Saturday 24th May LEIGHTON BUZZARD
- LEICESTER
Robyn writes: Alas, jet lag continues to dog us – several periods
of wakefulness in the night, though not quite as bad as the last few nights.
Unfortunately, at about half past 4, Lex decided he might as well get up and
read, and that was it for his night’s sleep. I managed to drop off again and
woke a bit before 7 feeling decidedly more human, at least.
We decided that our major outing for the day should be to
Stoneywell, an Arts & Crafts period house near Leicester. Carol then
reminded us about Richard 111, who I’m currently reading a book about, so Leicester
Cathedral was promptly put on the ‘to do’ list for the day!
We set off a bit after 9. The weather forecast said rain periods, and it was certainly very overcast, so we had jackets, umbrellas etc at the ready. In the end it didn’t rain more than a few sprinkles all day! We took the M1 most of the way and went straight to Stoneywell. We hadn’t booked (it’s a bank holiday weekend here; our bad) but they kindly let us in anyway. It’s a gorgeous house, built in 1899 for a rich Leicester manufacturing family to use as their summer residence (and get away from all the nasty smog and pollution in the city that they had helped to create….) It remained in the same family right up until this century, when the National Trust took it on. The last remaining family member who lived there is now 100, and still likes to pop in occasionally! They have a tea room there in the old shed, so we all had scones for morning tea. Mine was that British delight, the cream tea, which means scone, jam and clotted cream (yum!) with a cuppa. So much nicer than the horrid canned fake cream that is so common in Australia’s cafes now.
Then we strolled down the hill to the house itself. The tour was really interesting, and it was lovely to see the way they lived, and the Arts & Crafts furniture which is all original and still in the house. The house was built without foundations, and just follows the contours of the rocky outcrop it’s built on, so there is hardly a straight line or right angle in the place. Some very quirky staircases! The gardens are beautiful too, and we had an enjoyable stroll through some of the grounds. The bluebells are almost finished, but I was lucky enough to find a few remaining. It was a lovely way to spend a few hours, and as we are now National Trust members, it cost us nothing.
From there, we headed into one of the Park & Rides just outside Leicester. For the princely sum of 4 pounds ($8AUD) we were able to leave the car and take an electric shuttle bus into the city and back. Wonderful value. We were soon deposited right in the city centre, and went looking first for lunch. We chanced upon a chicken place, Slim Chickens, which was pretty much a cross between KFC and Carl’s Junior. Their ‘chicken sandwiches’ were, in fact, burgers! Fast food has gotten REALLY expensive here over the last few years; our three meals cost around $60AUD. Thank heavens we are mostly self catering here, as groceries from what I’ve seen are either pretty much the same as Australia or quite a bit cheaper.
Our next stop was Leicester Cathedral. We walked in (having
given them a donation) to two very unexpected things in a British cathedral: a
loud noise of children playing, and a massive, inflatable planet Mars occupying
the entire centre of the cathedral! It turned out that (this being half term
and a bank holiday weekend), the cathedral was home to ‘Mars and Peace’; a huge
art installation with lots of children’s play equipment. A good time was
certainly being had by all.
My first stop (apart from admiring wayward planets) was a visit to the tomb of King Richard 111. For those who aren’t familiar with the story, Richard, of the house of York, was killed in battle by the soldiers of Henry Tudor (house of Lancaster) at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Henry had himself crowned king on the battlefield, and shortly after cannily married Richard’s niece, Elizabeth of York, thus uniting the families, bringing an end to the Wars of the Roses, and beginning the Tudor dynasty. Poor Richard was stripped naked, slung on the back of a horse and carted into town, where his body was displayed so that there should be no doubt he was dead. He was then buried in a nearby Franciscan Priory. During the reformation, the priory was of course disbanded, and a grand gentleman’s house was built on the grounds. The priory fell into ruins over the centuries, so did the house, and all that remained by last century was the legend that Richard was buried in the council car park!
Enter Philipa Langley, a very determined woman, who raised
enough money early this century to fund an archaeological dig on the site.
Amazingly, on the very first day of the dig in 2012, they unearthed a skeleton –
with clear signs of scoliosis (he was known as ‘the hunchback’ by his enemies),
and with several obvious battle wounds visible. They had indeed found Richard
111! DNA testing with known relatives confirmed this, and a few years later, he
was buried in Leicester Cathedral, where he has become the biggest tourist
attraction the city has ever known. His tomb is not at all medieval – it’s very
plain, and made of limestone from York on the top (he was Richard of York) and
Ireland on the base (he was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland). After we’d finished
looking around the cathedral, we also visited the nearby complex which has lots
of displays telling his story, about the dig, and incorporates the dig site,
which they preserved.
By about 4 we were rather weary, so headed back home along the M1 (a bit over an hour). I popped over to Morrison’s next door to get some things for tea (British pork steaks), and happily cooked it all up. Glen and I watched episode one of Good Omens Part 2, while Lex got an early night. It was a huge day!
