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. 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 precisely who 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 the journey was on major roads but most of it was on tiny roads winding through picturesque villages and past close encounters with oncoming traffic. 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!

 

Wednesday 28^th May                   LEIGHTON  BUZZARD  -  AUDLEY END HOUSE  -  HALSTEAD

 Robyn writes: Today we go to Halstead, ancestral home of the Bowles family! (My grandfather, Pa, was Frank Charles Bowles. His grandfather Richard Bowles and back to my 5 times great grandfathers all lived in Halstead.)

However, the day started in Glen’s flat in Leighton Buzzard, as we got ourselves organised to pack our overnight bags, bid Glen farewell as he set out for work, and finally get underway ourselves. We’ve been frustrated by trying to navigate and plan routes only on the phone, or small pages in the National Trust / English Heritage books, so popped into Tesco’s on our way out of town. No maps there, but the nice lady in the service station told us that she had seen the map books in the garden centre near Dunstable. We checked, and it was only about 20 minutes away and in the right direction, so off we set!

Poplar’s Garden Centre is HUGE – most of it is undercover (thank you, British weather) and we quickly found the map books, the most recent version of the one we had in 2014, for only 6 pounds. That is amazingly cheap, compared to what we paid for the old one! They also had a lovely café, so we had morning tea there, and set off again.

                                                   Poplar's Garden Centre

We decided to use our English Heritage membership and call in to Audley End House, which is in Essex and on our way. It was getting quite overcast by the time we got there, but much warmer today at around 18 degrees. We walked down the hill to the entrance, and of course didn’t have to pay. Tickets are 24 pounds each so that’s about $100AUD saved straight up!

Audley House was built by the Earls of Essex and dates back to 1603, on the site of an old priory destroyed in the reformation (of course). It was expanded over the centuries and was huge at its most prominent – more than twice the size of what remains now. The furnishings are glorious, and it is stuffed with paintings galore by famous artists, and of the great and good from the 1500s on. A truly remarkable house. We explored the various floors and the servants’ quarters, then went down into the garden. Of course, it began to rain. I was quite hungry by this time so we headed into the café, in the old servants’ dining rooms, and had carrot and coriander soup of the day. (Quite spicy.) Then we headed back up the hill in the rain to the car – my travel umbrella is certainly getting a workout!

                                                  Lex in the haha (ditch to keep out animals)

                                                        The Great Hall was amazing

                                                        Front of the house

                                              The walls were lined with works by famous artists

                                                           That's a Rembrandt over the door!

It was about an hour from there into Halstead – over the usual navigating winding, wet, narrow roads; with cars and trucks hurtling towards us where there was no room to pass. Travel is certainly exciting in the UK! I have developed a rule of thumb for roads like this to calculate how long it will take: multiply the miles by 2, then add a bit. So, to travel 5 miles will generally take you about 12 or 13 minutes……. We went through some breathtakingly pretty little villages that no-one’s ever heard of, but finally got to Halstead about 2.40. It then took us at least 20 minutes to find the museum, scratching our heads over the GPS insisting that we were there (we clearly weren’t), and navigating tiny lanes clogged with cars. Anyway we finally found it, parked, and went in.

Two retired blokes, John and Jim, were on duty, and were very pleased to see me arrive (I livened up an otherwise boring Wednesday afternoon, apparently!) They were thrilled to hear I was a descendant of locals, and that I’d come all the way from Australia, so they plunged into researching the Bowles family back over the years in town. I now have photos and maps, and lots of information to sift through before I can share it with all my Bowles rellies. Lex had gone for a walk while I hit the family history, and he returned when the museum shut at 4. Then Jim was good enough to take us both over to St Andrew’s church, across the road, and he gave us a tour. The man is an absolute font of knowledge. Speaking of fonts, I was thrilled to see the font where all of the Bowles family were christened over centuries. There are no Bowles headstones in the cemetery, unfortunately.

                                                      St Andrew's Church, Halstead

                                                   The font dates back to the 1400s, it's believed

                                                    Some of Halstead's medieval great and good

After we bade Jim farewell, we went and booked into our hotel further up the hill, the Dog Inn. Richard, our host, was very welcoming. Then we went for a walk down the hill and into the town and High Street. I found the site of the house my GGG Grandfather and his family lived in, and then the actual house where they lived after he retired. It’s a lovely little town; we really liked it.

                                                      Queen Victoria Golden Jubilee memorial

                               My GGG Grandfather Richard Bowles lived in the white house.

                                                            (Lavender Cottage)

                                                       We stayed at the Dog Inn

                                                         A glorious meal at Shiish!

                                                        Doors were shorter in the olden days!

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and had a drink in the bar before getting changed and heading out to eat – Richard and the locals in the bar had recommended the local Turkish restaurant, Shiish. It was so good! We’d been warned not to order too much, so just ordered a meal each. The nice young bloke who was waiting on us seemed worried that we wouldn’t be adequately nourished, so he brought us complementary bread. Then after we’d finished as much of our (huge) meals as we could manage, he brought us a free dessert of semolina cake as well! We finally rolled out of the restaurant absolutely stuffed to the brim, and somehow made it back to the hotel.

It was yet another early night, as we were so tired. As I type this, it’s ten past 9, and still quite light outside.

 

Tuesday, 27^th May                                LEIGHTON  BUZZARD  -  OXFORD  -  ABINGDON

Robyn writes:  The weather was bright and sunny when we woke up this morning at about 5 (after crashing out last night at about 9). Alas, it didn’t stay that way for very long – by 8 o’clock, it was very overcast, and the rain started soon afterwards. Glen was heading back to work after the Bank Holiday weekend, and Lex and I decided to travel to the southwest. I wanted to go and have a wander among the ‘dreaming spires’ of Oxford one more time, and he wanted to visit the village of Abingdon, a little further beyond Oxford.

The rain was really setting in by the time we were halfway there; unfortunately, today the Met got the forecast absolutely right! He dropped me off at Thornhill Park & Ride around 10.30. Fortunately, it’s a big bus interchange (you can get buses into Heathrow and London from there), so has a large, warm terminal to wait in. I worked out which stop my bus would leave from, and waited near there. Strangely, in the end, it parked and left from around the back of the building, but I think everyone else who was waiting for it saw it there! I went up onto the top deck, and enjoyed the ride into the centre of Oxford. We went past a lot of student accommodation ( well, it is known as a university city).

The bus dropped me in the city centre around 11.10. Still raining! My little travel umbrella and new rain jacket have both got a workout today. With the temperature hovering around 13 degrees, so did my puffy Macpac jacket. We’d spent two days in Oxford in 2014, and it took me a little while to reacquaint myself with the layout. Lots of winding streets and lanes! I found the Radcliffe Camera, and revisited the Vaults & Garden Café at the University Church for lunch. It was warm and noisy and blissfully dry. I had a tasty Oxford Cheese Rarebit and salad, and the best cup of tea I’ve had in ages for lunch – 12 pounds, which I thought was not too bad.

                                                 One of the many Oxford Colleges

                                                          Radcliffe Camera

                                                          Vaults restaurant at St Mary's 

                                                         Some great souvenir shops!

Fortified by lunch, I headed out again into the rain, and went to the Ashmolean Museum, which we’d also visited in 2014, but as it’s so big, I’d only seen bits of it. Admission there is free. This time I went to the Egyptian galleries, and the huge European Painting section. I enjoyed wandering around until it was time to head past more Oxford landmarks for the bus back to the Park & Ride, as I’d arranged to meet Lex there at 2.30. This took much longer than the ride into the city, as we wound our way back through the CBD, and stopped at every stop along the way. Still, I was right in the front seat at the top of the bus, so I had an excellent view. It was a very damp day in the dreaming spires, but I did enjoy seeing it all again.

                                                The Randolph Hotel (it has a Morse Bar!)

                                                           The Ashmolean Museum

                                                          Martyrs' Memorial

                         Commemorates 3 Protestant clerics who were burned at the stake by Mary 1.

                                                       St Michael's Church, Saxon tower

Lex was waiting in the terminal when I finally got there, and we headed for Leighton Buzzard; it was really too wet to want to stop anywhere along the way. (That’s British weather for you!) After a cuppa, I popped over to Morrisons to get some Lincolnshire sausages for tea (very tasty with onion gravy.) Also some British strawberries and yoghurt for dessert. The strawberries here at the moment are absolutely perfect, and somehow much sweeter, softer and more luscious than the Australian ones. Once again by about 9 o’clock we were falling asleep; hopefully now we’re a week into the trip, the jet lag is just about done.

Lex writes: After dropping Robyn at the Oxford, I headed for Abingdon. The drive there was OK, but when I got there, I could not find a park. I found one just on the edge of town. Payment was by card, and reasonable at £2 for three hours. The short walk to the centre of town took me over the Thames, including an island in the middle of the river. On that island was the Nag’s Head pub.

So very cute.

I walked on, to the centre of town and the Abingdon County Hall Museum.

                                                          Abingdon Hall County Museum

It was quite impressive for a small place. There were lots of dinosaur fossils (Plesiosaurs included), and displays of historical objects from Mesolithic (flints) to modern times (think canal boats). It was very interesting and well presented and explained. No inside photography was allowed. However, I got a photo of the town from the top landing – which was probably a lantern originally.

                                                               Abingdon town

From the museum, I strolled across to Parsons Bakery and bought a pastie and a coffee- for under £5. Cheap. Pasties are popular around this area; they are large and quite filling. Eating and drinking, I walked along the street back to the car. Then the rain drained all excitement from the day as I drove back to Oxford Park & Ride. Robyn arrived soon after I did, and we headed for home. The journey involved driving through some small, and pretty villages, usually at 20mph. Miles per hour – I am still getting used to that speed limit.

Till tomorrow then….

 

 

 

Hughenden and Stowe in Buckinghamshire

Lex Writes: Today the mighty Mercedes hire car took us to Hughenden. Our destination was the house of Benjamin Disraeli- now maintained by The National Trust. Before we got to the place however, we chanced upon the churchyard where he is buried. The church is named St Michael and All Angels. Because Disraeli was a Jew, he had to be buried outside the church. His family plot is well maintained though. The church was open so we had a look around inside.

Then we headed up to the house itself. But first - morning tea. A gorgeous little robin joined us.

Disraeli lived in Hughenden Manor with his wife while he was Prime Minister in 1868, and 1874-1880. It was his wife who had the money. He could not have lived as he did without her. She actually didn't come from money, but her first husband was wealthy, and had the grace to die young.

Here is the house from the back. The bare patch is a garden bed waiting to be replanted with spring flowers.

                                                          The church and family burial plot

Queen Victoria was a good friend of Disraeli's. She dined at Hughenden. The chair at right was actually cut down in size so her feet could touch the ground!

                                                                Library

We toured two levels of the house- the top floor being off limits.

As is usual for a historic house, the furniture was beautiful, and the art was magnificent. The walls were covered with portraits of family members, and contemporaries of Disraeli. Earls, counts, ministers of the government were all there. A standout was the portrait of Queen Victoria, larger than life, in the dining room. Disraeli and Victoria were good friends, especially after Prince Albert died. There were personal objects too – like Mary Jane’s wedding ring. It was a simple gold band- nothing fancy. I think they were both pretty down-to-earth people.

 The library was impressive, having complete sets of books on many political, social, philosophical and classical subjects. All books looked worthy and important, and no one could have read them all in a hundred years. The man was serious about all that stuff: I suppose it was his job.

Of course, the property included several acres of woodland and garden. Here is Glen Wilson standing in one of the pathways.

After we had our fill of Disraeli history, we headed off to Stowe House. Actually, to the National Trust café at Hughenden Manor for lunch: but then to Stowe House. Actually, we walked for a mile or more of planned, landscaped fields, studded with follies, temples ornate bridges, monuments and towers before reaching the house. There are 54 points of interest (follies, temples, bridges, monuments, spires etc) shown on the guide map.

 

 The grounds were beautifully kept, and the installations impressive. The famous gardener Capability Brown was responsible for a lot of the landscaping.

 

The house itself was much bigger than unbelievable. The picture does not do it justice.

The place is now a school!

 As the day wore on, we got cold and tired. So we put the navigator on, and took the windiest, most confused path home that anyone could devise! According to Glen, we could have been home in half the time. Nevertheless, everybody is now home, warm and dry. Bring on tomorrow!

 

Sunday 25^th May                               LEIGHTON  BUZZARD   -   SILVERSTONE

Robyn writes:  The jet lag is improving, finally – we were awake a bit in the middle of the night, but managed to sleep until nearly 6, which is a vast improvement!

Lex, of course, had to get himself organised to leave early, and decided to walk to the station. I’d decided on a ‘down day’ here in Leighton Buzzard to catch up on washing, fix the unholy mess that was my port, and bring the blog up to date. I started with a very sociable video chat to Danny, Cait and Mikeal as Danny ate his dinner, and told me all about his day. Then Mum rang, and finally Sandy for a chat. The roaming pack is excellent; it’s so good to stay in touch with family and friends. Finally, by about 11 the washing was all hung out around the flat (no outside clothes lines in a top floor flat!) and Glen and I set out for a walk downtown. Leighton Buzzard is a very old town; it was listed in the Doomsday Book. The Market Cross in the town square is beautiful. We also saw the home of Mary Norton, writer of the ‘Borrower’ books (a childhood favourite of mine). We popped into a couple of op shops for a browse, and I found two books to take on our travels.

                                                   Market square at Leighton Buzzard

                                                               Mary Norton's house

We also went into Waitrose, which is in the town centre. It had some lovely food offerings, which we got for the next two night’s meals. There is a wide range of supermarkets here, unlike Australia. You’ve got your really budget ones, like Aldi, Lidl and Asda. They have a wide range of goods from all over, and rarely have the name brand items. Then there’s the middle range, like Morrison’s and Tesco’s, Waitrose is slightly more upper class and at the very top is the luxurious and expensive Marks & Spencer’s! From prices in the supermarkets I’ve seen, Morrison’s and Tesco’s are pretty much equivalent to Coles and Woollies. But it’s always fascinating to see and try new foods here. Two favourites of mine so far have been Morrison’s delicious Chicken & Bacon sandwich filling (already mixed in mayo) and Waitrose’s potato and onion rosti which Glen and I had for lunch yesterday – yum! Tomorrow night we are having the 12 pound ($24AUD) Waitrose Indian takeaway which has 2 curries, 2 naans, rice and Indian pastries.

Anyway, this is not a food blog – we wandered home with our goodies, had lunch, and then I finally got the blog updated. Just before three, we went for a walk to the local steam railway station – as it’s a bank holiday, they had the trains running, so we went up to see the engines steaming up and leaving the station. We filmed the event for Danny, who is currently obsessed with trains! We had a cuppa in the café there and headed home. 

                                                Doll and Gertrude, the steam engines

                                              I love the Laburnum trees in the UK in flower!

I was so tired that I decided I’d have to risk a nap, so I set the alarm and had a refreshing half hour sleep, which made me feel quite human again. I tackled the repack of my port and brought it under control (have put the ‘summer’ clothes away in the top compartment – looking at the long-range forecast, I doubt I’m going to need them any time soon). Sad.

Lex got home around 7, and Glen had cooked tea to nicely time with his arrival. Once again, tiredness overwhelmed, and we were in bed by 8.30.

Lex writes: After the early rising mentioned above, I got myself ready to travel to Silverstone. The UK MotoGP is there today. First up was a 25 minute walk to the train station, then find the correct platform. I asked a lady who was waiting, and she asked me back- for now? Yes I was on the right platform, but later in the day the train stops at a different platform, welcome to British Rail. Also, I did find an information panel (electronic) which showed me the timetable and platform information. It was on a short stand beside the shelter and was not obvious to the casual observer. This set the tone for the day.

The train took me from Leighton Buzzard to Milton Keynes, where a shuttle bus would take me to the circuit. An American couple were standing in the bus waiting area, near a sign that said “All pickups from zone Z”. We were in zone Y. There was a bus just nearby, with nothing on the display at the front- blank. She started walking toward it, but I said, “that can’t be it”. As we got on board I said, by way of apology- “How wrong can you be?”

A Greek man sat next to me, and with his daughter, chatted on and off until we reached the circuit. The atmosphere on the bus was convivial for the half-hour journey. Credit to the bus driver who drove the bus through buildings that just about had to breathe in and lean back to let the bus pass. Yes the little shortcut lanes were narrow!

On arriving at the circuit, we had our bags “searched” by a man who only just peered into my open backpack before waiving me through. The grandstand at Becketts corner was over a kilometre’s walk from the entrance, but I finally made it to seat T280 in the stand. It was then I really felt the English weather. Down below in the sun and out of the wind, people were wearing jackets unzipped. Where I sat, all the clothes I wore weren’t up to the job. The wind made me shiver, even though I was holding my backpack in front of me for protection.

Anyway, there was a race- three actually. Moto 2 was first – our view from the grandstand was quite good. We could see 4 corners and half of the back straight. All three races were exciting and everybody was impressed.

I even saw Marc Maquez fall off and slide down a run-off area for about 70 metres. He remounted, and a separate incident caused a stoppage. Marc was back on the grid to restart the race when it resumed. His Brother Alex had also crashed (on the first lap) and he too took his place for the restart. Marc made the podium in third place, with Honda hero Johan Zarco in second. Marco Bezzecchi won, but only after Fabio Quartararo’s bike developed a fault while he was leading by “miles”. Overall, a great MotoGP race.

During the breaks, everyone lined up first for the toilet, then for the bar (beer only), then the food vans. The catering was awful and expensive, and there was not enough of it. The food line was more than 30 metres long at one stage. The line was still there when the next race began!

After the event, I retraced my journey as far as Milton Keynes train station. Then I got on the “London Euston” train. I was only going two stops anyway – NO I WASN’T. The train I got on was express to London Euston station. After I got there, I turned around and came back, arriving at 18:45. The walk home was slightly uncomfortable. My boots were disintegrating, and the heels were coming off. Nevertheless, I made it home just after 7:00, a bit tired and looking for dinner.

As soon as I reasonably could, I went to bed and slept very well for the first time since arriving in England. The jet lag must be gone. Looking forward to tomorrow!