Saturday, May 31^st             TYSOE - BADDESLEY CLINTON – WOOTTEN WAWEN – OXHILL

Robyn writes: Another very busy day here in Warwickshire!  We woke around 6.30/7, which is really very satisfactory. After breakfast, we got ourselves organised and decided to go to Baddesley Clinton, a moated Tudor (and many other eras) house to the northwest not far from Birmingham. Carol volunteered to take her car and drive, so Lex was able to actually watch some of the scenery for a change. It took us a bit over half an hour to drive there, and we arrived around quarter past ten. We signed up to be first into the house when it opened at 10.30, and had a bit of a look around the shop first.

                                                                Baddesley Clinton

There was a Saxon building on the site, apparently, though nothing remains of it. It was probably James de Clinton who had the moat dug in the early 1300s, and the Brome family built a lot of the house we can see now. Constance Brome married Sir Edward Ferrers, and on the death of her father in 1517, it passed into the Ferrers family and remained there for 500 years. Over the centuries there were many changes (apparently a great hall was pulled down at one stage), but it remained a family home until last century. As you can tell by the photos, it’s an incredible building with so much history. The Ferrers were staunch Catholics, and at one stage hid 4 priests in a priest hole for several hours in 1591 while the search for them by the Queen’s men raged through the house. We saw where it was located – hidden in the toilet pit! (Presumably a very uncomfortable few hours for the poor priests.) We also could look into another one hidden behind wooden panelling.

                                                               Priests' holes in the house

The house was filled by paintings (nearly 90 of them) by Rebecca Dering Ferrers, who was a prolific family artist in the 1800s. As well as painting many of her contemporaries and direct ancestors, she also painted portraits of family members from hundreds of years ago, using old etchings and pictures. Family lineage was obviously very important, and the many family crests over the centuries are featured on the windows and walls. We spent over an hour exploring the house upstairs and down, before heading to the café for lunch.

                                                            So much history!  

                                           This is the chapel, built after Catholicism was decriminalised.

After lunch, we drove north towards the town of Wootton Wawen (wonderful place names in the UK!) This was a family history excursion, as my 4 X GGGrandparents, Thomas Speakman and Elizabeth Cole were married here in 1796, and the next year my 3 X GGGrandmother, their first child Mary Ann, was baptised here. Then they went back to Norfolk, where they’d both been born, stayed there for the rest of their long lives, and raised ten children. Norfolk is 130 miles away – it takes a good two and a half hours to drive there even today, so in those days before even train travel, it would have presumably taken days. I’d always wondered what brought them so far, for just a few years?

We went to St Peters there, which is apparently the oldest church in Warwickshire. It’s the strangest one we’d ever been into, as it’s been built over 1300 years from its Saxon beginnings. When you look at some of the photos from the outside, you can see the different eras, but inside it was just confusing! There were two altars, for example, and various chapels, also a very cool reclining knight in armour. It was very hard to sort out which was the earliest part. The font, where Mary Ann was baptised, dates back to the 1300s and has weird carved faces around it. Altogether a very interesting place to visit!

                                                                        Font

                                                       He doesn't really look comfortable!

                                     The Creed would have been in the church when Thomas and

                                                          Elizabeth were there.

                                                    St Peter's, Wootton Wawen

From Wootton Wawen, we headed back to Carol's through Stratford on Avon, home of William Shakespeare. It was stuffed with tourists so we didn’t attempt to stop, but we did glimpse a lot of lovely Tudor buildings and the theatre.

                                                 There are so many Tudor buildings

                                                   Bridge over the Avon River

We stopped just up the road in Oxhill, the little village where Carol grew up (so pretty!) and had a quick look around the church and churchyard there, and visited the grave of Carol’s parents. One item of note in the churchyard is the grave of a Negro slave, Myrtilla, who belonged to Thomas Beauchamp, and died in 1705. Carol says that despite a lot of research, they’ve been unable to find any real information about the poor lass. Yet, for her to be buried with a headstone, she was obviously important to Thomas. We wondered was she his mistress, or possibly even a daughter? One of those mysteries of history which will possibly never be solved.

                                                  Nature is reclaiming a lot of the graveyard!

                                                      Glen's photo of the slave's grave

After all of our historical ramblings, we came home for a rest, and both Lex and I had much needed naps! Then we drove back into Oxhill to The Peacock, for a delightful pub meal. It was wonderful food: Carol and I both had the chicken, mushroom and wine pie, Lex a primavera linguine, and Glen the sea bass. A glorious meal! Once again, the weather has been kind to us, and it’s a beautiful evening – the sun is literally a red ball, but unfortunately, none of our photos have shown what it is really like.

                                                  A lovely meal at the Peacock

                                                   That sun was actually red!

 

Friday, 30^th  May            LEIGHTON  BUZZARD  -  TYSOE

Robyn writes: I woke up at around 6.30ish, which I was quite pleased about. After a week, dare we hope we are pretty much over the jet lag?

Today was a travel day, so a nice slow start to it. I did some blog writing and sorted photos, then when Glen and Lex got up, we slowly got organised. Only a week in, and I’m already ‘over’ packing! I popped into Morrison’s to get some travel food and bread rolls for lunch while Lex and Glen packed the car, then we set off around 9.30 to travel the 44 miles to Tysoe, where Carol lives. Again, some was on tiny lanes and other parts on major roads. The usual mix of picturesque country villages and white-knuckle experiences on roundabouts. Anyway, we finally arrived here around 11, and were welcomed by Carol.

                                                 Beautiful houses and scenery along the way

                                                          Here we are in the Cotswolds!

She has a lovely little bungalow right on the edge of Tysoe, a beautiful little Warwickshire village. We spent some time organising beds and bedding (like Glen did, she has very kindly given us the main bedroom – we are feeling quite spoiled!) Then we had lunch in her lovely conservatory (these are an excellent addition for space and light on a lot of British houses) and I did a big load of washing. After lunch, the others went for a walk while I stayed home to keep an eye on the washing, finish some blogs and have a nice rest. After the weather forecast had said rain, it turned out to be a very nice, warm day with temperatures in the low 20s. Fortunately, all the washing actually dried for us!

                                                       Carol's conservatory

                                            Beautiful violas growing in a clump in the paving!

                                                       View over the side fence

Glen and Lex walked right up to the Tysoe windmill (early 1700s), a local landmark. It operated until 1915 when it was struck by lightning. They then had a stroll around the village and admired the beautiful thatched houses, some as recently done as 5 months ago. Afterwards, we all had a rest before it was time to get ready for dinner – we walked to a local farm where they hold a low-key burger restaurant on a Friday night, Happy Herefords. They have a catering business, but if they’re not at a function, they run evenings out of their own place. It was very well patronised by the locals! Carol’s cousin Jane and her husband Richard joined us for the evening. We all had burgers and chips made from their farm beef, then I bought a delicious waffle and icecream dish to share, and Jane had brought Scottish strawberries. Afterwards, they came back to Carol’s for coffee and hot chocolate, and we sat talking until sunset – which was at 9.10 precisely! The days are so long already, and this is certainly going to continue.

                                                          Postcard pretty cottages in Tysoe

                                                                   Lex at the windmill

                                                    Happy Herefords for tea!

                                                                     Sunset at 9.10pm!

Tomorrow, we are off to explore Warwickshire and surrounds!

 

 

 

Thursday 29^th May                HALSTEAD  -  COLCHESTER  -  SUTTON HOO  -  LEIGHTON BUZZARD

We woke up at about 6.30 in our hotel room – amazingly late! We got ourselves dressed and organised and downstairs for breakfast – Richard seemed worried that I would be undernourished when I told him I only wanted sausage, fried egg and a hash brown with my toast for breakfast, but I assured him I’d survive. Lex had the full English breakfast (except he passed on the beans). He then didn’t need to eat until 3 o’clock!

                                                  Breakfast at the Dog Inn (circa 1500s)

                                                Lex and Richard (lovely bloke)

After we’d finished, we paid Richard, collected our things and bade him a fond farewell, then set out south for Colchester. It was only about a half hour drive to the Park & Ride there on the north of the city, so we left the car there and paid 5 pounds for our return tickets into the Main Street. The Main Street is lovely – it’s on a hill, and was still full of Union Jacks from the recent VE80 celebrations.

                                    Colchester High Street. The figure in the middle is a statue!

Colchester has a long history; it was at one point the major city in the country, and has survived through the various eras in English history. It was a major Roman city, but was completely destroyed (along with every man, woman and child in it) by Boudica and her tribe. The Romans rebuilt, though, once she’d been vanquished. Then when they left, it fell into ruins before rising again as a Saxon settlement (they used the conveniently placed Roman street system.) After the Norman conquest, Colchester Castle was built late in the 1000s, and the town became a major port and trading centre. It was the castle we came to see, as it’s now the town’s museum.

                                                     Colchester Castle today

                             This model shows what they think it looked like in the 1100s.

                                            Roman artefact - The Colchester Sphinx

                                                             Huge Roman mosaic floor

                                                          We had morning tea at The George

We paid for our tickets (unfortunately it’s neither National Trust or English Heritage, but run by the city council) and booked a guided tour at 12. Then we had a look around the displays inside the castle until about 11, when we headed out into the High Street again to look for morning tea. We settled on The George, a glorious regency building, where I had an amazing scone, jam and clotted cream with my cuppa. Then we headed back to the castle to look around again before our tour started.

The tour was excellent: it first took us down into the basement via my favourite English torture, I mean thing…the spiral stone staircase. The Romans had originally built a massive temple to Claudius on the site. Their foundations are still there  (they were originally filled with sand, but this was excavated centuries ago and new walls built to stabilise the castle). After the original temple was destroyed by Boudica and co, they rebuilt. Then this fell into ruins, various locals helped themselves to the stone to use in nearby buildings, and when the Normans came along, they used the foundations to build their castle. Lots of recycling in ancient times!

We went right through the basement area; some very low bits where we had to scuttle like crabs. Then we went up onto the roof for a look – lovely views. We really enjoyed it.

                                                    Tour of the foundations/ basement

                                                          View of Colchester from the roof

                                                              The tower from the roof

                                          No battlements left at all. The local stone is very poor quality.

         In fact, no one knows how high the castle actually was, as its owner in the 1600s 

                                        started  demolishing it, then decided it was all too hard!

After this, we realised we’d need to head back to the Park & Ride to retrieve our car and travel north for the next stop of our day: Sutton Hoo. We just missed the first bus, but about ten minutes later another one came along, so by around 1.30, we were back in the car and off, arriving there a bit before 3. Once again, our National Trust membership came in handy (thus saving around $70AUD) and we headed straight for the café. We had Cornish pasties for a very late lunch, then went out to explore.

                                                  Sutton Hoo National Trust site

For those who don’t know the story: in 1939, a fabulous Anglo-Saxon burial was found at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. It’s not known who precisely was buried there, but it was obvious that he was a very powerful and rich king or leader. The metal mask found there is an absolute icon of Anglo-Saxon Britain. It’s now in the British Museum along with most of the rest of the treasure, but I did like the Lego one which was on display! He was buried in a longboat, and it certainly was long. The replica frame on display in the courtyard puts it at about 27 metres.

                                                             It was this huge!

                                                              Lego version

                                                                           The real thing

For us, one of the big attractions was that Time Team is currently doing a 3 week dig there in a garden field which has not been previously dug. Tony Robinson was there last weekend, and it was late on the Thursday, so we weren’t really expecting to see any of the well-known members, but Stewart Ainsworth, the landscape archaeologist, was there, and he was really happy to chat. I donate to Patreon for Time Team every month, which meant our names are on the supporters’ flag for this year, and it was very exciting to find them! We had a look at the two trenches they’ve dug, and there was what looked like a cremation urn filled with something (presumably cremated bones) nearly excavated. The other trench had buckets covering other discoveries awaiting the next day, so we’ll have to watch the next update on YouTube to find out what they were.

                                                       Yes, our names are there on the banner!

                                                 Stewart Ainsworth and the 'Mick' doll.

                    Mick Aston was the Time Team lead archaeologist for many years but died in 2013

                                                        The tent and the major trench

                                             This appears to be probably a cremation urn 

                                                          Keen Time Team fans

After this, we took the walk out to the paddock where the royal boat was discovered. The ground is full of mounds – it’s a major Anglo-Saxon burial site. They’ve built a big tower (81 steps) up to a viewing platform so you can get an excellent overview of the site. Then we walked back to Tramner House, where the original landowners lived. It’s set up as it would have been in 1939 when the excavations first began. Apparently there is a Netflix movie called The Dig, based on these events – we must see if we can watch it some time. We had a look at some of today’s finds (pottery, flint, bone – no nice golden artefacts) then realised that time was getting away, so bought a book and fridge magnet and headed westward.

                                       Heaps of burial mounds. The front one was the major boat burial.

                                                           A great view from the lookout

                                         Tramner House. As you can see, it's been a dry spring here.

It took just over two and a half hours to travel the 110 miles back to Leighton Buzzard, some of it on various major roads but most of it on assorted tiny roads winding around picturesque villages and death-defying encounters with oncoming trucks and cars. I honestly don’t know why Lex’s hair hasn’t gone completely white! Anyway, we survived, and arrived home just after 7. We went straight across to Morrison’s, where we grabbed an Indian meal for 9 pounds (two curries, rice, two naans and four onion fritters – excellent value) then home to eat and fall into bed again. It’s been a huge day!

                                                You frequently see this sign, and it's not lying!