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This really was Nasty.

This really was Nasty.

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A strange thing happened this week – we had a weather forecast for 5 consecutive sunny days! Not sunny all day every day but to have 5 partly sunny days in a row this summer is a miracle. However, Wednesday was one of the days where the sun was forecast to shine all day, in certain places, so we decided to make use of it.

We set off on our journey to one of these certain places and our route took us very near a small hamlet that we just had to visit.

Nasty is a pretty little hamlet in Hertfordshire and our very short visit did convince us that Nasty is nice. We do have some very odd village names in England but I think that this one wins the prize. Our next destination is in the same county.

So onward to Hatfield, Hertfordshire, where Hatfield House was the primary purpose of our trip. There is a free car park and a number of those familiar brown road signs, which generally signify places of interest, pointing to Hatfield House so that, once you are in Hatfield, it should be easy to find.

Hatfield House is also within easy walking distance of the railway station so could be visited as a day trip from London with a train journey of as little as 20 minutes.

Hatfield House is one of the Treasure Houses of England, a loose association of 10 privately owned stately homes.

http://www.treasurehouses.co.uk

Entering the Hatfield House complex we first came across the Old Palace, dating from 1485. This, the Banqueting Hall, is all that remains of the original Royal Palace of Hatfield where Elizabeth I spent most of her childhood.

We found it to be rather strange because there was a large open door,which you can see in the base of the tower, but no signs of any sort to indicate that visitors are allowed access. There are some notices on the walls of the short passage inside but they are not visible from outside. At the end of the short passage is a barrier forming a small viewing area where one can look at the large and impressive hall.

On the far wall, at window height within the wooden beamed area, are two rectangular panels which we didn't notice at the time but discovered later. These are openings filled with clear plastic sheets which allow viewing from an upstairs room accessible only from the West Garden but that appears not to be signed or mentioned anywhere either.

This is in an area which also contains the restaurant, shops and toilets and which is freely accessible i.e. you don't need to buy a ticket to get in. It is almost as if they feel it should be open to the public but are trying to keep it a secret. Very odd!

Next we decided to visit the West Garden which also gives access to the Old Palace Garden (you need a ticket for this).

Notice that wooden stairway on the left? There is nothing to indicate that it provides access to an upstairs room or that visitors are allowed access at all but another visitor told us about it so we had a look and discovered the viewing panels mentioned earlier which enabled me to take this next picture.

You may be able to see, on the left, the barriers which provide a viewing area down below which we discovered first. Emerging back on to the stairs there is a nice overall view of the Old Palace Garden. Topiary anyone?

We were also beginning to discover that the plan in the visitor guide showed all the paths, even those to which visitors didn't have access and this made navigation a bit of a lottery. A number of times we planned a route using the visitor guide only to be thwarted part the way along and had to find an alternative. They also show a view of the South Front on the first page of their website but don't explain that visitors don't have access to that same view.

http://www.hatfield-house.co.uk

We did find a path down the west side of the house to a viewing platform, which is described as a 'Viewing Bay' in the Visitor Guide, from which I took this photograph but it's not as nice a view as the one on the web site.

We next found our way into another garden which appears not to have a name of its own but which we called, for our own convenience, the Fountain Garden. Did I mention that there is a lot of topiary in the gardens?

That's the west side of Hatfield House shown in the picture. We left the Fountain Garden via this gate and went into the Sundial Garden.

I thought that the gardens, although very formal, were rather nice but Amanda thought that they were particularly good and decided to stay there whilst I went to look round Old Hatfield. Most of Hatfield is recent and of little interest to the tourist but the original small centre still remains next to the Hatfield House Estate.

There isn't much of it and one could easily walk round it in an hour or less but it is worth a look. This old building was in Fore Street

and this view including the Eight Bells Inn was at the bottom of Fore Street looking along Park Street. It is believed that this building existed in 1630 but was first recorded as an inn in 1728.

There is also the parish church of St. Ethelreda dating from the 13th century with a 15th century tower.

That's it really. There isn't a lot as I've said but it is worth a short visit. I went back to Hatfield House to find Amanda and we went to the restaurant for some lunch. It is a nice restaurant with tables both inside and outside and the menu is not extensive but it is adequate. We both agreed that everything was over-priced but the cooked food we had was good. The food, in what I assume were heated trays, was displayed in a glass fronted cabinet but the problem was that it wasn't very hot to start with and by the time we got it to a table it must have cooled further. By the time I was near to finishing I left some of it because it had become cold.

There are also salads, sandwiches and cakes available which, of course, don't need to be kept hot.

After lunch we headed for the house and this is the main entrance in the North Front (you also need a ticket for this).

The rooms were spectacular and particularly so the Entrance Hall for its ceiling and the Chapel for its Jacobean stained glass windows. 'Wait', I hear you say, 'lets stop the waffle and get on with the photographs'. The bad news is that there aren't any interior photographs. The current rule is that cameras cannot be used within the house and that even  includes photographing views outside through the windows. I get the impression that this is done in the hope of increasing the sales of their own pictures but I'm afraid it didn't work with us and I think it will antagonise a number of other people.

Amanda particularly likes wood carvings and was rather irritated that she couldn't record some of the work that she saw. It is unlikely that we will return whilst the 'No photography' rule is in force.

All I can say is that the house is worth a visit.

We set off for home with the intention of stopping briefly in Much Hadham, still in Hertfordshire, on the way. The village, previously known as Great Hadham, stretches for  about a mile along the B1004 road and there are a number of attractive old buildings in the village.

There was also a plant nursery in the village which Amanda wanted to visit and there were a number of plants that she liked. She didn't buy anything this time but it's not very far from us so she could sneak over on her own at any time. :shock:

Another trip accomplished in spite of summer. Would anyone like a Nasty holiday?
 

The Republic of Texas

The Republic of Texas

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Just in case you wondered, the subject heading is relevant and we'll get to it later.

Days where the sun has been out for most of the day have been few and far between this year and, we are told, this summer has been the wettest for 100 years so we couldn't afford to miss the opportunity of a sunny day. We woke on Friday morning to a clear sky and made preparations to go to London. Having arrived at our local railway station a good ten minutes before the train was due to leave we thought that we had plenty of time until, that is, we saw the queue for the ticket office. We have never seen such a long queue here. Normally we wouldn't expect to see more than 3 people queuing at most and very often there is no one waiting at all. We assumed that it must be people going to the Paralympics as Stratford is the last stop before Liverpool Street Station. Our train was due to depart at 09:23 and we were worriedly watching the clock as we moved all too slowly towards the ticket office which we reached about 09:23,  although our train hadn't arrived yet, and bought our tickets. The train came in about two minutes late – phew!

The train stopped at Stratford and the Olympic Park didn't seem to be very busy at this time of day and we continued to Liverpool Street Station arriving about 10:20. On the western side of Liverpool Street Station there is a row of doorways each of which has a bus stop by it and one of those buses is the number 11 which we were going to catch.

The No. 11 is quite a good sightseeing route so we went to the upper deck and found a seat at the front. The bus leaves Liverpool Street Station along Sun Street, crosses London Wall into Old Broad Street and thence along Threadneedle Street to Bank. From there we go down Victoria Street, fork right into Cannon Street and eventually pass this:

Do I need to tell you where we are? I don't think so.

Along Ludgate Hill, Fleet Street and past the Royal Courts of Justice:

Along Strand to Aldwych where we got off. The bus goes on to Fulham Broadway via Trafalgar Square and Westminster which would be the last of the sightseeing route. Who needs a tour bus?

We now walked north up Kingsway, turned right into Portugal Street then eventually left into Portsmouth Street which runs up towards Lincolns Inn Fields. The building in Portsmouth Street that we came to see was this:

The Old Curiosity Shop with its jettied upper storey and wooden beams dates from the 16th century and is probably the oldest shop in central London. It has been suggested that this was the inspiration for Dickens' novel but there is no evidence to support this idea. Made using the wood from old ships the building miraculously survived the the Great Fire of 1666 and the bombs of the Second World War.

From there we walked through the side streets and made our way towards Trafalgar Square passing through Covent Garden Market on the way.

There were two noticeable differences compared with when I was here last. There are Olympic flags suspended under the roof (no surprises there) and there seemed to be few people. When I was last here it was positively seething.

We eventually entered Trafalgar Square at a point right next to St. Martin-in-the Fields. As it was now 11:00 we decided to go into the crypt cafe for some coffee. There are also toilets down there and there is nothing to stop you walking in off the street and using them like public toilets. However, as we discovered, there is a prominent notice in the toilets which explains that it costs £32,000 annually to maintain them and although they have no objection to you using them in that way they do hope that you will either buy something in the cafe or shop or at least leave a donation in their donations box. Pretty generous I thought.

We left Trafalgar Square via Pall Mall and part way along Pall Mall we had a look in the Royal Opera Arcade. Just ignore the strange woman looking in the window.

Where Pall Mall turns into St. James's Street we saw the main gate of St. James's Palace which is the gatehouse from the palace of Henry VIII and is, of course, Tudor.

We turned up St. James's Street and on the corner of St. James's Street and Pall Mall we saw this old shop.

Berry Bros. & Rudd is one of Britain's oldest wine and spirit merchants and in 1698, the building dates from that time, opened its doors for the first time at 3 St. James's Street, London and it still  trades from the same premises.

Note the alleyway on the left-hand side. That is Pickering Place and at the far end is a small very attractive courtyard. This is the view down the passageway with the courtyard showing at the far end. The timber construction of Berry's old shop can be seen in the wall.

Before we go into the courtyard can you see that little metal plaque on the wall? Well this is what it says:

It's amazing what one can find in London. And so we go into the courtyard.

Having left the courtyard, and the Republic of Texas, we went a little further along St. James's Street to Blue Ball Yard on the opposite side of the street.

Those buildings, apparently, are stables built in 1742 which have now been converted into living accommodation. I imagine that originally the stables would have been at ground level and accommodation for the staff above.

Further up St. James's Street we came across a modern development called the Economist Plaza. It wasn't really of interest to us but we wandered across it and went down some steps on the other side which were made of some very obviously fossiliferous polished limestone which was absolutely stuffed with fossils.

Having emerged into Bury Street we walked up into Jermyn Street where a little further along we first came to this statue of Beau Brummel.

One of the reasons this statue is here is that Jermyn Street is stuffed with tailors shops and, further along still, we came to this shop.

It is, I have to admit, a rather boring shop but they make and supply my shirts. I thought you might like to know that. :cool: Beau Brummel eat your heart out.

We then went up into Piccadilly and shortly after came to Hatchards Bookshop.

It is known world-wide among those who like books and bookshops and the other reason I mention it is because Amanda's maiden name was Hatchard. You may notice that I'm standing in the road in order to take the photograph and Piccadilly is a very busy road but I managed to take this one picture just before I was run over by a bus.

A few yards along is the Fortnum and Mason department store and opposite is Burlington Arcade. If you have more money than you know what to do with then these are good places to shop.

We walked further west along Piccadilly until we reached Albemarle Street and walked north up there until we reached the Royal Institution.

The Royal Institution is an independent charity dedicated to connecting people with the world of science and this building houses the Faraday Museum. They are most famous for their Christmas Lectures which were started by Michael Faraday in 1825.

Michael Faraday (1791 – 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include that of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis. The Faraday Museum details some of his experiments.

The Royal Institution also has a nice little cafe, where we had lunch, and toilets and if you are lucky enough to visit on a day when there are no lectures being held, as we were, then you may visit the lecture theatre where Faraday gave his first Christmas Lecture.

Impressive!

We moved on further west towards Shepherd Market passing through Berkeley Square on the way but didn't hear any nightingales. :lol: Shepherd Market is a small village-like area with a maze of narrow streets and lanes. Running parallel to White Horse Street is Half Moon Street where the fictional Bertie Wooster (the perfect upper-class Mayfair resident and his faithful valet Jeeves of P.G. Wodehouse's novels) lived.

In the 1920s Shepherd Market was considered to be London's most fashionable and opulent district by the city's bourgeois social elite. Shepherd Market remains a peculiar and curious collection of charming alleyways, eclectic cuisine, 18th century pubs and discreet residences.

Leaving Shepherd market and moving further west we arrive at Hyde Park Corner with the Wellington Arch.

We decide that we will now catch a No. 9 bus to the Royal Albert Hall as our last port of call which we do.

You may notice that the cloud has increased somewhat. It was forecast to increase by about 6:00 PM but it has arrived a bit earlier so the sun is fading fast and so are we. We decide to call it a day and head back to the station first on the No. 9 as far as Aldwych and then the number 23 to Liverpool Street.

We go back through Hyde Park Corner, Piccadilly, St. James's Palace and Pall Mall, Trafalgar Square, Aldwych, Fleet Street and past the Old Exchange thence to Liverpool Street Station and home.

An enjoyable day.
 

A tale of two mugs

A tale of two mugs

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The mug on the left dates from 1630 and the mug on the right dates from 1936.

We are just back from our day trip today but where have we been? :cool:

We started our walk as soon as we got off the train, at Liverpool Street Station, so you may guess that our destination was London. We walked west towards Finsbury Circus, which is a small, oval shaped park/garden, with the intention of having a look at it but we were thwarted by CrossRail. CrossRail is a new project which will enable normal overground trains to run from places east of London to places west of London, or vice versa, by means of an underground route through tunnels. The building project will last for years! Finsbury Circus will, eventually be restored to its former condition but that is years away.

We walked around the road (I say 'around' because it's oval in shape) which passes the garden heading towards Moorgate with the intention of crossing Moorgate to head further west but that was thwarted by CrossRail too. We had to go south, not very far, to London Wall, along London Wall, not very far, and turn north again to get back on our intended track. We hoped that the word 'thwarted' wasn't going to appear too often.

After a short distance we found ourselves at the start of Moorfields Highwalk at the south-eastern corner of the Barbican. The Barbican is situated in an area of London which was severely bombed in World War II and consists of housing and the largest performing arts centre in Europe all designed in the Brutalist style. The whole area was planned with pedestrian thoroughfares above ground level, hence the term 'Highwalks', and was opened in 1982.

The building with the white blocks on the right in the lower picture is the Arts centre. This place is a maze of walkways on different levels although there are boards with maps scattered around including the all important 'you are here' legend.

This old stone tower is part of the original Roman wall around London

and this is a section of the Roman Wall with that same tower at the far end. You probably wouldn't expect to find something like that in a development like this.

Still within the Barbican complex we found the church of St. Giles-without-Cripplegate. The name means that the church was without (outside of) the Cripplegate – one of London's old gates. The church is dedicated to St Giles, patron saint of beggars and cripples and is one of the few medieval churches, dating from 1394, left in the City of London having survived the Great Fire of 1666.

A little further on and still within the Barbican we found this:

Ironmongers Hall is an Elizabethan building which, although scorched, escaped the Great Fire of London.

We were now in the south-west corner of the Barbican and we left the Barbican at this point and headed north-west to Cloth Fair where we found the Tudor Gatehouse of the church of St. Bartholemew the Great with the church just visible through the gateway in the top picture.

The church is Norman and, although large, is only a part of the original priory church. There is an entrance fee of £4.00 and I have to say it is really not worth that much. I would say £2.00 is nearer the mark especially as one has to pay another £1.00 to take photographs.

This shows all that is left of the Cloisters and it is now used as a cafe where we had lunch. We both had Lentil and Ham Soup with some bread and although the soup was substantial and very nice it was only just warm enough and service was very slow.

Just around the corner from St. Bartholemews is Cloth Fair. Cloth Fair is a rather narrow street with a Tudor house which escaped the fire of London and whose bay windows are said to be even older.

From the end of Cloth Fair we look across Long Lane to Smithfield Market. Smithfield is not as nice as Covent Garden or Leadenhall Market and part of it is still a wholesale market but it is worth a look if you happen to be nearby. There is some very nice structural ironwork to be seen along Grand Avenue, shown here, but no stalls or shops.

We walked through Smithfield along Grand Avenue then along St. John's Lane, still going north, to reach our next destination – St. John's Gate. This archway was built in 1504 as the entrance to the Priory of the Knights of Saint John – the Knights Hospitallers. There is a small,free, museum inside run by St. John's Ambulance.

A little further north, but only a few hundred yards, is the Priory Church of St John, dating from 1504, with its 12th century crypt which is certainly worth a visit.

The strange thing about the church is that although it is 16th century it has little atmosphere and has the appearence of being quite recent.

We had now reached our northern-most point so we turned round and headed back. So was this the end of our trip? Well, no it wasn't as we still have quite a bit to see (We haven't seen the mugs yet). From St. Johns Gate we went back through Smithfield Market, past the end of Cloth Fair and down Giltspur Street. Here, by the junction with Cock Lane, we saw the Golden Boy of Pye Corner.

The inscription reads "This Boy is in Memmory Put up for the late Fire of London Occasion'd by the Sin of Gluttony 1666". The spelling and the use of capital letters is theirs not mine.

As you probably know the Great Fire of London started in Pudding Lane and was finally stopped here at Pye Corner. That appeared to the people of the time as significant and they assumed that God was punishing them for Gluttony (Pudding Lane, Pye Corner – get it?).

We headed due east from here and arrived at our next planned stop.

You may notice that we are above ground level here and that's because we are back on the Highwalks of the Barbican. The entrance to the Museum of London is on this higher level.

This explains the 'mug' reference at the start of this post because this is where that photograph was taken. There is an awful lot of stuff here and we didn't have time to see it all but we did wander around a number of the galleries.

One of the exhibits which reminded me of the Golden Boy was this painting featuring the Great Fire of London:

It must have seemed like the Apocalypse to someone standing there at the time.

We also noticed yet another piece of the old London Wall through a window on one of the higher level galleries.

When I first saw this Roman mosaic I assumed it must be a reproduction as it appeared to be perfect but, no, it's the real thing discovered and excavated by the Victorians.

After wandering round for quite some time we realised that time was passing and we had still more to see outside the museum but we were also feeling thirsty so we stopped for a coffee/tea in the Sackler Hall, one of the two cafes in the museum.

We left the Museum of London via Bastion Highwalk which runs east parallel to London Wall and turned down Wood Street, across Gresham Street into the lower part of Wood Street until we got to Comptor Passage.

Before we go any further have a look at this web page about Mitre Court:

http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/london-alleys/page20.php#Mitre%20Court%20EC2

We were looking for that structure labelled 'The Wood Street Comptor" in Mitre Court which was supposedly the entrance to the old debtors prison. It appeared that Comptor Passage was approximately where Mitre Court should have been.

We wandered through Comptor Passage into Milk Street and Russia Row but no sign of Mitre Court. To cut a long story short we couldn't find it and gave up. After we returned home a bit more research revealed that there was indeed some sort of structure under Mitre Court but archaeological investigation revealed that it was nothing more than some Victorian wine cellars which, at some stage, someone had tried to promote as a venue for parties describing it as the old Wood Street Comptor which it wasn't. They probably erected that structure and its signs.

Mitre Court has been demolished to make way for new development because there was nothing of historic interest there so no wonder we couldn't find it. In other words the whole debtor prison thing, including the structure over the entrance,  was a complete fake. There was a real Wood Street Comptor but it had burned down long ago.

We headed back to Gresham Street and the Guildhall.

This is the oldest lay (non-eclesiastical) building in London built between 1411 and 1440. We went from here just around the corner into Basinghall Street to look at these strange stone carved animals/demons on the upper part of the Guidhall.

It was now time we headed for Liverpool Street Station so we turned into Masons Avenue which, in spite of its grand name, is a very narrow alley.

Through there, then Great Bell Alley into Telegraph Street and after lots of twists and turns we eventually arrive back at the station to catch our train. There is lots more to see in the area we have just visited so we plan to return for more at a later date.
 

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.

Hungry? Time for a Sandwich.

Hungry? Time for a Sandwich.

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We are off on our travels again and, on our way to somewhere, we called in to somewhere else.

This is what somewhere else looks like:

Note the Mote (That's a clue).

This is one of the rooms:

So where do you think it is? I'll give you another clue – it's within a 70 mile radius of where we live.

After seeing that we drove on to where we are as I write this – 'somewhere'. More of that tomorrow and I've given you a clue to that too.
 

I can see that nobody, thus far, is prepared to hazard a guess about where we are now. This is two of the various locations we have visited.

We came through a well known cathedral city to get here and we have worn our legs down to the knees walking around. So, where are we. You'll have to hurry we're leaving tomorrow.

Well you people aren't much good are you? I'll spell it out for you.

We left home on Sunday and travelled to Ightham Mote in Kent then moved on to Sandwich, also in Kent, where we stayed until Tuesday morning.

It's amazing what the Royal Mail will deliver these days.

We went home via the cathedral city mentioned above i.e. Canterbury.

That's the Quire.

We are back home and I now have more pages to construct for the web site – some for Sandwich and Ightham Mote and some additional pages for Canterbury.

No peace for the wicked. :evil:

Here today, not gone tomorrow

Here today, not gone tomorrow

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Sunday 12th September

After 4 hours and 210 miles we arrived at two o'clock this afternoon. Most of the journey was in sunshine but it started raining just as we arrived. Luckily it didn't stay that way.

Where are we?

Monday 13th September

We bin 'ere:

and 'ere:

Cloudy all day today and it rained all the way from the Minster to the Railway Museum.

Well done Old Guy – you got it in one. It may be York rain Tudor but it's just as wet as any other.  Annecy we'll give you the low down later.

Tuesday 14th September

More tramping today. This trip is turning into a Shambles.

Eventually we got the hump!

We had our longest, hardest, wettest shower this morning. We'll be leaving tomorrow.

Wednesday 15th September

Weather cool grey and very windy. Left York at 9:30 AM home by 1:30 PM. :bawl:

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.