.

There is also thatch to be seen here – cottage? house? well yes but …

also a cob wall with a thatched top. Not all that common. The only other one we’ve seen was in Avebury in Wiltshire. There were also other thatched houses and cottages of which this is just one with that massive church tower showing in the distance.

We also walked from the village up to Arbury Banks, a Bronze Age Hill Fort, although there were almost no features to easily distinguish it from the surrounding countryside. It was, however, a very nice walk and worth it for the views from the top of the hill.

There’s that church tower again.

We had a very enjoyable and interesting day thanks to our friend.

Oxon-Hants-Wilts: Homeward Bound.

Oxon-Hants-Wilts: Homeward Bound.

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Day 4 – Wednesday 19th August 2009

Having stayed in Andover for three nights we thought that we should at least have a look round before we left. It’s not a place that would interest the average tourist but it does have some attractive corners and old buildings.

There is the Town Mills pub, for example, which used to be a mill and has the River Anton flowing underneath it.

You could be forgiven if you thought that the Angel Inn was Victorian but it is, in fact, the oldest inn in Andover dating from the 12th Century. In 1435 virtually the whole of Andover was destroyed by fire except for the church and priory which were both built from stone. The Angel Inn was damaged, although not destroyed, and was rebuilt in 1445. It does look, however, that the facade was rebuilt in Victorian times masking its origins.

This timber-framed house near the church looks old and is old.

Having had a quick look around the town we left. We didn’t intend going straight home and headed for one of the local villages – Upper Clatford. The river running past the village is the River Anton – the same one that runs through Andover.

This is a pretty little village with many thatched buildings including the local pub, The Crook and Shears, shown here.

We moved on to Stonehenge for our second visit in two years (we also went last year). Why another visit so soon? Well it was nearby and we get free parking and free entry so we might as well make the most of it.

It was very busy, of course, being August but we were here earlier in the day compared with last year and the car park wasn’t quite so full although there didn’t seem to be fewer people.

This was our last port of call on this trip so We’ll leave you with the few obligatory photographs of Stonehenge in dramatic lighting.