2022 Short Trips

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• Annette’s house

  

  Parked up at Henley campsite.

   

  

  Approaching Annette’s island in the Thames in their little boat, their canal boat and house ahead. (And Gandolf, their dog).

  Another view of the Henley campsite.

  Vehicle still grubby from the France trip.

  Unfortunately picture disappeared.

• Pevensey 20th May
  Arrived late afternoon Thursday, a MCC rally, at a site at Fairfield Farm, an attractive site, with an attached collection of animals, all available to view.
  

  Kunekune pigs (a New Zealand breed) looking very cosy.
  

  A Shetland Pony, possibly peering at me through his hair.
  

  The site as we arrived, in blazing sunshine. Even lasted long enough for us to have our evening meal outside. Now, that is really really rare.
  Normal service resumed this morning. Raining. With the effects of climate change becoming ever more apparent, and the weather increasingly unpredictable, one thing hasn’t changed – when we go away in the motorhome, it rains. Oh well!,
  

  For reasons not entirely clear, Sue decided to try an alternative sleeping position.

• Fri 20th May
  A short walk away is Pevensey Castle, built by the Romans, developed by the Normans, and a very long history.
  
  Inside the medieval tower.
• Sat 21st May

  A relaxing morning, and we planned another visit into Pevensey to visit two venerable old churches. Unfortunately Sue was achey, (is there such a word)?, which fortunately has subsequently become unachey (now that is not a word)!, so I went all by myself.
  800 year old St Nicholas.
  

  

  Founded in 1080, St Mary the Virgin.
  

  Both churches had very fine beam roofs.

• June

  Left Brighton at 11.40 am, after Sue finished her Sheepshare meeting, drove to our lunch spot (Clacket Lane service station), and then joined the mega crawl to the Dartford Crossing. Held up for ages, finally made it across, and then an intermittently interrupted journey, interspersed with traffic jams, up to a preselected car park in Darlington. Finally arrived at about 7.15 pm. Dreadful journey, but the car park was fine for the night.

  Next day (Friday 2nd June, start of the Queen’s diamond jubilee weekend), dropped the errant station clock off in Hexham for repair, and thence to Vindolanda, wanted to visit there for years.

  And fascinating it was. We started by joining a one hour tour, led by an informative guide with a wonderfully sardonic sense of humour.

  

  Drainage system, dry when we were there, but still required to avoid flooding in wet weather. The victus and fort in the background.
  

  The remains of the wall surrounding the fort, with the victus further up the hill.
  

  Another view of the fort and wall. By now, Sue’s hip was giving her jip, so we decided to drive to the first of two museums displaying some of the artefacts that have been found. Involved about half a mile or so of really steep really narrow roads, but made it fine.

• Vindolanda Museum

  
  A selection of the hundreds of discarded shoes that have been found. The fort was rebuilt seven times, and each time the site was levelled, it was covered with a new layer of soil. One layer was clay, which sealed the ground below, depriving it of oxygen, and preserving everything below. I hadn’t realised how much has been recovered, and how important internationally this site is to Roman history. Fascinating.
  
  More shoes! Childrens ones this time.
  So much perishable stuff has been recovered, which does nor normally survive.
  
  
  A horses headset, the original below, and the reconstruction above. How terrifying to see this bearing down on you at twenty odd miles per hour!
  There is another museum contains more artefacts, but that will be for a subsequent visit, I hope.
  This really interesting day has led me to ponder future Roman sites we happen upon, and whether I really want to visit them, unless there is something more than old stones.
  Clearly, Pompeii and Herculaneum are the most remarkable, and places like Vindolanda and Fishbourne Roman Palace are fascinating, but some of the ones we visited in France last winter were poorly explained, and not really very interesting. Just a thought.
  And thence on to Stuart and Hazel’s, and a merry round of feasting and talking.

• Medmenham 1st Jul
  A laborious drive, with the M25 slow to a crawl for ages. Arrived, and had to navigate two locked gates, controlled by combination locks. We were supposed to receive a text message giving us the combinations, but not received. However, managed to gain entry. Disappointing that we are not allowed to park facing the river, despite the promotional blurb showing just that.
  The warm sunny weather we drove through to get here rapidly declined when we arrived, quite chilly with a cold wind, but stayed dry. An improvement during the evening, but by then the planned get together had already been cancelled.
• A July day
  Started grey and overcast, a few tantalising glimpses of the sun through the morning.
  

  A view of the river, and a long line of motorhomes. We are tucked away at the far end.
  I have always wanted to go away in July, warm weather, everything in bloom, and basking under the sun. This afternoon it rained. Mostly on, a few bits of off interspersed with drizzle.
  

  Another view looking the other way.
  

  And a third, for luck perhaps? Spent most of the day in the motorhome, Sue spent all day. Not at all memorable.

• Sun 3rd July

  A much better day than yesterday dry, sunny, warm, quite hot early afternoon.
  A get together and coffee morning on the bank of the river was pleasant.
  After lunch I went on the short walk to Hambledon lock, which involved crossing a remarkable long winding weir, good views of large colony of geese and ducks. Nice watching the boats, made all the more interesting by this one.

  

  Built 1936, lots of gleaming brass and polished woodwork.
  Back to site, where Malcolm and Leslie invited us to join them. An enjoyable afternoon, into early evening, chatting and sharing their nibbles and Sue’s bottle of Sussex fizz.
  Back home tomorrow, via Wokingham, to hopefully have our latest problems, non working step and non working charger looked at/rectified.

• Tue 2nd August
  BBQ with Rosie, Sam and Rosie’s dad at Stoneywish.
  

  Excellent evening. Next day met Rosie at Saunders Park, and looked at the sail shelter there for ideas for our house.
  

  

• Escaping Brighton Pride
  Thu 5th August.

  About 80% of Preston Park was closed on Monday, marquees and barriers all over the place, plus a colossal stage. That is 5 days before things get even worse, with constant pounding pop music echoing around the valley, and the racket of a news helicopter flying endlessly round the park into late evening.
  So, we have fled to a motorhome meet at Hereford Rowing Club, and are parked up on the side of the River Wye.

• Fri 5th August

  A leisurely start, and a walk round Hereford town centre, which we both thought looked a very nice place. Then round the Cathedral. We both realised we have been to the cathedral before, but only when we found it contained the Mappa Mundi, a medieval map of the world as the medieval mind envisaged it, inhabited with strange part human creatures, and fragments of history, with Jerusalem at the centre, and bearing little resemblance to our modern world.
  The outside

  

  The nave, massive Norman columns, and round Norman arches.

  

  The decorative roof.
  

  

  The Mappa Mundi. (Typing that really exercises spell checker!)

  

• Inside the Cathedral

  Sun illuminating one of the many stained glass windows.

  

  Apparently the most intact original Norman wall in the Cathedral.
  

• The Chained Library
  This is a rare example of a medieval chained library – all libraries had their books chained because they were so valuable. However, this practice was discontinued in the 18th century, and most chained libraries were “unchained”, so only a few small collections remains chained, except at Hereford. Their library was held in the Lady Chapel, which was crumbling and in need of renovation in the 18th century, so the shelving was dismantled, and put into storage, and the books were put into anywhere out of the way. When the Lady Chapel renovations were completed, it was decided to put it to a different use, and the books and shelving stayed where they were for a couple of hundred years. In 1968, a new building, very much in keeping with the rest of the Cathedral, was built to house the collection – all 1100 of them! The oldest book ( not on display) dates from about 800, the first two rows of shelving contain books from between 1100 and 1400, the rest are printed, dating from the mid 1400 on.

  The first row…..with the same quantity out of the picture on the other side of the aisle.
  Unfortunately, the chains are not at all clear in the photo.

  

  The route back from the cathedral goes past the Hereford art gallery and museum, and what a superb facade it is, with animals crawling round and hanging over the roof, and very decorative.

  Friday evening had the option of a pre booked curry in the boathouse, and we decided to order a veg korma. (Meat options had no ethics, so they were rejected). No dogs in the restaurant, but fine on the balcony. So we had to suffer the intolerable view looking over the river, with trees on the opposite bank, and were unable to sample the delights of dining in a bleak and uninviting dining room.

  Our intolerable view.
  

  Astonishingly, everyone else shunned this for the bleak and uninviting dining room. Sue and I went in separately to collect our meal (served with rice, naan bread and chips!), handing over a ticket clearly marked “Veg Korma”, and certainly I said veg korma as I handed my ticket over. Both our meals were very definitely chicken. Which undoubtably tasted better.

• Berrington Hall
  Sat 6th Aug. Berrington Hall, a National Trust owned Georgian mansion, just a few miles from Hereford.
  The sweeping drive leading to the front of the house, with commanding views.
  

  The inside had very attractive, but subtle ceiling decorations. The morning room.
  

  The dining room.
  

  A later alteration created the ladies boudoir.

  

  The theme of Georgian clothing continued, mostly for ladies, and the centrepiece was a chance discovery at an auction, the almost complete court dress of Anne Bangham, 1st Lady of Berrington, made around 1760.
  

  How absolutely absurd! But fascinating to see. There were many quotes from ladies of the period, about how uncomfortable and difficult these clothes were. Also, a quote from The Lady magazine of the period, saying long may they continue. The gender of that long ago writer was not given!
  And, to get to that upper floor display, a rather grand staircase.

  

• Goodrich Castle
  An English Heritage castle about 20 miles south of Hereford, close to Ross-on-Wye.
  Two views of the outside, the first clearly showing the Keep, the oldest part of the castle, built around 1080.
  

  

  Inside the castle, the courtyard.
  

  The view from the top of the keep.
  

  The spiral staircase to climb the keep was one of the most difficult I have had the pleasure to climb, very narrow, and each stair really narrow, difficult to fit one’s shoe onto it.

  

  The castle survived very well, and was lived in up to the Civil War, when the attacking parliamentarians commissioned a mortar from the village below, and destroyed one of the four towers. The mortar was called Roaring Meg, and here she is…..

  

  !
  On the way back, we saw an EH sight to Rotherwas Chapel, and on a whim turned off to find it. Turned out to be on a private estate, old buildings, and fishing nearby. It was difficult to find, and unfortunately closed. The interior sounded interesting, dated from around 1600, but altered by, amongst others, Pugin’s son and grandson.
  Had much difficulty typing that, particularly Rotherwas, because spellchecker spellchecked!

• Fri 19th Aug

  Left Brighton around 10.30am for the three and a half hour drive to Geraldine’s. Finally arrived around 4.30 pm, traffic horrible.
  But then had a really nice evening barbecue, Geraldine Jonathon Robbie, Annette Jason Hal, Libby Paul Rose. Remembered my camera, but forgot to take a photo.
  Saturday went to Sutton Hoo. We had been there before, but many changes, with the discovery of a Saxon hoard some miles north, and a shed full of lottery money.
  Most Saxon artefacts are minuscule, but very finely worked.
  However, there was a magnificently recreated shield and, of course, the mask found in the boat Burial.

  

  

  Going to the burial site, there were some recreations, and we happened upon a demonstration of weapons.

  

  

  Then, on to the viewing platform overlooking the burial mounds.

  

  Met up in the evening (Geraldine, Annette, Jason, Ned, Jonathon and Robbie), and had a splendidly enjoyable evening meal at Blaxhall’s pub.

• Norwich Cathedral
  The first big surprise for this huge cathedral, they allow dogs in!
  And, the Cathedral really is big.

  

  Building commenced in 1086, solidly Norman.
  

  This is the grave of a man who wanted to be buried upright – so he could be first out of purgatory. Only an advantage if you then go up, not down!

  An interesting font.

  

  This was formally a copper mixing bowl in a chocolate factory, recycled when the factory closed.

  

  A rather splendid gatehouse leading to the cathedral – there are two of them.
  

  A view from the cloisters looking towards the spire.

  

  An interesting (modern) carving on a choir seat, a local football hero, and a goalie saving a ball, together with the club mascot. Interesting that the church has recognised the new god.

• Up North
  Sun 20th Nov.

  Have to return our errant station clock, which refuses to keep going. So, off again, via Hexham to Stuart and Hazels, finishing our visit to Vindoland Roman Fort en route.
  Today was the long drive, and I found we can stay in a car park at Balderhead Reservoir, for the princely sum of £10.00, just west of Darlington. The car park at Darlington, that we stayed in last errant clock delivery had designated motorhome parking, but also a lorry park area. Lorry drivers are pathologically incapable of turning their engine off, and started them up at 5.00am. Didn’t want to go back there for that reason, and was delighted to find the reservoir parking, and whilst finding this, also found an organic farm and farm shop. That’s tomorrow sorted!
  Drama getting here – a drive down a narrow lane then required a left turn down a much narrower lane, marked “single track road”, and worryingly “ not suitable for motor vehicles”. Much debate, consultation with MapsMe, decided to give it ago. A not entirely unanimous decision. Turned out to be OK. Just. Hope we can avoid returning that way tomorrow.

• Mon 21st Nov
  Woke to a cold misty morning, light frost. Took Beckie for a walk across the dam. Very pleasant scenery, a second reservoir down the valley. Then, the mist increased, became very foggy, and the temperature dropped. Frost increased, and the road became very slippery.
  

  

  Best I could manage.
  Time to set off. Slowly and carefully.
  Managed to find a way round the. “Unsuitable for Motor Vehicles” road.
  Drove to Hexham, delivered the clock, and then the short drive to Vindolanda, to visit the Roman Military Museum. Didn’t see any signs ( which we both remembered from our previous visit), so went to the reception building. Thunk! The museum is closed until late March. Oh well, set off to Berwick upon Tweed, and a very enjoyable late afternoon and evening with Stuart and Hazel.