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 added onto 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 – the usual navigating winding, wet, narrow roads with cars and trucks hurtling towards you where there’s 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. It’s very light quite late though – 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 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 on the second storey, 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 more sweeter, soft and 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.

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 for lunch: but then to the House. Actually, we walked for a mile or more of planned, landscaped fields, studded with follies, temples ornate bridges, monuments and towers. There are 54 points of interest 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!