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An imposter, tea for two but it’s all Greek to me.

An imposter, tea for two but it’s all Greek to me.

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Yesterday, Thursday 17th June 2010, we went back to London. The reason we chose that day was because the weather forecast given the day before was for clear skies and sun all day. They were lying, of course, but more of that later. This trip turned out to be less satisfactory than previous trips for a number of reasons.

 
The first problem turned up soon enough when we had to change from our mainline train to the Central Line on the Undergound. There was a train waiting in the platform so we got on and sat down just in time to hear an announcement from the driver to say that the train wouldn't be going anywhere because of a signal failure further along the line. Luckily at this station we also had a choice of the Jubilee Line or the DLR. We were aiming for Piccadilly Circus so we took the Jubilee Line to Green Park and then one stop on the Piccadilly Line to Piccadilly Circus. We got there in the end.
 
We emerged into bright sunshine and I took a few more photographs of Eros. Eros is actually an imposter. Did you know that it isn't actually meant to be Eros but his twin brother Anteros?
 
To answer Tracey's query about the traffic – it is still not going around 'Eros' as it once used to but passes it by on one side.
 
 
We headed off down Haymarket to Trafalgar Square where we had a brief foray into the National Gallery to get a cup of coffee and to use their toilets. Back in to Trafalgar Square for a few more photographs then along the Strand.
 
 

 We noticed by this time that there was a substantial amount of cloud building up. There were some patches of blue sky but not many. This view of the Strand shows the church of St. Mary-le-Strand in the foreground and showing beyond is the spire of St. Clement Danes.

Nearby was the entrance gateway to Somerset House which used to hold public records such as birth certificates but now, in their own words, it is "An inspiring space for art, culture and creative exchange" whatever that is but it is a pretty impressive building.

 
 
At the end of the Strand near to where it changes to Fleet Street we passed the Royal Courts of Justice
 
 
and then we stopped to look at the George Inn which is nearly three hundred years old.
 
 
A little further on was Twinings tea shop which has been here since 1706 and was where Queen Anne and Christopher Wren used to buy their tea.
 
 
This building, in Fleet Street, survived the Great Fire of London and was built in 1625. It used to be the 'Wig and Pen Club' but is now, as you can see, a Thai Restaurant.
 
 
We were now back at a location we'd visited on our last trip, the Temple, and as there was now a lot of cloud about (so much for the weather forecast) which made trying to get sunlit photographs rather long winded we decided to have lunch. Surprisingly there are two cafes in the Temple grounds and we chose the 'St. Clements Cafe and bar'. They have a rather eclectic mixture of chairs and tables with the wooden tabletops left bare but the food is good. You can, in fine weather, have your meal in the garden if there is a vacant table (it's very popular).
 
After lunch we were hoping to see the interior of the 16th century Middle Temple Hall which is the building on the left in the top photograph below with the interior, hardly changed since it was built, in the lower photograph.
 
 
 
That is a seriously impressive double-hammerbeam roof and I won't patronise you by explaining that term as there are those of us who purport to know all things Tudor who will probably be forthcoming with that information (without cheating by looking it up on the Internet).
 
Middle Temple Hall is next to Middle Temple Lane which leads down to the Embankment. This is the impressive archway at the bottom of Middle Temple Lane looking into the lane from the Embankment.
 
 
Back out in Fleet Street we saw Ye Olde Cock Tavern. Apparently the narrowest building in Fleet Street, and looks it, as well as the oldest having been founded in the reign of Henry VIII.
 
 
We had found, prior to our trip, a book called 'One Man's London' which featured walks in London and which, in one section, described the area north of Fleet Street as a maze of little alleys, lanes and squares of the sort one might expect to find in Dickensian scenes. The book was written in the 1980s and we were very interested in exploring this area. We soon found one of the alleys mentioned, Red Lion Court, which led to the Red Lion Inn except that it didn't. There was no sign of the inn and after a while we realised that although the alleys and squares were still there the buildings had been demolished and replaced with ghastly modern office buildings .:bawl:
 
That was the biggest disappointment of the whole trip. We did, however, find a few remaining locations. One of the passages is Clifford's Inn Passage which leads to the gateway of Clifford's Inn, one of the oldest Inns of Chancery (1340) which has since been demolished although the gateway remains.
 
 
There was also Gough Square and Dr. Johnson's House nearby.
 
 
 
We made our way up to Holborn and emerged by Staples Inn which I photographed on a previous trip but at that time we forgot to have a look at the courtyard behind the facade. This time, however, we did look.
 
 
In appearance it is remarkeably like the other inns of court such as Lincoln's Inn and the Temple which shouldn't really come as a surprise. After leaving Staples Inn we made our way to the British Museum.
 
 
This was my second visit. My first visit was about sixty years ago. I can see this becoming a habit if I'm not careful. Amanda has been much more recently than I have and she didn't recognise this bit.
 
 
We decided it must have been changed relatively recently. A very pleasant space.
 
We were getting quite tired by this time but we wanted to see at least something of the exhibits and although we were feeling a bit droopy we didn't feel quite as bad as this chap looked.
 
 
I was that thin when I was 18 but probably not as good looking. If some parts of the image look a little odd it's probably reflections in the glass. I really needed a polarising filter for that but don't have one for the new camera.
 
We saw the Elgin Marbles in the Parthenon Gallery including Amanda's favourite – the one with the bull on it.
 
 
 
We also managed a bit of Egyptian/Assyrian stuff.
 
 
We managed to see only some of the Greek, Egyptian and Japanese galleries but eventually decided to stop, as we were so tired, and make our way back to the train and home. I took more pictures in the museum than I've shown here although the rest will probably appear on the main web site pages eventually.
 
That's the end of the current trip. If you stand around for a while another one may come along soon.
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.

Down South – Day 1 – Thursday 24th Sept.

Down South – Day 1 – Thursday 24th Sept.

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We left home in the morning on a gloriously warm sunny day heading for the Sussex Coast. Our first stop, however, was to be Battle (1066 and all that!) and they have some peculiar parking arrangements in Battle. The abbey has its own car park for which you have to pay and you have to pay again to go into the abbey so we weren't going to do either of those things. The other council run car parks are pay and display but in the Pay & Display cark park off Caldbec Hill there is what they call an overspill car park (unsurfaced) which is free and, consequently, it is very popular. We did actually find a space but it took a 99 point turn to get into it because there was so little room to manouevre.

We had been here last year when Marie came over but I forgot to take a photograph of the Abbey Gatehouse (silly me) so I rectified that omission this time.

We had arrived in Battle shortly before lunchtime and now it was lunchtime so we looked for somewhere to get a light lunch. We found a delicatessen, Battle Deli, which was also a little teashop and went in there.  We both enjoyed our lunch very much and I had the nicest soup I've had in a long while. Very good value. Recommended.

Not far from the car park was this ancient house.

Now there's an interesting shape.

A short way past the abbey is this view. The field on the other side of the gate is called 'Lake Field', although I don't know why as there isn't any lake, and was bought by the National Trust to preserve the view. It's a view worth preserving.

We decided that it was time to move on and headed for Eastbourne. Once settled in we went for a walk along the seafront. It had clouded up a bit by this time but was still pleasantly warm. We drove through Eastbourne, along the seafront, with Marie when she was over here and staying in Rye and it looked quite impressive then so we were very interested to be able to have a good look this time.

It certainly seems a nice town. There were a lot of rather grand buildings, mostly hotels, along the seafront and they looked well cared for; no peeling paint. There was a pebble beach and a pier.

We walked along the pier and were able to catch this view in the evening sunlight.

Nice pier and very well kept with some interesting little buildings including the 'Victorian Tea Rooms' and a Camera Obscura which was closed – pity.

So back for dinner and wait and see what the weather brings for tomorrow's walk.

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: A holy house and a giant stairway.

Oxon-Hants-Wilts: A holy house and a giant stairway.

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Day 2 – Monday 17th August 2009

The hotel didn’t serve meals in the evening on a Sunday (yesterday) so we bought a Chinese Take Away and ate it in our room.

We spent a good night in a very comfortable bed. There was no apparent noise except when the traffic started to move in the early morning and that was only an occasional vehicle.

Breakfast was available in a room opposite the bar which had been, at one time, a Pizza Bar and was apparently now used only for breakfast. It was a pleasant enough room with most food laid out buffet style except for the cooked part which was cooked to order. The cooked breakfast was actually very good with a wide choice of items. The buffet was also very good and included fruit juices, cereals, fruit and pastries.

It was becoming obvious by now that, generally, there was only one person on duty at a time and they were expected to serve breakfast and look after reception. However the staff were unfailingly pleasant and well trained.

We left the hotel after breakfast bound for Lacock in Wiltshire. The journey took about an hour and just before we reached Lacock we drove round a bend onto the edge of the high ground we’d been on and there was Lacock in the valley below. Luckily there was an empty layby which enabled us to stop to take this picture. Lacock village and abbey are immediately above the red brick house in the foreground.

We drove on to Lacock, parked in the National Trust car park (free to members) and walked into the village. The National Trust own both the village and the abbey.

When we started out from Andover the sky was covered in thin cloud with an occasional blue patch showing but now the cloud had thickened with no blue sky at all. That makes photographs look very gloomy as you can see from one of the first photographs I took in the village from the churchyard.

Whilst we were having lunch the cloud became much more broken and after lunch I took the same photograph again.

Doesn’t that look much nicer than the first?

For the time being we’ll go back to our cloudy morning. As well as looking round the village we wanted to see Laycock Abbey (National Trust). Photographs in the house are generally not permitted but in parts of the original abbey, such as the cloisters, photographs are permitted and it wouldn’t matter what the weather was like outside.

On the way to the abbey we went in to this 15th Century Tithe Barn in the village. Quite an impressive structure.

Lacock Abbey was founded in 1232 as a nunnery but was, of course, dissolved by Henry VIII and in 1539 it was sold and converted into a private home. The medieval cloisters were retained and, apparently, have been used in the Harry Potter films.

One of the most famous inhabitants of the abbey was William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877) inventor of the negative/positive photographic process. In 1835 he created the first known example of a photographic negative taken of an oriel window in the abbey. I wonder what he would have though of my digital single lens reflex?

This shows part of the south side of the abbey with the main entrance.

After looking around the abbey we went back to the village, now that the sun was out, where I was able to take some better photographs. If only all the streets were this clear of parked vehicles. Even this street was clogged with parked vehicles earlier in the day and just chanced to be clear on this occasion.

Most of the streets seem to be clogged with parked cars and vans most of the time. The village has been used many times in ‘period’ films at which time, so I understand, all the vehicles are cleared away. I wasn’t so lucky.

There are some nice old buildings here including this one behind the church which is now a pottery although I don’t know what it might have been earlier. This area is called the Tanyard which may give a clue as to its original use.

Having seen all that we thought we could see we started back for Andover but we intended to stop off just this side of Devizes to see something unusual.

This is part of the Kennet and Avon Canal and each of those little white footbridges delineates a lock – 16 in all in this giant stairway. On this stretch of the canal there are 29 locks in the space of two miles of which this section is the most impressive.

There is a car park at the top which is where we parked and I walked all the way down for this photograph and now I’m going to have to walk all the way back up. Part the way up I met some narrowboats coming down. This one is waiting for the water level to drop so that they can then move into the next lock down.

This narrowboat is moving out of one lock into the next. The process of negotiating all 16 locks in the stairway takes, I believe, two to three hours.

I rendered some slight assistance at one lock by opening one of the two gates. This is done by leaning back against the arm and pushing with one’s feet. The little radiused brick path has raised sections so that it’s possible to get a good grip with one’s feet. Having done my good deed for the day we continued onward and upward.

Just before we reached the top I spotted this heron perched on an inflatable barrier on one of the large side ponds. A very handy fishing platform.

From here we return to the Danebury Hotel in Andover where we are prepared to try one of their evening meals. I suppose it’s only an evening meal from our point of view as they appear to serve cooked food all day.

On our return we discovered that the only place we can eat is the Public Bar which we share with three coin-in-the-slot gaming machines covered in flashing lights, a giant television, a pool table, loudish ‘background’ music and numerous gentlemen with heavily tatooed bare arms.

Ah well it’s worth a try.  The food turned out to be pretty average and not as good as one might expect in many pubs these days. One of the men in the bar apologised for another’s bad language which neither of us actually noticed but thought it was a nice gesture.

Looking around at the various signs in the bar area it appears that they are catering specifically for the heavy drinking fraternity with such as ‘Buy two glasses of wine and get the whole bottle’ sort of thing. Their main trade is apparently on Friday and Saturday nights when, thankfully, we shall be long gone.

The meal passed uneventfully but we decided not to eat there on our third night.

Tomorrow we hope will be in-spiring.

An English Summer with a vengence

An English Summer with a vengence

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After last years excuse for a summer we were hoping for some drier settled weather this year especially as the Meteorological Office predicted a warmer drier summer this year. Since our last trip to Houghton at the beginning of the month we’ve been waiting for a weather forecast which would give us at least four to five days of reasonable weather (what the weather forecasters laughingly call ‘Sunny Spells’) and we’re still waiting. We have even reduced our requirements to three days (two nights away) and we’re still waiting.

We have had some sun – and cloud, and rain. The weather seems to be so unsettled and unpredictable with the weather forecasts changing even on the same day. Yesterday the weather was cloudy and rainy and today was forecast to be better with some sun and indeed when we woke up it was to a clear blue sky so we decided to have a short trip out.

When Marie was over here we went to Nayland and Stoke-by-Nayland for a brief visit at the end of one of the days and I had wanted to go back again to try and get some more photographs, particularly in Nayland, in the hope that some of the streets wouldn’t be quite so choked with park cars. That previous visit was on a Sunday and my reasoning was that more residents would be home at the weekend so more parked cars. Perhaps during the week when a lot of the residents would be at work there would be fewer parked cars? Wrong! In Nayland there were at least as many as before and possibly in some places even more so we didn’t stop but went on to Stoke-by-Nayland.

When we were in Stoke-by-Nayland before I was able to get a nice photograph of one of the ancient timber-framed buildings with the light being just right but I didn’t photograph the church because I would have been shooting directly towards the sun. This time, however, we arrived in the morning with the sun in a much better position.

So we get out of the car, the sun goes in and we feel a few spots of rain. We head for the church and arrive at the porch just in time to miss the start of a very heavy shower which then turned in to a thunderstorm. Looking out of the porch door towards the direction from which whis weather approached there are dark clouds as far as the eye can see with no sign of a break. However after about ten minutes there were signs of the clouds breaking up and soon I was able to get a good photograph of the church.

We headed further north for about a mile and a half to the village of Polstead which turned out to be a pleasant enough village but nothing special. Amanda wanted to look at the church before we moved on so we drove to a point nearby and walked up to the church gate. At first sight we both thought that it must be victorian because it was small and oddly proportioned with a very short tower surmounted by an odd little stone steeple.

Well we were both wrong and it turned out to be Norman! That was a surprise. There was quite a nice view from the churchyard with the tower of Stoke-by-Nayland church showing on the horizon to the right (you can just about see it).

This funny little church was built during the reign of Henry II around 1160 and there is a Norman archway to add to its authenticity.

Just as we were leaving we noticed that a number of sheep had gathered in the shade under a tree, laying on the grass, since we’d arrived. I don’t know why. It certainly wasn’t to shelter from the sun, it wasn’t especially warm, and it wasn’t raining. One of those mysteries of life.

Another four miles onward and we arrived in Boxford. A pleasant little village with a number of interesting buildings including these timber-framed houses stuffed into this narrow little lane called Butchers Lane.

Looking out of Butchers Lane we can see the church in the distance.

Quite an imposing church when seen up close and with an imposing South Porch.

From inside the churchyard, close to the porch, the ancient dark ochre coloured timber-framed house in Bridge Street shows up quite nicely.

Inside the church there were two, that we could see, medieval wall paintings of which this, above the Chancel Arch, was one.

We decided that it was now time for a ‘smackerel’ of something (apologies to Pooh Bear) and went into The Fleece for lunch. The Fleece is the cream coloured building just beyond the bright salmon pink building. Having had lunch, and bearing in mind that the weather forecast said that the weather would deteriorate this afternoon, we went home.

We are still waiting, and hoping, for at least three consecutive days with a good amount of sunshine (Sunny Spells remember?) and we may still be waiting at Christmas.

Yes and No

Yes and No

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Back from our recent trip the answer to the question in the title of the previous posting is ‘Yes and No’.

We were lucky in that it was sunny but unlucky because it was uncomfortably hot and humid. We were lucky to visit Houghton, Hemingford Grey and Hemingford Abbots but St. Ives was a bit of a disappointment but I’ll start at the beginning.

Wednesday 1st July

We drove to Houghton which lies between Huntingdon and St. Ives in Huntingdonshire and we were there by 11:30 in the morning. We parked the car in the Three Horseshoes Inn’s car park and announced our arrival although we didn’t go up to our room.

We wanted to look round Houghton village before we set off on our planned walk because it’s a pretty village with attractive old buildings and chocolate box cottages. We rather liked this display of Hollyhocks which is on the other side of the village square from the Three Horseshoes. The village square is called “The Green” and although it may have been green at some time in the past it certainly isn’t now.

Opposite the Hollyhocks is what is known locally as the crooked house. You can just see some of the Hollyhocks on the extreme left of the picture peeping out from behind a house.

We wandered down Mill Lane (We were now starting the route of our planned walk) passing this chocolate box cottage on the way. It just had to have roses along the front didn’t it?

At the end of Mill Lane there is, wait for it, a mill. Owned by the National Trust it is still in working order and in a lovely setting. The water wheel must be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, we have ever seen. We have mentioned this mill briefly before on our way up to Stamford.

From the mill we followed the path across the River Great Ouse to Hemingford Abbots. Hemingford Abbots, like its neighbour Hemingford Grey, is a curious village. Very attractive and well kept with a number of old buildings but the old buildings are easily outnumbered by large, relatively modern and very expensive looking houses. Although we enjoyed looking at the designs of the modern houses we were more interested in the older style buildings.

That phrase ‘Chocolate Box’ springs to mind again – I don’t know why. We soon reached the centre of the village and this view of their pub, the Axe and Compass, with the church in the background.

As Hemingford Abbots and Hemingford Grey are virtually touching it wasn’t long before we were on the outskirts of Hemingford Grey.

It didn’t take long to reach the centre of the village which is where this next picture was taken and the suspicious looking person lurking in the shadows is, of course, Amanda. On a day like this lurking in the shadows is the best place to be – it was sweltering!

Both the Hemingfords are close to the River Great Ouse and our path took us alongside the river on our way to Hemingford Grey Meadow with St. Ives beyond.

We weren’t really looking forward to the next section which would involve crossing the rather large Hemingford Grey Meadow because we thought that there may be no shade in which to to shelter for some time. One of the churches in St. Ives can be seen on the other side of the meadow together with a few other buildings.

Luckily there was a small water channel, running down one side of the meadow, which was lined with shrubs and trees and we were able to spend short periods going through shade.

St. Ives is an old town but as we approached all we could see on the outskirts were modern buildings – not an old building in sight. We entered the town near the old bridge and having soon passed the modern additions we arrived at the waterside.

This picture was taken from the old bridge which is unusual in that it has a small chapel in the centre which you can see here on the right as we cross the bridge into the main part of the town.

There was a tea shop on the other side with a river terrace where we stopped for a much needed drink and from where I took this photograph of the 15th century bridge.

The area around the bridge and river is very nice but the rest of the town has nothing for the tourist. It’s not an unpleasant place but just little else of interest to see. We weren’t particularly pleased after walking all that way on a very hot and humid day especially as we now had to walk back but that’s the luck of the draw.

We arrived back at the inn in time for a short rest, a shower and then dinner. According to my pedometer we walked exactly 11 miles today.

Thursday 2nd July

After our St. Ives experience we decided to drive through Huntingdon first to assess the place and didn’t really see much there of interest either so drove on to Godmanchester. That didn’t hold our interest either so it was on to Plan B.

We pass close to Cambridge on our route to and from Houghton so we had thought that if we had time, which we now have, we might vist Anglesey Abbey. Now you may think that that would be a gargantuan detour but Anglesey Abbey is not on Anglesey in North Wales it is just a few miles north of Cambridge and is owned by the National Trust.

So it was that we arrived at Anglesey Abbey and gardens just as it was about to open at 10:30 AM. Walking through the gardens we had a bit of a surprise when we came upon this grove of trees.

Each one of those tree trunks is silvery white and the bark is quite hard and shiny. They are a form of Silver Birch which come from the Chinese side of the Himalaya. They gave a really ethereal atmosphere like something out of Alice in Wonderland.

A little further on we arrived at Lode Mill which is a rather cute little watermill and is now part of Anglesey Abbey grounds. We were going to have a look round the inside but the mill wasn’t open today because of a shortage of volunteers. The mill site is described in the Domesday Book although the building will have been replaced, possibly a number of times, since then.

From the mill we found our way to the Herbaceous Garden. Now that’s what I call a herbaceous border and it goes all the way round this large area. Keep that lot clear of weeds if you can.

After leaving the Herbaceous Garden we followed a not so obvious path and eventually stumbled upon the house. Even with a plan of the garden showing the paths it’s easy to get slightly lost in this place. Not a bad country cottage is it? Although the name of the property is Anglesey Abbey it is actually a country house.

Walking past the house, through the Rose Garden, we managed to find the Formal Garden where Amanda took this picture of me trying to run off with one of the stone vases. This may be a formal garden but dress is informal.

The gardens are very large covering around 114 acres most of which is parkland like this.

There is a lot that we didn’t see but Anglesey Abbey is only about an hours drive from us so we will probably return at different times of the year to see the changes.

That was the end of our current trip.

  • Like the curate’s egg it was good in parts.
  • Better luck next time
  • Can’t win ’em all.

You know the sort of thing. :mrgreen: