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Peter Evans Posts: 3864 Joined: 20th Aug 2006 Location: UK | quotePosted at 17:28 on 10th November 2008 Well worth the visit Sue H. I know that the pottery used to be made there, but maybe it is only deigned there now. But the last time I was there, it was being sold in the shop in the village. |
Sue H Posts: 8173 Joined: 29th Jun 2007 Location: USA | quotePosted at 17:40 on 10th November 2008 Oh, yes I bet they do sell it there, and I can't wait to go and pick something up. |
Wolf Posts: 3423 Joined: 9th Jul 2008 Location: Australia | quotePosted at 21:18 on 10th November 2008 On 10th November 2008 03:05, Jen Strath wrote:
I am originally from Wirral when it was in Cheshire Jen, I don't like the thought of it being now in Merseyside when the place I lived was close to the Dee. My nearest town was a place called Heswall, recently voted one of the top places in England. |
Richard Sellers Posts: 4691 Joined: 16th Jul 2008 Location: USA | quotePosted at 21:19 on 10th November 2008 Hiya Wolf!!! |
Jen Strath Posts: 122 Joined: 11th Feb 2008 Location: Australia | quotePosted at 00:04 on 18th November 2008
From Ludlow I trained it across to Hitchin via Crewe, Leicester and Petersborough 'cos I was too chicken to travel through London. And it literally rained the entire way. But I didn't let a bit of rain deter me from stepping out and exploring Hitchin. It was a little sureal to think that generations of Fairey's had walked the same streets for generations before I stepped foot there and are still. I kept wondering if the people I was passing were relations and checking them out to see if there was any resemblance. It must have looked too weird to the locals...lol. lol! And visiting Preston, the home village if you will, was really sureal. I caught the local bus out there with a local girl who helped me with a map of Preston 'cos stoopid here had left hers in her room at the Hotel! And of course it's so much different seeing things on-the-ground in-the-flesh!!! knowing that this relative lived at this address at this time was pretty amazing for me. Actually just being there was! Back in Hitchin I saw a very nice RS4 Audi cabriolet in Tilehouse st...we're a pair of Audi nuts in this house, so I had great pleasure in posting a photo of it on my travel blog and thumbing my nose hubby! And I have to say (again) that England is hot! I needed to buy a sunhat at Millets on the Square to stop my nose from being burnt! |
Ruth Gregory Posts: 8072 Joined: 25th Jul 2007 Location: USA | quotePosted at 03:46 on 18th November 2008 I'm really enjoying reading about your trip, Jen. It must have been great for you.
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| Jen Strath Posts: 122 Joined: 11th Feb 2008 Location: Australia | quotePosted at 03:52 on 3rd December 2008 Thank you Ruth, it was absolutely fabulous! I could stay for a year and not see/do all I'd like to.From Hitchin I trained it down to Salisbury via Birmingham, Oxford & Andover, another 7 hours and 4 trains worth of travel. Salisbury is so pretty. I stayed out on Castle rd near Old Sarum with wonderful views over the valley to Stratford sub-Castle. The weather was HOT! So I went shopping for sleeveless tops. Coast came up trumps with 3 for under ₤20! I then spent the afternoon in the museum. OMG, I was in heaven! Seeing the original Pitt-Rivers Collections was awesome...I felt like I was back in class at uni...lol! Beaker Culture ware!!!...seeing the pottery in person instead of from the pages of books...I was in a daze. And polished axes, flint knives & a sickle!...pure heaven!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then there's the extensive costume gallery and china & pottery from the 18th to 20 centuries. An amazing collection, I cannot wait to visit there again.I took a train down to Exeter on the Sunday as it's listed as a great train journey through beautiful countryside and I wasn't disappointed. It was wonderful countryside & Exeter was very pretty too. I saw 2 pheasants and either 2 eagles & 2 hawks or 4 eagles/hawks....I don't know enough about British birds to tell the difference yet....on the way down 2 of the birds were sitting on the ground! How weird is that?!I did the obligatory Cathedral and saw the Magna Carta...another thing ticked off my to-do list, along with going to a service and hearing the choir and seeing Stonehenge. The day I went out to Stonehenge I was there at 10.00am and it must have been 30 + degrees Celsius....all I know is I was darn hot, sweating & I'd already drunk my full bottle of water! I also visited Mompesson House in Choristers Square. It’s a beautiful example of a Georgian architecture. And the garden is lovely. Very quiet and cool on a hot day. I loved the library that looks out onto the gardens.It was in Salisbury that I met a lady who walks her cat on a lead and pops him in a cloth bag, (with his head out) when he gets tired. This was in the city centre, near the Dragon on the High st. |
| Jen Strath Posts: 122 Joined: 11th Feb 2008 Location: Australia | quotePosted at 06:24 on 3rd December 2008 From Salisbury I went across to New Alresford in Hampshire where I stayed at The Pink House B&B. The lady who runs it got the dates wrong for my arrival and was most displeased to see me. This seemed to follow through the rest of my stay. I caught flu and was very ill, crawling around on my hands & knees in my room to pack to move onto the next B&B I’d booked In Winchester. I spent a day in bed and Madam never came near me to see if I was OK or needed a Dr. So if you stay here don’t get ill. Anyway before I got ill I had a day in Alton & Chawton. I did the 11.00am walking tour of Alton and was the only one there, so had the guide all to myself. I saw the bullet holes in the church door and the grave of sweet Fanny Adams along with lots of It was after I’d lunched that I thought I’d walk to Chawton via the footpaths & lanes ! First mistake….there were no clear guides for the tourist as to how you can accomplish this. There are a few sketchy & decidedly unclear directions on pamphlets BUT as I have an inbuilt compass I figured I wasn’t going to get lost. So off I set! I take a path through the streets via Mount Pleasant Rd and The Ridgeway and walk through a field and then over a stile into a field full of wheat. Cool…yep I can see the path ahead, get the bottom of the hill and over another stile onto the duel carriageway, the A31. Cross the road, over another stile into a field and where the heck am I supposed to be going?? There’s no path and a house ahead with a big barking brown dog!!! So I skirt along the edge of the field heading south west and come to a brook/creek/river! AAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH….there’s nothing for it but to climb through the barbed wire fence and walk alongside the duel carriageway, the A31! So off I go for about a ½ mile….up comes the sign ½ mile to Chawton……so all up, 2 miles and 1 hour after leaving Alton I make it to the tearooms in Chawton one very hot and tired Jen! The girls that work there, are wonderful! Nothing was too much trouble and my lemonade was ice cold and my tea hot & sweet. So I can cross another thing off the to-do list…Jane Austen’s House. There’s a patchwork quilt there that Jane, her mother and sister Cassandra made. It is very beautiful and the colours are as fresh as when made 200 years ago. There’s a very sad but poignant letter from Cassandra to their niece Fanny describing Jane’s last hours. And of course Jane’s little writing table. Alresford is a pretty market town with its main thoroughfares edged with Georgian townhouses. It’s surrounded by watercress beds associated with its pretty river Alre. |
| Jen Strath Posts: 122 Joined: 11th Feb 2008 Location: Australia | quotePosted at 06:24 on 3rd December 2008 A double post........hhhmmmmnnn...I don't recomend the beta version of IE8 at all! Edited by: Jen Strath at:3rd December 2008 06:27 |
| Peter Evans Posts: 3864 Joined: 20th Aug 2006 Location: UK | quotePosted at 12:02 on 3rd December 2008 Sounds like you had a great adventure Jen. I love reading of your travels round England. |
.....I've been on at my hubby to send me back for the past 3 months or even better to buy me a house there 
