Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire

Kenilworth Castle - wow! that is worth a visit, never mind the expensive Warwick Castle, try Robert Dudley's Medieval gatehouse and castle with its extension built for Queen Elizabeth I. It is an amazing place. You can get to the top of the range buildings above the kitchens and Great Hall with views across the Midlands. The gardens are being excavated and replaced with a traditional Elizabethan garden. A definite must to visit for any castle fan. Worth the entrance fee of £6.00 per adult, but free to English Heritage members ;-)

Warwick Castle

After a lovely 2 days with our good friends Fi and Trevor, we went for a visit to the medieval castle in the centre of Warwick. Not a ba castle to visit, not worth the entrance fee of £15.00. Windsor Castle costs about the same and is much more value for money. The only consellation was that the castle is complete but seems to lack any real atmosphere. Seen so many interesting castles, this one was a REAL let down but we had to visit....

Caravan Site Number 6 - Warwick Racecourse

Bloody hell! What a journey. We set off from Cirencester with a quick pack up of the caravan stuff and headed North to Warwick. We got stuck by a police check, then by a Horse fair at Moreton in Marsh, got abuse from 2 oldies on the edge of Warwick for no reason other than we were driving a caravan and THEN when we got onto the park which has a gate to open/close and got abuse for no knowing whether some old bat could park there while she went to the castle!!!

Oxfordshire and Wiltshire visits

Lodge Park Grandstand, Sherbourne Estate, Oxfordshire (Oct 20th 2006) NT
Malmesbury Abbey, Malmesbury, Wiltshire (Oct 23rd 2006)
Lacock Abbey and Village, Lacock, Wiltshire (Oct 23rd 2006) NT

The highlight of the week has to be the abbey at Malmesbury in Wiltshire It has so much history and is in a perfect hill top position over the town and River Avon. The abbey church is now within the remains of the abbey nave and side chapels. The abbey tower, East and West end fell a few centuries ago but a £3million regeneration plan is underway. The architect is Ptolemy Dean, who worked on the BBC Series Restoration. One of the tombs belongs to one of the Kings of England, Athelstan. Once the work is done we will definitely be back for another visit to this amazing building.

Lodge Park, a National Trust property on the Sherborne Estate just off the A40, was built as a grandstand for deer coursing. A fascinating building with a superb history and so interesting.

Lacock Abbey, we finally made it, was well worth a visit. The abbey, grounds and village were given to the National Trust in the 1940’s. If you saw the first two Harry Potter films, you would recognise the cloisters of Lacock Abbey. It was built as a Nunnery but converted into a house after the dissolution. One of the famous residents was W H Fox Talbot, a pioneer of photography. Superb place to wander around which is still lived in.

Caravan Site Number 5 - Cirencester Park, Glou

Week 6 on the road and we have made it to Gloucestershire. Petrol down here varies quite a bit but managed to get some for 85.9p per litre... in Wiltshire when we visited Lacock Abbey.... well almost, we gave up cos of the rain and intend to go back tomorrow if its a bit brighter.

The Caravan park here is another lovely one, maintained to perfection. A nice new toilet block is available and we have yet to venture into the park itself... one day this week before we depart for Warwick....

Must get on and do my Open Uni course, have just submitted one assignment, have one more to do for the week after next. Good fun this study lark, need to work out what subject Im doing next :-))...

Windsor Great Park, Berkshire

One of our special places is the Great Park on the crown estate. Mart used to play here as a kid and we always make a point of visiting at least once a year. Each time we visit we find a new path to discover and we are never disappointed. Today we were lucky enough to see some of the beautiful estate deer being called by an impressive stag.

Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire Visits

Burford Church, Burford, Oxfordshire (Oct 13^th 2006)

Uffington White Horse, Uffington, Oxfordshire (Oct 13^th 2006)

Hailes Abbey, Gloucestershire (Oct 14^th 2006)

Broadway Tower, Oxfordshire (Oct 14^th 2006)

Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire (Oct 18^th 2006)

Burford is an amazing town in South Oxfordshire. Among the tudor buildings and shops is the Church of St John the Baptist. Apart from the 12^th century original features there are some amazing extras but the most interesting is the inscription for the murder of one John Pryor Gent whose body was found hidden in Burford Priory garden in 1697.

Uffington has a very interesting National Trust maintained white horse and hill fort. We arrived just as the sun was starting to come through, the views across the Oxfordshire countryside were breathtaking and well worth the trek. The horse isn’t too easy to see in full but you get the idea of how impressive it must from the sky.

Hailes Abbey was once the alleged home of a vasal containing the blood of Christ , making it one of the most visited religious sites in the area for pilgrims. The only remains of the abbey church are the chapel foundations behind the high altar and one section of the South wall into the Cloister. The remains of the West Range were built into a manor house for the Tracy family. Well worth a visit especially to see the abbey and the local church with interesting decoration including a very large representation of St Christopher, patron saint of travellers on the North Wall.

Broadway Tower is an 18^th cent folly which includes a William Morris room and also has spectacular views over 13 counties… unfortunately the day we went it was too foggy to see very far but worth a visit even to see the beautiful building.

Dorchester Abbey Church on the Thames is well worth a look if you enjoy churches as this is a superb, cavernous example of a typical abbey church. It has a really special atmosphere, not sure why but as soon as you walk in you know you are somewhere with a really fascinating history… more on this one soon.

Perfect Chippy - Vote Number 2 . Oxfordshire

Not so much a chippy but Burford Breakfast Bar in the layby just off the A40 and on the A361 towards Lechlade. What a meal we had from there! We had a doner kebab…and it has to be the best doner kebab in the South of England (the best in the North been in Acklam, Middlesbrough, more on that one sometime).
The guy who served us was so damn quick it was amazing, then we had a feast on a massive amount of meat, pitta bread and garlic sauce. It was fantastic and well worth the £3.50 each. He does all kinds of breakfast stuff from sausage and bacon rolls to full breakfasts. Well worth a stop off. Just take the junction from the A40 towards the Cotswold Wildlife Park and you will see the van in the layby on the right…

Lechlade on Thames - Christmas Shop

I have found my new favourite shop - The Christmas Shop in Lechlade.
It has a really good variety of goodies and some really hard to find stuff in the UK. Well worth a few wanders around. Also found one in Burford, we are going to investigate that one next....

Caravan Site Number 4 - Burford, Oxfordshire

So after 4 and weeks on the road, and after a very muddy week in Derbyshire - but VERY enjoytable one, we headed South West towards Oxfordshire and the very picturesque town of Burford. The caravan site, Caravan Club, is as always superb. The staff are friendly and the site clean, tidy and very well maintained. We managed to get a hardstanding pitch, for the uninitiated a caravan park with places with gravel rather than grass, which will help us to keep the same clothes on for longer than an hour and a half!!! Its clean!
Found some great literature about local places to go and haunt, including a Christmas Shop :-))) More soon...

Derbyshire visits....

Elvaston Castle and Country Park, Derbyshire (Oct 7th 2006)
Kedleston Hall, Derby, Derbyshire (Oct 9th 2006)
Calke Abbey, Ticknall, Derby, Derbyshire (Oct 9th 2006)

The morning after we arrived at the camp site we expected the same weather as the few days before, rain. Thankfully, the weather changed and the sun split the autumn trees.
We left the caravan site and wandered into the neighbouring parkland owned by Derbyshire County Council. A real surprise was the castle and the ornate gardens. The castle, which is only open for special events, is on the site of an earlier Tudor house (one wall still shows Tudor windows and even states it was built in 1633) This wall has been incorporated into the newer 19th century castle lived in by the Stanhope family. The grounds surrounding the castle has a lake, ornate gardens with topiary, a Pavilion and Golden gates allegedly from the Palace of Versailles. A lovely country park which is well used by the locals and visitors.

Kedleston Hall just on the outskirts of Derby is a neo classical house for the Curzon family, rebuilt by the 1st Lord Scarsdale, Nathaniel Curzon and designed by Robert Adams. The stunning saloon based on the Pantheon in Rome and the entrance hall with beautiful marble pillars are two of the fascinating parts of this estate. An interesting point for me was the marriage of the 4th Baron Scarsdale, the Revd Alfred, to Blanche Pocklington Senhouse from Netherhall, Maryport, Cumberland in 1856. When we arrived at the hall the weather was less than welcoming but while we were inside the hall the autumn sun shone again. Kedleston village was moved by the 1st Lord Scarsdale as it was in the way of the road he wanted to build, the village is now a little further from the hall than it once was.

We left Derby and headed for Calke Abbey to see another National Trust property at Ticknall. Like Brodsworth Hall in South Yorkshire, the property was inhabited in its last days as a home by one person and a few staff who didn’t live in the house. Charles Jenney died in 1981 and lived in the cavernous house on his own. He used a microwave, cooker and sink in the old butlers pantry and slept in a small bedroom on the opposite side of the property. The kitchens had not been used since the 1920’s and many of the features are still in place, including a tunnel connecting the house to the vast stable complex and brew house.
Quite a number of the rooms were closed up during or around the second world war and only reopened when the property was transferred to the trust in 1985 by Charles’ brother Henry.

Bookstore, Brierlow Bar

What an amazing shop! It has some superb titles at very reasonable prices. Well worth a visit if you are near Buxton.

Bookstore Derbyshire Website

Caravan Site Number 3 - Elvaston Castle, Derbyshire

Our third site has been the most eventful so far! We started off this morning from York and discovered that one of the wing mirrors straps were missing. After a bit of a hunt we managed to buy some new ones, thanks to Barrons, York. We made our way to Derbyshire and got stuck in an hour long tailback, then we get to the site, thankfully in sunshine, and got set up on the rather soggy site before rain started…. Whether the caravan will move off without help is another matter… but tomorrow, weather permitting, we will explore Elvaston Castle Country Park…

Schmap.com - Superb travel guides

The Schmap website provides comprehensive travel guides for many major towns/cities in many countries around the world. You download the Schmap player, and then you are free to download the interactive maps with links to many attractions.

Check out the Southampton guide, you will find some of my photos.

The Perfect Chippy - Vote number 1..

The Perfect Chippy...

As we travel around the UK over the next year, one of my most important aims is to give publicity to chippies that deserve it....and get even fatter in the process ;-)

Our recommended chippy of the week is:

The Boat House Cafe
South Landing, Flamborough Head, East Riding of Yorkshire

A superb meal of haddock, chips, mushy peas with free tartare sauce and a round of bread also. And even better a smile and very friendly service. The lady of duty was superb. Well worth a visit for the views across to the North Sea as well as the fantastic food.

BLOG 101 - Breakaway....

Breakaway, a fresh start., the lyrics of this song really mark a turning point in my life. In February 2006, I was signed off work with stress and depression, something I had never suffered from until we had a very stressful few years (both my parents died, family events, to name just a few). In March 2006 we decided to go on the holiday we had planned to Cromer Lighthouse in Norfolk. On the way back my mood worsened and I felt really uneasy about returning home to Kendal. As we approached junction 36 of the M6 this song came on the iPod. The lyrics below really sum up my feelings and moods at the time and gave me some hope of a fresh start. It took months and months of discussion making and organising but we got there. We are now both much happier, both looking forward to the future, and we have left Kendal and a rather unhappy couple of years behind. The future is looking so much brighter already but as the lyrics say “ I won’t forget the ones that I love”, and that’s so true..

This is also Blog number one hundred and one! Here’s to many more about our travels.

Kelly Clarkson - "Breakaway"
"Trying hard to reach out But when I tried to speak out Felt like no one could hear me Wanted to belong here But something felt so wrong here So I prayed I could breakaway [chorus] I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly I'll do what it takes till I touch the sky And I'll make a wish, take a chance, make a change And breakaway Out of the darkness and into the sun But I won't forget all the ones that I love I'll take a risk, take a chance, make a change And breakaway"

Caravan Site Number 2 - Beechwood Grange, York

We are slowly making our way South, after a week near Scotch Corner at Hargill House, and we are now staying for the next 5 nights just on the northern outskirts of York at a very nice site, Beechwood Grange. Its quite a remote site but has the hum of traffic on the A64 to Scarborough. The entrance to the site is along a scenic road with fields and horses on each side, a large willow tree split’s the lovely farmhouse from the site entrance. And the best bit… a chippy van comes three times a week :-)

70 miles in the caravan driven so far… next stop - Derbyshire.