We arrived back in the UK after our brief trip to Bosnia and Serbia on a Saturday night. As it was late we stayed at a hotel near Luton Airport. The next morning we went into London to visit our friends Peter and Lisa. After lunch with them it was out to Heathrow to pick up a rental car and drive towards the West Country.
Longstock, Hampshire
We found a wonderful old pub, the Peat Spade in Longstock, near Stockbridge, Hampshire for the evening. Longstock was a beautiful old village with many thatched cottages.
Stonehenge
The next day we continued our drive west and payed a visit to Stonehenge. We arrived at the huge parking lot and visitor center and were surprised to find so many visitors - there were hundreds and hundreds of people there. We purchased our rather expensive (£25 each) entry tickets and queued for a bus to take us out to the site. It was just over a mile from the visitor center up to Stonehenge. Unfortunately, nowadays we are no longer allowed to get close to the stones so we had to make do with a walk around the perimeter. For me, it was a little disappointing. It wasn’t quite the grand site that I had imagined since my youth.
Moving further west we drove to Cornwall to visit my University friend Mike and his wife Cate. Mike lives in the unusually named Praze an Beeble near Camborne. I hadn’t visited his home for 25 years and was surprised what he had done. 25 years ago he was using barns and cow sheds to support his thatching business, now he has converted one of the barns into a nice oak beamed house, and the other buildings into thatched holiday lets. Pretty impressive what they had done.
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| St Michael's Mount |
The Castle on St Michael's Mount
The next day Mike and Cate drove us over to St Michael’s Mount with its castle and gardens. The tide was in so we had to take one of the boats out to the island. It is indeed an impressive place - a wonderful castle perched on top of the hill with stunning gardens all around the base.
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| Mouse Hole, Cornwall |
Back on the mainland we drove on to the quaint fishing village of Mouse Hole (pronounced Mowsol). A beautiful village that probably suffers from tourism but that is Cornwall in the summer. We had dinner at a cafe on the coast with beautiful views of the sea to the south.
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| Gwithian Beach and Godrevy Lighthouse |
Next morning we went to the north coast of Cornwall to Gwithian Beach and Godrevy Lighthouse by St Ives Bay. A beautiful bay on a beautiful day.
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| Philp's Pasties |
On the way back to Mike and Cate’s we stopped to pick up Cornish Pasties for lunch.
In the afternoon we left Cornwall and drove up to Devon, to visit my other college friends Colin and Mel in Abbotskerswell. We had a nice afternoon and evening with Col and Mel in their rather large house.
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| Haytor, Dartmoor |
The next morning we went for a short hike on Dartmoor. We went around Haytor, a nice granite outcrop on top of the moor. We saw lots of Dartmoor ponies and the very distinctive Belted Galloway cattle (even though we were a long way from Galloway). Colin reminded me that we had visited Hay Tor on our Geology Field Trip in 1971 or 72. I had no memory of that.
Haytor Granite Tramway
Of interest were the granite tramway tracks that were built back in the 1820's to guide the wheels of horse drawn wagons carrying granite from the quarry on the moor down to the nearby canal.
An Old Marble Making Machine
We stopped off at a glass marble factory near Newton Abbot. Kind of interesting, I didn’t realize glass marbles were still being made - do kids still play with them? We made another stop at a garden center called Trago Mills which seemed to carry every imaginable product under one roof.
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| Cheddar Gorge |
The next day we left Col and Mel’s home and drove north. We made a brief diversion through the Cheddar Gorge to admire the rock formations and then it was on to Bath.
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| The Great Bath, Bath |
In Bath we parked the car and walked into the center and visited the Roman Baths. The Romans certainly did some impressive building in Bath, or Aquae Sulis as they called it back then. I hadn’t realized how extensive a Roman community they had there or how impressive the public baths were - there was a caldarium (hot bath), tepidarium (warm bath) and a frigidarium (obviously quite cold).
Sulis Minerva Mask
One of the more impressive artifacts they had at the baths was a gilded bronze mask of the goddess Sulis Minerva. There were also examples of "curse tablets" - small inscriptions on metal tablets that people offered to Sulis to try and inflict retribution on those who had done you harm.
Bath Cathedral
After leaving the Roman Baths we went inside the Cathedral. Another fine building - wonderful stained glass windows, fan vaulted ceilings (how did the construct those), carved marble statues on tombstones.
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| The Royal Crescent, Bath |
From there we walked over to look at the Royal Crescent, some 30 terraced houses built in the 18th century and laid out in a crescent overlooking a park area. Georgian architecture at its best.
Like everywhere of interest these days the number of tourists is through the roof. It was crowded everywhere we went in Bath. We were thwarted in our attempts to have afternoon tea at the Pump Room, they were closed at the time we arrived, so we pressed on and left Bath to drive back to Derbyshire.
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| Bess of Hardwick's Tomb, Derby Cathedral |
After a couple of days of relaxation in Cressbrook, we set off on the Monday morning to explore Derby Cathedral. Diana, having finished the Biography of Bess of Hardwick, wanted to see her grave. Quite a nice grave it was too. Also in the same Cathedral was a memorial to Florence Nightingale. I didn’t know it but apparently her family had a home just south of Matlock.
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| The Nine Ladies Stone Circle, Stanton Moor, Derbyshire |
From Derby we drove north to Stanton Moor where there is a stone circle. The Nine Ladies Stone Circle is as the name suggests a series of Millstone Grit stones arranged in a circle. The stones date from the early Bronze Age. Apparently modern pagan groups make use of the site for various rituals.
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| Arbor Low, Derbyshire |
Next on the list was the Arbor Low Neolithic site. This is a stone circle surrounded by a earthen mound and a ditch. Not terribly impressive but most interesting to know that things were going on in that part of the world in Neolithic times. Not far away, some 300 yards across the field is an earlier earthen site - the burial mound of Gibb Hill.
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| Magpie Mine, Derbyshire |
We stopped off at the Magpie Mine site on our way back to home. The mining operations started there in the mid 18th century and continued up until 1958 when it was closed. There are relatively well preserved buildings on the site and it is now a protected archaeological site.
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| Stoney Middleton Well Dressing |
As a final visit for the day we stopped by Stoney Middleton on the way home to look at their well dressing. A very impressive well dressing it was too for a relatively small village. We also discovered that Stoney Middleton had a Roman Bath house. Not one that was built by the Romans, but one that was built a long time ago by a local developer in a failed attempt to create a spa town in Stoney that might rival Buxton - it didn’t work.
Peveril Castle, Castleton
The next day we went to explore Castleton. We had driven through before but never stopped. This time we walked around and went up the hill to Peveril Castle. The castle, built in the 11th century, sits on top of the hill above Castleton. It was not so much a defensive castle as a hunting lodge where the gentry would base themselves while hunting in the nearby forests.
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| The entrance to Peak Cavern |
Below Peveril Castle is Cave Dale and the entrance to Peak Cavern. I remember the entrance to Peak Cavern being quite dramatic, a large cavernous opening in the limestone. The Cavern is privately owned and sadly they have succumbed to holding rock concerts in the cave so now it is disfigured by advertising and a row of porta-potties.
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| Winnat's Pass, Castleton |
We drove up to the base of Mam Tor - the road through the base of Mam Tor is now closed following a land slip in the 70’s and then drove up Winnats Pass and over behind Mam Tor to Edale on the way home.
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| Howden Minster |
The next day, Wednesday, we drove to Filey to see my step sister in law. On the way we stopped off in Howden to visit Howden Minster. A beautiful old abbey with lovely stained glass windows and interesting graves.
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| Howden's Airship History Trail |
The town of Howden also has an association with air ships. In the 1920's a gigantic hanger was built in Howden and the first British Airship, the 700 ft long R100 was built there. At the time it was one of the largest buildings in the world. Of course airships never really caught on but the R100 did make a trip to Canada and back. The hanger is long gone now and all that remains of that piece of history are metal pavement markers of the Airship trail in Howden.
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| The Manor House, Burton Agnes |
Moving on towards Filey we stopped at Burton Agnes where there is a small Manor House and a most impressive Hall. The Manor House was built in 1173 whilst the Hall dates from 1601, in the Elizabethan Period. The Manor House is relatively simple with no ornamentation, whilst the Hall is full of many wonderful things.
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| Burton Agnes Hall |
Burton Agnes Hall
The alabaster ornamental carvings over the fireplace and doorway in the main entry room are spectacular.
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| Burton Agnes Hall |
There are quite a few nice pieces of art in the Hall too - a Manet, a Renoir, a Gauguin, a Matisse, a couple of Hockneys. For such an unknown property (to me) hidden away in Burton Agnes, this was a wonderful discovery. The UK is full of treasures like this - so many Abbeys, Churches, Cathedrals, Castles, Stately Homes.
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| Burton Agnes Hall |
We finished the day in Filey and stayed with my step-sister in law, Katy.
Scarborough, view from the Castle
The next day we were off to explore some more places of interest nearby. First stop was Scarborough Castle. I had visited Scarborough many times and had always seen the castle sitting on top of the hill overlooking the harbor but I had never visited the site.
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| Scarborough Castle |
There is a well preserved 12th century keep and some surrounding battlements still left but the site contains much more. There was a Bronze Age settlement there, the Romans had a signal station there, the Anglo Saxons built a chapel on the site. The current stone structures dates from the 12th Century. In Civil War times it was a Royalist stronghold and was besieged by Roundhead troops. It again saw action in the First World War when German warships shelled the castle.
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| Whitby Abbey |
From Scarborough we headed north to Whitby to visit Whitby Abbey. This was the first time I had been inside the Abbey’s ruins, having always seen them from afar in previous visits. It must have been a spectacular Abbey in its day, it is still an amazing, if crumbling, structure now.
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| Robin Hood's Bay |
The day finished with a visit to Robin Hood’s Bay and a walk down the steep narrow road to the sea. How lovely a place it must have been in its day, how difficult life must have been living at the bottom of that hill and how it is now quite the tourist trap these days.
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| Flamborough Head |
I was surprised to learn that in 1779 a battle took place off Flamborough Head in the American War of Independence. John Paul Jones was commanding a squadron of American vessels. He defeated the two British vessels despite them being better armed. Who knew that the war was engaged over in the North Sea.
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| Kirkham Priory |
We then drove west to Kirkham Priory. A 12th Century Augustinian monastery with a nice ornamental gatehouse. It sits alongside the River Derwent (the Yorkshire one not the Derbyshire one). In World War II the grounds were used for training and testing of D Day landing vehicles. Churchill apparently paid a visit to see how things were going.
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| Castle Howard |
Leaving Kirkham Abbey we see we are quite near to Castle Howard so we go and pay them a visit. What a magnificent home it is too, the star of Brideshead Revisited and Barry Lyndon and many other films. Castle Howard is one of the finest stately homes in the UK, on a par with Chatsworth House. The main hallway is simply stunning - what imagination and creativity it is to design such a thing, what wealth is needed to build such a thing.
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| Domed Roof, Castle Howard |
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| The Atlas Fountain, Castle Howard |
The gardens are equally amazing with the Atlas Fountain sitting the middle of the lawn in front of the house. The house sits in a sizable estate with a long driveway and entry gates. There are a couple of lakes on the property too.
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| York Minster |
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| Interior York Minster |
After overloading ourselves on castles, abbeys, cathedrals and stately homes we drove back to Derbyshire and our humble abode in Cressbrook.
