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England’s smallest and England’s oldest – Tuesday.

England’s smallest and England’s oldest – Tuesday.

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After leaving Oakham yesterday we soon arrived at Woodhouse Eaves, a village in Charnwood Forest, which is where we awoke this morning on another beautifully sunny day. But first let's get one thing straight shall we? 'Forest' is not synonymous with 'Woods'. 'Forest' is an ancient term for a hunting area which consisted of both wooded and open areas.

Charnwood Forest is an area in Leicestershire which consists of wooded areas and open areas. It is also known for the rocks. Yes, the rocks! The rocks around here are Pre-Cambrian or, if you prefer laymans terms, they are among some of the oldest rocks to be found in England at around 650 million years old. To put it into context they are older than me!

We each brought a pair of legs with us and it is those that we are going to use today. We left our B&B and walked along by the road (there was a pavement) until we found a footpath which would give us access to Windmill Hill on the edge of the village.

We would be walking over a rolling agricultural landscape which is similar to Rutland but the hills are more obvious and it looked beautiful in the sunlight. There used to be a windmill at the top of Windmill Hill, no surprise there then, but unfortunately it burned down in 1945 so I'm told. The circular stone base is still there and the local authority has added a viewing platform on top so that the view can be seen over the tops of the trees but the platform wasn't accessible when we were there.

We went back the way we had come, down to the road which we crossed, and we were then on the lower slopes of Beacon Hill. This part of Beacon Hill is wooded as was Windmill Hill and there were patches of Bluebells here and there. We met an old chap by the path and he agreed to have his photograph taken with us although he had a rather wooden expression.

To avoid confusion because we both have beards – I'm the one in the middle. Wait a minute though – Amanda, the old chap and me are all in the photograph so who took it?

I did say earlier that we kept seeing patches of Bluebells and this is one.

We made our way towards the top of Beacon Hill (puff, wheeze) and eventually came upon the outcrops of precambrian rocks. Amanda took this photograph of me, from my best side of course, taking a photograph of whatever it was I was photographing and surrounded by precambrian rocks. I'm sure you'll notice the stupendous view showing on the right-hand side.

There were other visitors here taking in the view and generally lolling about in the sun and beyond them on the right is Broombriggs Hill. We are going to have to go back down Beacon Hill and up and over that one before we finish our day's walk.

When we'd had enough rocky excitement we started back down and headed for Broombriggs Hill. Lots more Bluebells scattered around as we went through and past various little woods and as we slowly climbed Broombriggs Hill (puff, wheeze) we were treated to beautiful views of the landscape once again.

On the way down we stopped to look at this view.

We were particularly interested in this because the hill in the distance is Bradgate Park where we plan to go tomorrow – more precambrian rocks. That slim edifice on the open ground to the right is a war memorial. We continued our descent into Woodhouse Eaves village passing some more interesting locations on the way but you can wait for those until the full version appears on the web site.

Back to the B&B until tomorrow morning then.
 

Wells – Days 5 & 6 (Thursday & Friday)

Wells – Days 5 & 6 (Thursday & Friday)

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The weather on Thursday was supposed to include some sunny intervals and when we awoke it was to blue sky and sun. After breakfast we went for a short walk around the city but within an hour the cloud cover had increased to the point that sunshine was in short supply again.

We then elected to go to Cheddar Gorge. We didn't intend to just drive through the Gorge but to find somewhere to park near the top end of the gorge and walk along the top.

Once we knew that we had started down the gorge, it was just a V-shaped valley at that stage, we looked out for a place to stop and spotted a place where there was a layby on each side of the road so we pulled in to the one on our side. We were looking for a footpath that started near a place called Black Rock and after stopping I looked across the road at the other layby and there on a gate was a notice saying 'Black Rock Nature Reserve' – how's that for luck?

Not only that but the footpath that we were looking for started just a few yards along from where we had stopped and that's where our luck stopped. The footpath, in woodland, turned out to be very rough and rocky and really quite steep. Oh well you can't win them all and it should make the walk more interesting. smilies

The steep rocky bit didn't go on for ever, it just seemed that way, and we emerged onto undulating grassland with the wood continuing on our right.

We saw lots of Devil's Bit Scabious, a pretty blue wild flower, along the way which is an uncommon plant as it is very limited in its distribution.

Cheddar

By this time, as you can see in the above picture, we were beginning to see outcrops of the local Carboniferous limestone through which the gorge is cut.

A little further on and the woodland disappeared and the views opened up. It was still rather cloudy at this point but in the distance, from our high viewpoint, we could see the landscape bathed in sunlight. Careful study of the slow moving cloud shadow and we realised that the sunlight was moving our way. We sat on a rock and waited and the sun eventually reached us and this is the view that we had been watching.

Cheddar

The road through the gorge is quite a long way down at this point.

Cheddar

We could now see some pretty grim looking weather headed our way so we started off for the car. Just before we reached the woodland it started to rain, and they were fairly big drops, then we reached the woodland and decided to shelter until the weather had passed. Just as well because a short while later it absolutely fell down. Then the thunder and lightning started. Water started to trickle down path we were on so we moved off to the side a little then the water turned into a small stream.

The storm did eventually pass and we set off again downhill. We decided to drive through the gorge and head for Burrington Combe which we had visited the day before when it would not stop raining.

Cheddar

We arrived in Burrington Combe with the sun shining again. This is where I started caving as a youngster and I was interested in looking at the entrances to some of the caves I had been down then. What surprised me was that cave entrances that I remember being in the open were now in woodland and there was a new cave that had not been discovered when I was caving there.

Burrington Combe is less impressive than Cheddar Gorge inasmuch as it doesn't have the vertical cliffs but is still worth exploring.

Burrington Combe

Whilst there we spotted some wild goats.

Burrington Combe

That was our last visit of the day – tomorrow we go home.

Friday was predicted to be a better day and it certainly was when we went for breakfast. After breakfast we quickly packed, paid our bill, and set off for home.

The surprise is that, because the weather was quite good, we decided to visit Stourhead Gardens on the way and it wouldn't mean going out of our way at all.

We spent about two and a half hours there and all we did was walk round the lake – but what a lake!

Stourhead Gardens

There are 'follies' built around the lake in various places of which 'The Pantheon' is but one.

Stourhead Gardens

The range of trees and shrubs here is astounding and as one walks around the lake many different vistas appear and disappear.

We finally reached our original starting point and continued on our way home but it just happened that our route took us within sight of Stonehenge and our National Trust membership gets us in free. So in spite of it being a sunny day in August and half the world being there we went in.

Stonehenge

Although visitors are confined to a circular path it does pass quite near the stones at one point.

Stonehenge

It is spoiled by the numbers of visitors (it is August after all), the constant traffic noise from the two nearby roads, the fence which goes all the way around and the fact that one cannot get near or in among the stones. From the photographic point of view the later disadvantage becomes an advantage otherwise the views of the stones would be spoiled by the crowds of people that would certainly be milling among the stones.

We didn't leave Stonehenge until about 3:00 PM and what should have been a final two and a half hour drive home turned into 4 hours because of the rush hour traffic on the M25 and the Dartford Crossing where the motorway crosses the Thames and passes through toll booths. We were caught in an 11 mile queue for one and a half hours of stop/start driving when we considered ourselves lucky to reach 20 MPH.

Oh the joys of travel.

Thus endeth the latest trip.

Mud and Lavender

Mud and Lavender

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Last Sunday was the annual open day of the Lightship ‘Trinity’ at Tollesbury and it was also sunny. We went last year and quite enjoyed it so we thought we’d do it again.

‘Trinity’ is anchored at the edge of a channel through the salt marshes so that when the tide is out it is left sitting on the mud. It’s then a simple matter of following the path through the marshes to the ship and walking on board. The clever bit is not to walk out there a little before high tide because you could then be stuck there, with the path under water, until the tide starts to recede.

We went up into the light tower, as we did last time, where I took this photograph.

It’s a picture of one of the light assemblies with the bulb in the centre and a concave mirror behind. The upside-down person on the left is me. If you look carefully you will be able to see the channel and the bell shaped grey area is the deck at the stern of the vessel.

Having been to the highest part of the ship we went straight down to one of the lowest parts – the engine room. This picture is of Amanda down in the engine room about to start up the ladder.

One of the nicest things wasn’t even on the ship it was the patches of Sea Lavender flowering in the marshes.

In this picture you can see one of the numerous channels which run through these marshes.

Another nice little trip.

Yellow Spikes and Purple Haze

Yellow Spikes and Purple Haze

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It was such a lovely morning with a clear blue sky we thought we’d push the old legs into motion and give them a whirl.

We followed a public footpath across some fields and through a wood with the sunlight streaming through the trees.

Out through the other side, through a farm and, just as we were leaving the farm, we caught a glimpse of a Munjac Deer crossing the lane into cover on the other side. A little way along the lane we came across a field of Borage. In the next picture you can see the lane with the field of Borage on the right and the wood on the hill at the back is the wood that we just walked through.

A little further along the lane and I was able to get a better picture of the field of Borage – the purple haze.

We took a right turn off the lane onto another public footpath which took us across two more fields. If you look carefully at the picture just underneath the outer part of the overhanging tree branch you can see the square shape of a church tower which is where we are heading.

It wasn’t long before we reached Layer Marney Tower. Layer Marney Tower is a Tudor gatehouse built for a proposed Tudor mansion although the mansion was never built. There is also a really delightful Tudor church which is part of the estate.

This church was built in the early part of the 16th century, on the foundations of an earlier church, by the first Lord Marney and is very interesting inside as well as out.

This is the tomb of one of the Lords Marney. How’s that for some fancy decorative stonework?

From the edge of the churchyard we caught this view of Layer Marney Tower.

We turned homeward and, on the way back, saw some spikes of Agrimony, of which this is one, that we had missed on the way out.

That little jaunt of just 3.5 miles turned out to be a lovely walk and here you have it hot off the press with us having returned home only 3 hours ago.

Deer me!

Deer me!

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We arrived back from Stamford last Monday after another good trip. The weather wasn't all good but we had enough sun to get some good pictures. On the way up we stopped off at Houghton – a small village between St. Ives and Huntingdon in Huntingdonshire. A very pretty village with some thatched cottages and a watermill and what a watermill.

Just look at the size of that wheel on the right-hand size. I have not seen a waterwheel of that width before and it must have some power behind it when it's turning.

The water level was quite high when we were there, which is not surprising bearing in mind the amount of rain we'd had previously, and the water was spilling out of the sluice at an alarming rate causing the white water that you can surely see on the left of the mill.

This mill, in its heyday, wasn't just any old mill – it had three working waterwheels and 10 pairs of grinding stones. It must have been pretty noisy inside when it was running. Now there is only one waterwheel but it does still work. It wasn't running when we were there but they do give demonstrations at weekends and bank holidays.

This picture shows some of the driving gears with one of the wood encased grinding stones behind the vertical shaft.

We continued on to Stamford which turned out to be a nice old town. Rather reminiscent of the cotswolds with its yellow stone buildings.

Amazingly there are four very large medieval churches in the town centre one of which appears in the above picture and there are lots of narrow passages between streets. You can't get buildings much closer can you?

Down this alleyway or lane we found Mr. Pang's Chinese Restaurant and it turned out to be one of the best chinese restaurants we had ever been to.

On the edge of Stamford is Burghley House and Park – a tudor mansion with surrounding parkland and Fallow Deer. They must be some of the tamest deer I've ever encountered especially the small herd which seems to stick around the visitors car park area. I saw a child of about 10 stroking one of them and it didn't take the slightest notice. It was much more interested in getting on with its grazing.

Most people imagine that these animals are the size of cows but these Fallow Deer are only about waist height. Two of the stags in the picture were obviously eyeing me up in anticipation that I might be about to produce food but they were out of luck.

We also visited Barnack Hills and Holes. This is an area next to a village called Barnack, just a few miles from Stamford, which, 800 years ago, was where the stone for Peterborough Cathedral was quarried. It is now a nature reserve and the passage of time has mellowed its appearance so that it now appears to be nothing more than grassy humps and hollows.

It does, however, have an interesting limestone flora including Pasque Flower which we thought we'd be too late for but we found a few that were still flowering.

This is what the area looks like and you can see a thatched roof in the distance.

I shall be putting the new Stamford pages onto the main web site showing much greater detail sometime in the not too distant future.