One of the recreated gardens at Kenilworth Castle. This one is outside the gatehouse.

The large Privy garden, with the Norman keep behind.

Lex on the terrace

Looking down on the garden

Kenilworth Castle

Carpenter's Cottage in Pocklington, our home for the next 6 days.

Monday, 1st September   FIRST DAY OF THE UK AUTUMN

OXFORD - YORKSHIRE

Robyn writes: Another moving to a new accommodation day, and our last one for the trip, really, as the next one will be packing up and heading to stay with Carol, Dave and Glen for a night before we fly out.


Yesterday was such a glorious afternoon and evening - so sunny with bright blue skies; very appropriate for the last day of summer. This morning dawned appropriately miserable to mark the beginning of autumn - we woke to a cool, grey, rainy Oxford. After a last delicious and huge hotel breakfast, we packed (or crammed, in my case....I am SO over packing!), booked out, and headed north just before 10.


Thankfully today, our satnav seemed to be in a benevolent mood and we had no trouble in setting a course for Kenilworth Castle, about an hour's drive north of Oxford through some lovely scenery. We arrived just after 11 and used our English Heritage membership to get in. Interestingly, as we walked up, the man at the door greeted us with, "You'll be members, then!" We were highly gratified to think that we obviously look like history buffs! We waved our membership cards around and got our admission stickers, audio guides and a map and set out to explore the castle.


Kenilworth Castle dates back to the 1200s. It was built by Geoffrey de Clinton, and his huge Norman keep is still partly standing today. Later in the 1400s it was owned and greatly extended by John of Gaunt, and it then became a royal castle before being passed to the Dudleys, most notably John (executed by Bloody Mary for trying to put his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey on the throne) and his son Robert, the great love of Elizabeth 1's life. He also built a huge new building, gatehouse and garden. All of the castle remained in excellent conditon until after the Civil War when Oliver Cromwell ordered it to be rendered unrepairable, so it could never again be used as a fortification. They did a good job of trashing all of the buildings except the gatehouse and the stables. As I think I've said before, when you're contemplating a building in ruins in the UK it's usually down to either Henry VIII, Oliver Cromwell or Adolf Hitler. Destructive bastards all three.


We used our audio guides to go through the ruins of the castle, which would have been amazing to see in its heydey. Disappointingly, though, we couldn't go into the 'new' wing that Robert Dudley built for Elizabeth - it's currently having new metal staircases put throughout the ruins so when they're open, you'll be able to go right up to the top...but they're not quite finished yet. Bugger. However, the main thing we went to see was the garden. This had been 'lost' for centuries, but English Heritage archaeologists determined how and where it was laid out, and after a huge amount of research over the last two decades, they've rebuilt and replanted the gardens as close to the original as possible. It was a 'privy' garden, just for Dudley and Elizabeth and close friends and attendants, and it is just lovely and so impressive to see what they've managed to achieve. They've rebuilt a huge bird cage which has pheasants and other smaller birds in it as well, so we could channel Tudor vibes and enjoy the ambience! It's just a pity that it was so overcast/drizzly - it would have been lovely to see on a sunny day like yesterday.


When we'd finished exploring the castle and gardens, we went down to the cafe in the stables and had delicious cheese & onion pasties and salads for lunch. Very warming on a rainy day. Then we went through the gatehouse which had a really interesting display about Elizabeth and Dudley, and finally decided we'd better be on our way.


We headed north again and all was going well when...you guessed it, the dreaded message "Severe delays" once more. I checked the map and we headed off the M1 around the congested area and went through Nottingham instead - a nice looking city and we got to drive through some of Sherwood Forest as well so that was a bit of a bonus. It was getting quite late though so we didn't have time to stop at the Robin Hood centre. Thankfully we were soon back on the M1 again and had no more troubles apart from the odd bit of roadwork, and arrived here at 5.


We're in Carpenter's Cottage in Pocklington, a little village about 15km east of York. We have a gorgeous little one bedroomed cottage in the yard of a house owned by Helen and Patrick, our extremely nice and friendly landlords. James is also a Grade 5 teacher and just started work again today after the summer holidays so I extended my deepest sympathies. Our cottage was built around 1850 as probably an animal shed, but James has done a fantastic job on the renovation. We unpacked, then walked just up the road where there is a little "Co-op" store for groceries for tonight and breakfast, and will go to the bigger Sainsbury's a few blocks away tomorrow, plus we've been told there's a local food market as well. Lex is ecstatic that we look out of the window at "Toddy's", the pub right across the road! We've had tea and are putting our feet up after a few very hectic Oxford days plus a long day on the road. Lex also just got to watch the replay of yesterday's MotoGP on TV which he was very pleased to see. We've now got 6 days to explore Yorkshire!