Wells, a moat, Bath, and a rainstorm

Did you notice the water theme going on there?

It rained heavily on Sunday night and we awoke to a grey morning. Nevertheless, we trooped on and walked down some paths to Wells Cathedral. This is perhaps the finest of all the great British cathedrals.

It is surrounded by an actual moat!

The foundation of this church goes back to Saxon times, around 705 AD. The present cathedral was begun about 1175 and was designed in the revolutionary new Gothic style. 

The first building phase took about eighty years and about 300 of the original medieval statues remain today.

The pigeons really like them!

We wandered around and got completely lost.

It is that big.

Plus, we get lost easily.

We went through an archway and found this.

The Vicar's Close.

A little research discovered that this has its origin in the 14th century, when the Vicar's Choral was founded. Each of the 42 singing vicars was given a tiny house with a dining hall at one end of the quadrangle and a chapel at the other. The purpose of this beneficence was to protect he vicars from the wordly temptations that confronted them when they lodged in the town. The front gardens were added a couple of hundred years later. Members of the current Vicar's Choral still live here, along with other cathedral employees.

This is the only continually inhabited, completely medieval street in England.

This is part of Wells Cathedral School, which is right next to the cathedral and, as well as educating local children, trains some of them as choristers for the Cathedral Choir. By "choristers", they mean vocalists. Music is an important part of Wells Cathedral. 

I deeply regret missing evensong.

There is a clock at Wells Cathedral that is very famous for being the second oldest clock mechanism in England, and probably the world, to be still in use in its original condition.

This isn't it.

Go here if you want to see a photo of it.

This is the octagonal Chapter House that was finished in 1306 and was the meeting place for cathedral affairs. The Bishop would sit under the picture in the window to the left of the column and the canons would each sit in his designated spot under the smaller metal plaques. 

This is an illegal photo; I was too cheap to pay the photography fee so I only sneaked a few inside photos. Actually, I was starting to get tired of the constant fees we were having to pay for parking and entrance and, now, photography. 

It brought out my inner rebel.

Anyway, while Jeff and I were standing in this room, quite awed, and, thankfully, after sneaky photo-taking had ended, an elderly man came in. We asked him about the space and he proceeded to tell us stories about his war experiences and also about the Chapter house. Just one of the many helpful people that delighted us as we wended our way around the south coast.

The acoustics in this room are astounding. Those medieval architects knew a thing or two!

This was somewhere in Wells.

How could you not want to go in and buy something?

Goodbye Wells, we wish we could have spent more time with you.

Hello Bath.

By now, we are unwilling to pay to see anything.

Especially old churches.

So, when someone told us about the old Guild Hall, now the Town hall, which we could wander around for nothing, we were on it like whipped cream on a bun.

Behold, the working man's answer to the upper class's Assembly Rooms.

They weren't allowed into the former, so decided to build their own gathering place.

And it is stupendous.

The craftsmanship is divine.

And it is free!

This was on a bench outside the Town hall.

I love the understated British humour.

I don't even know what this is, but I like it.

It may be in the Roman Baths, for which we declined to pay but I may have sneaked another photo!

By this time we were feeling a little peckish and made the mistake of accepting a free sample of some cake from this pastry shop.

We succumbed in a big way!

We sat on this step in the square, listening to the buskers, and a passing lady offered to take our photo.

Our enjoyment must have been obvious!

Black Forest gateau for Jeff.

Something with a French name for me, but it was really a Napolean of the highest order.

In keeping with my new rule (sit and listen to the buskers) we sat for well over an hour and listened to some excellent music. Not only that, but we had some great conversations with our bench-mates. No one is a stranger for long when you're a tourist.

The town square is filled with music all day long. Apparently, the buskers have a meeting in the morning and decide who will play each hour. 

When we first arrived, the musician was playing an Irish flute.

This guy played some pleasing melodies and had a unique voice.

Then this young woman played a hang, pronounced "hong". It is like an inverted steel drum and resembles a flying saucer. The instruments are made by a couple of men in Switzerland and they only make a few hundred each year. The only way you can buy one is to go to Switzerland. I've never seen one before, but it is haunting and she played and sang beautifully.

Watch a couple of masters at work.

Aaand, a shorter one for good measure.

The hang player did not get to finish her hour because the rain started.
We ran to the car park and managed to reach the car before it became a downpour.

And on we drove to Aston Somerville, where Jan had a nice hot dinner waiting for us.

I need to get something off my chest

Yes, go ahead, laugh!

It's about driving in England.

First, let me say that English drivers are very courteous, more than Americans. I felt like a complete idiot most of the time, but only got honked at a couple of times when I was about to run some other car off the road.

Hanging head in shame.

Consider that I was in a right-hand-drive manual-transmission car that was upgraded to a non-compact. And the majority of the car was between me and the side of the road, which rarely had any kind of shoulder. Curbs, walls, houses, are often right next to the road and Jeff was in a constant state of panic that I was going to blow the left pair of tyres or worse. I did get better as the days went by, but my driving was never casual. 

Pair that with the ubiquitous roundabouts, which could have as many as four lanes entering at once and four or five exits all signed for several different destinations, and you can begin to appreciate my level of trauma.

However, in spite of my complaining, the angels were watching over us and we managed to end the fortnight unscathed.

I did, however, complain.

A lot.

Our lovely new friends on Hayling Island assured us that we must stop in Portsmouth.

So we did.

And got lost on those darn roundabouts several times before finding a little side street on which to park. We considered that to be a bonus, because there is no free parking in England! 

So many people, so little space. 

But this time, at least, we rocked on the parking front!

We hiked over to the historic dockyard and home of the Royal Navy and balked at the ticket price (over 20 pounds) to all the attractions, which include a couple of ships, several museums and the harbour tour. The only thing that could be paid for separately was the harbour tour, for a mere five pounds, so we did that. 

This is the HMS Warrior, the world's first iron-hulled, armour-plated, steam-and-wind-powered ship that was part of Queen Victoria's Black Battle Fleet. Launched in 1860, the Warrior was the largest, fastest, and most powerful ship of her day.  She was built in response to the first ironclad warship that was launched by the French a year earlier. Naval technology advanced so fast that the Warrior was obsolete in ten years.

You can get married on the Warrior if you've a whim and an extra thousand pounds floating around.

Portsmouth is home to three aircraft carriers, as well as a fleet of destroyers, frigates, mine warfare ships, and offshore patrol vessels. 

Kinda sounds like a game of Battleship, doesn't it?

I won't subject you to my whole flotilla of ship photos.

You can thank me later.

This beauty, of which we caught only a glimpse (see earlier reference to cheap tendencies) is the HMS Victory, the world's oldest commissioned ship and a proud memorial to Vice Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, Britain's greatest Naval hero. 

At least that's what the brochure says.

It was on this very ship that Lord Nelson died and the battle of Trafalgar was planned and fought. It is undergoing restoration at the moment, which is why the masts are rather short.

The port is a busy one.

We were only a hop, skip, and a jump away from the birthplace of Charles Dickens. We found another free parking spot (score!) and paid old Charlie a visit.
No photos allowed.

Then, it was off to Stonehenge.

Words are not enough.

The ticket price includes an audio tour, which was fascinating.

Sue was here.

A little trivia: the lichen covering the stones has been tested and found to contain over 90 different species, many of them rare and unusual.

Even though you can't wander among the stones any more, Stonehenge is an awesome sight and worth the visit.
Again, sparing you my plethora of photos.
We walked up the hill to the burial mounds, called barrows. There are 24 of them in the area. Between Stonehenge and the barrows, the landscape is quite surreal.

Our destination this Sunday evening was Wells, which is designated a city because of its cathedral. I had hoped to make evensong again, but it was at 3 pm and the day had been too full of other things. 

We arrived in Wells in the early evening and started looking for the address of our host. It must be very obscure, because everyone we asked gave us a different opinion. We knew it was by the cathedral, so we parked and started walking the narrow alleys next to it. I knocked on a couple of doors and a kind lady called our host for us and he drove over and led us back to his house.

Turns out that what we thought was a cathedral was just a big church.

They all start to look the same after a while!

I have been thinking about time and perspective while writing this post. The abbey at Hastings is almost a thousand years old. The first incarnation of Stonehenge was thought to be over four thousand years ago. Every where you turn in Britain, history assaults the senses. I suppose that if you live there, you become less aware of the antiquity of everything, but for us, it was formidable. To tread the ground upon which thousands of men died at the Battle of Hastings brings a reality to history that I never feel when reading about it. I think this is one of my favourite things about traveling to new places. 

Jeff, of course, revels in it.

The other aspect that thrills me is being able to visit with family and friends who have been strangers for too long. On Monday, we will finally meet up with my childhood friend, Jan.

Stay tuned.

I know, bated breath, right?

The magical history tour continues

Well, if you're tired of reading about my travels, you'd better go somewhere else for a week or so! This serves as a journal for me. I love to go back and read old posts and relive our adventures, so I will selfishly recount everything I recall. 

Saturday found us in Hastings, on the south coast. We stayed in a grand old house in St. Leonard's-on-Sea, about thirty minutes walk along the seafront from Hastings itself. The house is Georgian and was built in the 1850's. It is in a state of benevolent neglect and, while the hosts were affable and attentive and engagingly befuddled, the room and bathing facilities were not quite up to the standard of our other stays.

No matter. The weather was becoming sunnier each day and it was a beautiful day for a walk. 

As we got to the main part of Hastings, this was the view as far as the eyes could see.

I could just imagine the crowds of holiday-goers walking the promenade a hundred years ago.

 Hastings was already a settlement when the Romans arrived in Britain for the first time in 55BC. The remains you see at the top of the hill are Hastings Castle, built by William the Conqueror in the 11th Century.

We walked all the way to Old Town and took the tram to the top of the opposing hill.

We walked around the "nature preserve" at the top, although the only evidence we saw of nature was millions of rabbit droppings. The expanse of grass must be a sight to see when all the rabbits come out to play.

The view, however, was phenomenal.

Then we went down again.

All the way back to St. Leonard's. 

Jeff decided he likes the south coast beaches, which are composed of shingle. He hates sand! At the end of our trip, we saw a photo in the newspaper of a beach like this, packed with people who were making the most of the Indian summer. And when I say "packed", I mean literally that there was hardly room to walk between the sun-worshippers. 

Personally, sitting on rocks is not my idea of a good time!

The Battle of Hastings was not fought in Hastings, but 8 miles to the north at a place called Senlac Hill. There is a nearby town called Battle. Funny, that.

It was fascinating to learn about the Battle of Hastings. I've always remembered the date 1066 from elementary school. Most Americans probably haven't encountered this particular period of history, especially younger generations, but it was a definitive time in English history. It marked the end of the Anglo-Saxon rule and ushered in the Norman rule. The Norman invasion transformed the ruling class, language, church life and culture of the country.

William the conqueror came from a group of Vikings who had settled in Northern France. He took exception to Harold Godwinson's ascent to the British throne in early 1066, claiming that it had been promised to him. Poor Harold spent most of 1066 defending his throne against various invaders, so his forces were already weakened and tired from a forced march down from Yorkshire. 

Harold's troops spent the better part of a day holding off William's army, but the Conqueror proved to be the better strategist in the end and his army rushed up this very hill to finally defeat and kill Harold.

There is a great rendition of the battle here if you have a few minutes to spare.

Behold, the abbey spoken of in this quote from the aforementioned website.

No later than 1070, King William 'the Conqueror', as he now was, marked his victory by establishing a great Benedictine abbey at Battle. On the one hand, this important religious foundation would serve as a memorial to the dead, and could be seen as a public act of atonement by the king for the bloodshed caused. Even the abbey's own chronicler was to later write that the fields had been 'covered in corpses, and all around the only colour to meet the gaze was blood-red'. But there was another purpose to the foundation, one reflecting the more calculating side of William's nature: it would stand as a symbol of the Norman triumph. Indeed, the abbey chronicler reports the king's insistence that the high altar in the abbey church was to stand on the very spot that Harold fell.

That William was a wiley one!

Our bed for the night was on Hayling Island, just out of Portsmouth. We arrived just before dark, having gotten lost several times on the way. Those darn roundabouts get me every time! Our hosts were new to the B&B scene, as were those on the previous night. We were their very first guests. The house was immaculate and our room was lovely.

This tray was supplied with snacks and hot drink makings. 

Our hosts' son just moved to New Zealand and they are visiting him in January so we had lots to talk about. I think this was our favourite of all the airbnb stays. 

We slept like babies.

A little Ashford on your Rye

We arrived in Ashford on Thursday night to stay with a couple whose room we booked through airbnb. This website matches up would-be renters with travelers who are looking for a reasonably priced and nice place to stay. Jeff was a bit dubious about the whole thing, but it worked out very well for us. We stayed in airbnb houses for seven nights and all of the hosts were absolutely charming and only one of the rooms was less than immaculate. The prices are a quarter to a third of what you would pay at a commercial B&B and you get the pleasure of really getting to know your hosts, which adds to the benefits, IMO.

This was our room in Ashford, on the third floor of a new Victorian-style house.

                             
After a breakfast of chocolate-macadamia muesli, we sauntered down the back alleys of Ashford. We were looking for the town library so that Jeff could research some information on his family, who reputedly lived in the area in the 1600’s.



Ashford was most likely established in 893 AD by inhabitants escaping a Danish Viking raid on a nearby village. It has historically been a market town and transportation hub for the surrounding area. It was voted the fourth most desirable place to live in England in 2005.
After confirming the existence of Jeff’s ancestors, we headed in the direction of St. Mary’s Church, but I got a little sidetracked by an open-air market. Especially the baked goods stall. I was surprised to see that they still sell loaves of unwrapped bread. And Jeff and I enjoyed a fresh cream doughnut each.
Mmmmm.
The bakery lady was very friendly and gave us lots of good tips on how to get around Ashford.

                     

Then I had a craving for humbugs so we hit the sweet shop.
The lady in the sweet shop was from Birmingham, the same area that my cousin lives, so we had a nice chat with her too. And bought several different kinds of humbugs.

We walked to St. Mary’s and explored the outside of the church…

…and then the inside. Almost all of the windows were stained glass.

Ornate memorials line the walls of the ancient edifice and many of the flagstones are epitaphs that are being worn down by the centuries of footsteps that have trodden upon them.



This baptismal font is almost certainly the one in which Jeff’s ancestors were christened in the 1600’s as it dates from the 15th century.

Another walk along the narrow alleys that border the churchyard…

…and one more wander through the cemetery…



…turned up this gem.

The remains of William Waters, commonly called OLD WILLIAM And MARY his Wife are deposited at the foot of this stone. She died 22 of March 1815 in the 77 year of her age. He died 13 of June 1816 in the 90 year of his age. They lived together as domestic Servants in the same family FORTY YEARS, RESPECTED and BEFRIENDED by all classes of Inhabitants of this Town. They passed the Remainder of their years CONTENTED and HAPPY On the Fruits of their HONEST INDUSTRY. Readers, whether thy Lot in this world be POVERTY or AFFLUENCE, Learn from the EXAMPLE of these Good old Faithful SERVANTS That the sure way to PEACE and HAPPINESS Is diligently to do your DUTY In that situation of Life in which you have been placed by your ALMIGHTY FATHER.

Words to live by.

The thing I loved about this church was that it is a living, breathing, vibrant, part of the community. The place was hopping with people in the middle of the week. It was recently renovated and most of the pews removed and replaced with chairs. Now, the town uses the church for many of its events. It was an exciting place to be, unlike so many of the old churches which are locked up all week until Sunday.

We stopped at Sainsbury’s, the local supermarket, which also happens to be an excellent place to exchange dollars. Just ask for one of their Nectar cards and you get a better rate than anywhere else that we could find. We stocked up on a few groceries and drooled over the Cadbury dairy aisle.



And that was not even half of it!
Our last stop in Ashford was the village of Willesborough, which has an Osborne Road and is most likely the location of the early Osbornes.
There was a church.
Who am I kidding? There’s always a church!
So we explored it and sat in the graveyard and ate our sausage slice (me) and Cornish pasty (Jeff).



Our destination that night was Hastings, but several people had told us that we had to stop in Rye, so we did. It was gorgeous, all hilly cobbled streets and Tudor houses and ancient buildings.

            
                 

The Tudor houses are built using the “wattle and daub” method. The frames are made of timber and the spaces in between were filled with a woven frame of small sticks or slats and then daubed with a mixture of wet soil, clay, animal dung, sand, and straw. The building method has been in use for over 6,000 years. The black-and-white look is iconic, but, personally, I ended up wanting to paint them bright blue and yellow!

After sufficiently admiring and photographing all the beauties, we drove around the harbour to a bird sanctuary and had a long walk, only Jeff couldn’t find his binoculars so we didn’t spot many birds.



And then, before it got dark, we drove on.