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‘Hello Dolley’ then ‘Up, Up and Away’

‘Hello Dolley’ then ‘Up, Up and Away’

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This is where it all started:

It looks pretty inocuous doesn't it? The start of a path in a little place called Dolley Green. This is part of Offa's Dyke Path where it passes through Dolley Green on its way to Knighton. From here to Knighton is 5 miles which is what I'll be walking having been dropped off by Amanda.

I watched our car disappear into the distance and started up the path. The only sounds were those of the birds and along each side of the path were Red Campion (red), Bluebells (blue) and Greater Stitchwort (white) – lovely!

I new that I'd be going over some significant hills so the fact that the path angled gently upwards wasn't a surprise and the highest point was some way away so I wasn't expecting anything steep. The path was lined with trees so that I couldn't see any of the surrounding landscape until I came out into the open.

That small group of buildings to the right is where I started; not a big place. I still couldn't see anything ahead because of the rising ground until I came to the brow of the hill.

Now that isn't a bad view and look at all those buttercups. Then the path became a little steeper. I expected to see a lot of sheep and I wasn't disappointed. This one was curious enough to come and get a good look at me.

It didn't come very near and eventually decided that I was decidedly boring and moved away so I moved on too. A little further on I stopped to look back.

Dolley Green is still visible but you can see that I've gained more height. My little black friend is also still visible on the path. I carried on along the path and then it started to get steeper and steeper and I went up, up and up. Remember me saying that I wasn't expecting anything steep? Well I was wrong.

 Having gained significantly more height I took two more photographs. The first looking back and the second looking ahead.


I was glad to see that the slope reduced a bit but I was still climbing. The path is well waymarked with signs such as this, english on the right, welsh on the left although some features such as gates or styles show just the acorn symbol.

The acorn denotes that this path is a 'National Path' and, as this is the only national path around here, it shows that you are on Offa's Dyke Path. The 'National Paths' are long distance paths including ones such as the Pennine Way.

The views from up here were tremendous, as you might expect, and included the inevitable sheep. There are changes of direction on this path but they are well signed.

I have just come through that gate having turned a right-angle and you can see the 'National Path' symbol not to mention the view beyond. I must now have reached maximum elevation, thank goodness, and still the views are endless but that, of course, is one of the reasons for coming.


One thing you may have noticed and that is that there has been no sign of Offa's Dyke. That is about to change as I reach a part where the dyke is apparent. The dyke bank in the first picture should be visible with the ditch on the right and in the second picture the dyke is decorated with bluebells along its length.


I mentioned earlier about the acorn symbol and this is another example:

The acorn symbol is visible on the left-hand gatepost which tells you that you are on the right path. Just beyond is a lovely patch of Bluebells and the line of trees is actually growing on the dyke which is well formed along this length.

This next section shows the dyke very well as the bank is quite high and has a well formed ditch this side of it.

I am now approaching Knighton and I see that the rounded hump off to my left is in fact Garth Hill which is very near our house. The TV transmitter mast on the top is also just visible.

Soon after that I start down the wooded slope which will take back into Knighton. It's not very steep at first but I know, from looking at the closely packed contours on the map, that it's going to get steeper and it does.

I can now see the buildings in Knighton below me, through the trees, and the slope is steep enough that the ends of my toes are resting against the front of my boots which becomes uncomfortable after a while. However I am soon back down and it's a short walk home.

The GPS statistics for my walk are below but you may want to skip them.

Distance 5.45 miles
Total time 3 hours 10 minutes
Of that time I was actually moving for 2 hours 4 minutes
Average speed 2.62 MPH
Maximum altitude 1112 feet starting from an altitude of 314 feet
I was climbing for 1 hour 11 minutes and descending for 1 hour 37 minutes

 

How not to plan a trip

How not to plan a trip

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I planned a trip for today. I was going on my own because Amanda thought it might be a bit too strenuous for her. Amanda went off to a Coffee Morning (sounds pretty strenuous to me) and I left the house about 20 minutes later. I hadn't got very far when I realised that I was still wearing ordinary shoes so I rushed back and changed into walking boots and set off once again.

I still made it to the bus stop 5 minutes before the bus was due to arrive. I was planning to go to a place called 'Dolley Green', which is in the middle of nowhere, and walk back to Knighton. When the bus arrived the driver told me that the bus doesn't go through Dolley Green anymore and I was so surprised I got off.

It was only as the bus disappeared around the corner that I remembered that the driver did say it now goes directly to Norton instead of the round-about way through Dolley Green. So what's significant about that? Well, when I planned the trip originally I had planned to start in Norton and then discovered that Dolley Green would be a better place to start from. So, if I had my wits about me, I could have stayed on the bus and travelled to Norton and used my original route. Doubly irritating.

I will do that trip on another day and I'll tell you about it when I do but for now, in the afternoon, we did a short walk instead.

We went up onto Garth Hill and saw this lovely view over Knighton with lots of Bluebells.

Further along the path there were more Bluebells.

We had been along this path before but not during Bluebell time. A little way back we spotted a path going up the hill which we certainly hadn't traversed and Amanda said that she wanted to explore that on the way back.

So, on the way back, we explored. It was moderately steep and went up, and up, and up. We finally arrived at a little lane which afford us this view.

I wonder what that large lumpy hill left of centre on the horizon is? As we are looking toward Ludlow it could be either Brown Clee Hill or Titterstone Clee Hill. Can't say for certain.

We made our way down the lane and eventually to home.

 

New place, First walk

New place, First walk

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Today was a sunny day although the temperature this morning, early, was below freezing but we couldn't miss this chance to have our first walk since we moved in. We have, until now, done nothing but unpacking and settling in so this will make a change.

It wasn't far to the start of the walk, namely our front door and so we set off uphill. It was quite steep and we gained height quickly and I took my first photograph before we had even left the town. We were heading west to walk around Garth Hill and this view was of Knighton from the very western edge of Knighton.

Garth Hill is just over 1100 feet high but we weren't intending to go to the top but to go around it's flanks. The first part of the walk was along Glyndwr's Way which is well signposted and we were now heading north-west along the Teme Valley ( on our right) and on the other side of the valley is Panpunton Hill.

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We soon entered the wooded part of the hill and, as you can see in the next photograph we were still climbing occasionally. This view is looking back along the path and the slope shown on the left is as steep as it looks. You wouldn't want to fall down there.

On the way through the wood we spotted some wild flowering currant which was rather pretty and colourful.

We were about halfway into the walk now and the sound of sheep bleating was quite common. There are a lot of sheep round here.

The total walk was only 3 miles and when we arrived at the 2 mile mark we saw this Blackthorn blossom and there was quite a lot of it. Very pretty.

A little further on we saw this little bracket fungus on a fallen tree.

Having walked full circle we finally joined the path that we had started out on and descended into the Cwm in Knighton – very near home now.

That was an enjoyable little walk and we were back in time for lunch.

 

Following the stones

Following the stones

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We started today with a little trepidation because 4 weeks ago to the day we were also going on a day trip, although to a different destination, and immediately after finishing breakfast I had a heart attack and was carted off to hospital where I spent the next 4 days. It turned out to be a minor heart attack but it is, apparently, going to take 6 weeks to get back to normal (another 2 weeks to go from now).

We were not really expecting any problems today, and there weren't any, so we set off for the railway station.

We were headed for London, change at Stratford onto the DLR for Woolwich Arsenal then just two more stops on South-Eastern Trains to Abbey Wood Station. A short walk and here we are. But where exactly?

This is Lesnes Abbey Woods in the London Borough of Bexley just two miles south of the River Thames at Cross Ness or two and a half miles east of Woolwich Ferry. In the picture above the pointed skyscraper of Canary Wharf is visible near the centre line of the image with the top of the Shard showing more to the left.

The ruins at the bottom of the picture above is one of the features we've come to see. The abbey was built during the 12th century and  the first inmates probably came from the Holy Trinity Priory in Aldgate.

Although there is not a lot of structure left above ground the ruins are quite extensive. The area below was obviously the abbey church showing the bases of the columns in the church nave and the second picture shows its position relative to the other parts.


There are some parts with a significant amount showing above ground as shown here.


The inhabitants were known as Augustinians or Black Cannons and they used to meet every day in the Chapter House to discuss the business of the day and here Amanda is trying to pretend to be one of the  Cannons sitting on the bench. She doesn't seem to have much of an audience (perhaps they were warned that we were coming). smilies

It is interesting to speculate how they aquired, and organised the delivery of, all the stone needed for such a large building especially as there is no stone like it locally. The River Thames, as I said previously, is 2 miles away so the stone could have been delivered by sea – but from where? How would they have contacted the people who could supply the stone.

The abbey ruins are situated next to a wood which we wanted to explore next. Just bear in mind that it isn't flat around here and you will, like us, be going up and down some hills but the wood is really lovely and covers some 217 acres.


We were also looking for some geological deposits known as the Blackheath beds which are very fossiliferous and which I visited about 55 years ago. They were easy to find then, I have the fossils to prove it, but we couldn't find them this time. That was a little disappointing but I'd like to try again sometime.

The abbey was demolished around 1525, partly because of the dissolution of the monastaries by Henry VIII and partly because it was then already in a rather neglected state, and some of the stone was used to build Hall Place (Tudor) about 3 miles away measured in a straight line. We decided to follow the stones to Hall Place and so jumped on a number 229 bus which would take us very near Hall Place. The journey took around 50 minutes because the bus goes a rather long way round but it does make the journey simple.

The walk from the bus stop to Hall Place, which is still in the London Borough of Bexley, was quite short and we had our first glimpse of Hall Place from the road.

It certainly looked interesting so we hurried round to the entrance. Entry to the grounds is free and there is a lot to see but to go into the house requires an entrance fee of £8 per adult, £6 pounds for oldies (us) and a further discount of 50% for National Trust members (also us) so we paid £3 each for the house. If you have a National Art Pass from the ArtFund then entry to the house is free.

However it was now lunchtime so before we got to the house we found their cafe by the River Cray and had some lunch. I had seen some reviews of the cafe on the internet and they tended to be rather disappointing so we were not expecting much. However things must have improved as my soup and bread roll was really tasty and Amanda's bacon sandwich, she said, was exceptionally good. We also had no complaints about our coffee and tea. We sat outside on the river terrace and could watch the ducks and geese swiming about including Mrs Canada Goose and family.


After lunch we crossed the river over the bridge next to the cafe to see the Rock Gardens and it was certainly worth the short walk. You can see the house, with the cafe this side of it, in the second picture which will give an idea of distance.

There was a great variety of plants including some that were of particular interest to Amanda and lots of different colours which made a really attractive display.



Back across the river we turned away from the house towards the greenhouses where we found a large conservatory which was free entry so we went in. There was a rectangular path with the centre taken up with a pond surrounded by lush vegetaion and around the outside of the path were benches covered in various plants, flowers and cactuses.



We then made our way towards the western end of the grounds which had some beautiful areas of parkland together with lots of colour from numerous Azaleas which are in bloom at this time of year.


Walking towards the colour we were soon to realise just how many Azalea blossoms and colours there were and these pictures show just a few.


There was another bridge here over the river which was partly festooned with Wisteria.

The only downside to this part of the grounds is the traffic noise from a very busy road nearby. We turned round here and started to head back towards the house passing through the 'Really Useful Garden' on the way. Yes, that really is the name. It appears to be a herb garden with, yes, really useful herbs and I must say the Box hedges look really neat.

Next we went into this garden with flower beds divided into compartments by rather neatly trimmed wavy hedges. We expected to walk out the far end but discovered that the way in was the only way out.

As we neared the house we encountered the Queen's Beasts – a set of ten brilliantly executed topiary heraldic animals which were planted to celebrate our current queen's coronation. They've grown into big beasts.

At the far end of the Queen's Beasts is this turret on the house demonstrating some pretty impressive flushwork.

In architecture  flushwork is the decorative combination of flint and stone on the same flat plane. Flushwork begins in the early 14th century, but the peak period was during the wool boom between about 1450 and the English Reformation of the 1520s. Flushwork, and flint architecture in general, is usually found in areas with no good local building stone. Although the labour cost of creating flushwork was high, it was still cheaper than importing the large quantity of stone necessary to build or face the entire structure. The dark squares are flint and the light squares are stone.

The same technique has been used on the front of the house to good effect.

We finally went in to this Tudor house built in 1537 although the brick part was added in the 17th century and started our visit in the Great Hall with the Minstrel's Gallery.

Just off the Great Hall is the Kitchen.

One of the other rooms has this ornate ceiling.

Hall Place is one of London's hidden gems and, in our opinion, one that shouldn't be missed. I'm surprised that it isn't better known but I'm glad it isn't. smilies

I am supposed to be taking things easily but I don't think that I did that today. Consequently by this time I was feeling tired and so was Amanda so we decided to call it a day. We caught a bus, from the same stop from which we alighted when we arrived, to Bexley Station and then a train to London Cannon Street and thence to Liverpool Street Station and home.

 

A rather fowl walk

A rather fowl walk

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Some friends of ours (yes we have friends) visited us yesterday and it was a lovely sunny day so we went off for a walk.

We parked a car at the proposed end of our walk and drove off towards our intended starting point. We went via an Indian Restaurant first for lunch in a nearby village and very nice it was too.

After lunch we drove to the start of our walk and parked, changed into walking boots, and off we went to some Essex Salt Marshes  via the river wall. We saw and heard some Curlew with their distinct bubbly call and I stopped to take my first picture using my smartphone.

How's that for the middle of nowhere?

As we progressed we saw more and more water fowl including Teal, Widgeon, Pin-tail duck, various types of geese who come from more northerly climes to overwinter here and, at one point, we saw a flock of Golden Plovers wheeling around the sky which was quite a sight as there were thousands of them. They made quite a spectacular display. We also saw a Great Crested Grebe and, briefly, a Marsh Harrier.

When we were nearly at the end of our walk I took one more picture.

The sun was very low now, being only just above the horizon, so I photographed the brush-like heads of these rushes which were lit by the sun.

We did make it back to the other car and went off to collect our previous car then went home. A rather nice day.

Cow Gap

Cow Gap

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Day One

The weather forecast for the next 3 days was cloudy but dry. Well, we can handle that so off we went to Eastbourne. Why Eastbourne? We'll get to that later.

We decided to travel by train. We don't have to drive and we don't have to find somewhere to park (the hotel doesn't have its own car park) – can't be bad.

I looked at the train status on my smartphone and saw, with some dismay, that an empty train had derailed earlier and would be causing a delay on our journey. Bummer! smilies The delay was reported to be 20 minutes and we had 45 minutes to walk across to Stratford International Station to make the connection. We were going to Stratford International not because Eastbourne is considered to be exotic but because we can use the high-speed line to get to Ashford and thence a local train to Eastbourne. That delay would still leave us with 25 minutes for the change which should be plenty.

We caught our 'usual' train, which was on time, from our local station and although there was a small delay we arrived only 10 minutes later than planned leaving us oodles of time for the connection. Having alighted at Stratford, in Greater London, we walked across to the International Station with plenty of time to spare. The train arrived on time and 30 minutes later, after an uneventful journey, we arrived at Ashford in Kent.

The Eastbourne train was waiting in the platform and we were soon headed for Eastbourne where we arrived at around 12:40 and after a short walk we were at our hotel at lunchtime.

Driving time would have been about two and a half hours and the train journey, including waiting times, was 3 hours so not really much difference.

Having arrived at lunchtime we had a brilliant idea – we could have lunch and so we did. After lunch we wandered off towards the pier. The last time that we were on Eastbourne Pier the steps up to the Camera Obscura level were closed off and I was hoping we might be able to get up there this time but, no, the steps were closed off. That's two bummers in the same day. smilies

We didn't do a lot today and went back to our hotel to prepare for dinner. Tomorrow is the big day.

Day Two

After breakfast at about 9:30 AM we left the hotel and walked down to the seafront. This view is looking in the direction in which we are headed.

We followed the coast road westward until it reach the grass downland where it bends sharp right. We bent sharp left along a track going towards the cliffs. When we reached to edge of the cliffs we could see back to Eastbourne.

You may just be able to see the end of Eastbourne Pier sticking out beyond the promentary where the beach disappears from sight. The weather is better than forecast this morning but the sun is watery and it's not very clear. There is also a strong wind of about 15 mph gusting to 21 mph which we could do without. Looking in the opposite direction we can see our first target – the shore. Do you think that the sign is trying to tell us something?

You may notice that the shore is covered in rock fragments caused by erosion and we are planning to walk on that. smilies

We still have a way to walk along the top of the cliffs yet. We follow the footpath until we see a path forking off to the left and we follow that fork.

We start heading down. That shore looks nearer but it doesn't look any better. More steps to go down.

Can you read the name on the sign? It says 'Cow Gap'. 'Gap' around here is a point in the cliffs which is low enough for it to be practical to build some steps down to the shore. There aren't many gaps. We have visited the other two and have been waiting for an opportunity to visit this one so we've made it at last.

There is Amanda at the foot of the steps and we are now on the shore. Take a look at the shore because we are proposing to walk over a half mile on that. After a while of scrambling it was nice to reach some solid rock to walk on for a while and just showing at the foot of the cliffs on the horizon is our second target – Beachy Head Lighthouse.

We eventually ran out of solid rock but after yet more scrambling we came across a nice large patch of sand. Woo Hoo! That was a welcome relief.

Unfortunately that nice flat sand didn't last for long and we were back to scrambling once again. We did reach another relatively small area of flat rock but there was more loose rock ahead.

The next picture shows how the shore looked further on. That's not going to be easy to walk on.

That cliff on the right is Beachy Head. We realised at this point that we wouldn't make it to the lighthouse because the tide had now turned and was coming back in so this is as near as we got. smilies This is not a good place to be caught by the tide.

On the way back to Cow Gap we had a good look at the rocks and saw many old fossils. (Waits for obvious comments. smilies )




The pictures above, in order, starting from the top are:

Ammonite shell impression
Turitella type shellfish
Section of a Brain Coral
Section of a sponge

We also came across two plants which are typical of this environment.

Sea Kale which looks rather like cabbage.

 and Rock Samphire which looks like, well, Rock Samphire.

On the way back to Eastbourne I managed to sneak up on this Speckled Wood butterfly.

We went back to our hotel to change and were out again in time for afternoon tea. Yum yum. Tomorrow I'm doing another walk and Amanda is going to a museum.

Day Three

Amanda decided after yesterday's walk that she didn't want to do more walking today so she is going to visit the 'How we lived then' museum, packed with nostalgic items from the past, and I am getting on the bus.

My bus, the number 126, leaves from a stop near the railway station at about 9:45 and I walk up to the stop with time to spare. Whilst I'm waiting a lady asks me if the 126 goes to Alfriston. I explain that I hope it does because that's where I'm planning to go. We share a seat on the bus and chat. It turns out that her name is Nicky (Nicola) and she is on holiday from Switzerland and someone here suggested that she would probably like visiting  Alfriston.

We arrive in Alfriston after about 30 minutes and she decides to join me on a visit to the Clergy House. Amanda and I have stayed in Alfriston before but were unable to visit the Clergy House because it opens only on some days and wasn't open when we were last there.

The Clergy House is a 14th-century Wealden hall-house and is owned by the National Trust. It was their first ever purchase in 1896 and cost the princely sum of £10.00.

This picture shows why it is called a hall-house.

It has a hall-like room which goes right up into the roof. Very impressive but, I would imagine, a devil to heat in the winter.

This shows the kitchen with all mod. cons. Well it does have a sink and water pump.

There were also some nice gardens.

Nicky was apparently going to spend the whole day looking around Alfriston so I said goodbye and made my way to the river.

Not much of a river I grant you; more like a stream at this point. However I plan on following the river down to Exceat where I hope to catch a bus back to Eastbourne so I set off.

I soon came across a group of locals having a meeting and there's one on the extreme right that's right on my path.

We shall see what she will do when I get closer. Well I walked close by her right-hand side and apart from a brief glance at me she got on with her eating. They must be used to seeing people.

I passed the little village of Littlington part of which is shown here. Pity the weather isn't better.

Soon after I passed littlington I had my first glimpse of the white horse, on High and Over, seen across the reeds on the edge of the river to the right.

A little further on and there is a better view of the river with the white horse beyond.

The banks of the river look muddy because the river is tidal at this point and the tide is low so the river level is down. Incidentally High and Over is the name of a hill between Alfriston and Seaford and is the hill directly ahead.

This is about as close as I got to the white horse then following the river takes me further away.


At one point I walked past these Canada Geese who seemed to be honking away most of the time. There were also some other white birds in the distance which I couldn't identify. They all sounded as though they were having a honking good time.

It didn't take much longer to get to the bus stop at Exceat and a little while later along came my bus back to Eastbourne.

After an uneventful ride (front seat, top deck) we reached the top of the hill down to Eastbourne with a good view of the town laid out below. That probably would have looked nice in good weather.

I got off the bus at Eastbourne Station where Amanda was waiting for me with our luggage and we got the train back home. It was a short but enjoyable trip. We will probably be back.

 

Time and Tide

Time and Tide

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Friday was Amanda's birthday and it was forecast to be a nice day so we thought we'd have a short trip to Tollesbury. We walked along the sea wall until we spotted some Sea Lavender and went down onto the marshes to have a look.

The salt marshes are riddled with channels which form quite a maze.

There is a large channel running along the outside of the wall which the lavender was next to but just a short way on we could see a narrow land bridge across this channel. We walked across it and a little further on there was a crude wooden bridge although we have no idea who would have constructed it. However it looked quite substantial, and it was, so we walked across onto the next bit of marshland. The next wooden bridge didn't look so well constructed so we gave that one a miss.

We carried on a little way with channels on both sides until we could see that there was no way on and turned round and headed back. We got back to the sea wall and then saw some other people starting to do what we did. They decided to risk the ricketty bridge.

You can see the other bidge that we used to the right of those people who did get across safely. We went back to look at the lightship because we were now about two hours to high tide and the path out to the ship can be covered at high tide. We could see that the water level now was only about 5 inches below the path and still rising.

It was now time for lunch so we went on the 'The Loft', where we had been before, and had a pleasant unhurried lunch. Afterwards we went back to the sea wall to see how the tide was progressing and it was progressing very well thank you.

The picture above is looking along the route that we had walked just an hour ago. If you look at the previous picture showing some people on the ricketty bridge you should be able to see, to the right, a wooden post with a white top near the other bridge. That same post is visible a short way in from the right edge of the picture.

We walked back to 'The Loft' and this is what we saw.

The Loft is the farthest one of the old sail lofts.

You can't say you weren't warned.

This view of The Loft was at high tide with the water not quite reaching it. However on some tides the water does reach The Loft.

We went home after an enjoyable little trip.