Colchester, Essex

Colchester is the oldest recorded town in the UK. It was a Roman city, devastated by Boudicca, inhabited by Saxons, conquered by the Normans and still it goes on.
Colchester Castle was given to city by the Cowdray family and is not operated by the National Trust. Some of the old Roman foundations are scattered around the grounds. Surrounding the castle are beautiful gardens which, along with Clive's beautiful work, are encouraging me to do more at home. The Victorians also contributed to this city by building the longest railway station in the UK.

Being about 50 miles by train to London, it is slated to be the fastest growing city in 2011.

We walked through the castle grounds and gardens. John had his CANADA hoodie on and he was approached by a man who had lived in Toronto for a number of years. Originally from Bristol, he was returning to his roots to retire. He had bought a council house in the Dutch quarter. In a very short conversation, he learnt quite a bit about him. We found that the CANADA hoodie opened many conversations and was an absolute must for the lovely English summer.

Cotswolds

We arrived at Cirencester. Pronounciation is a bit of an issue. John had given me a number of options:
sigh ren chester
see ren chester
sigh ren cesster
or see ren cesster

I am going with the first one and suspect that I am as well off with that choice as any. You are welcomed to make your own choice.

We visited the town center where we visited St. John the Baptist Church which was started in the 12th Century with additions and improvements to the 14th. This is still place worship but they hold many functions to fund the many repairs needed to the church. On the day we visited, they were holding an art shop exhibiting local artists.

The market was in town and, as you can see from the picture, there was rain.

I visited the High Street to find a Dorothy Perkins shop to return some items I had purchased earlier in the week. I am so tired of wearing the same shirts and it has been quite cool so am looking for something with long sleeves. I got a sweater and a long sleeved t shirt; both of which were on sale. Now I can dump some of the stuff I have worn solidly for 3 months. At any rate, it has been really cold with the light weight stuff. I have worn John’s Barcelona hoodie more than he has.

We headed on into the Cotswolds and visited Bourton on the Water which is called the Venice of the England because of the canals which cross through the village. In spite of the rain, we went for a walk through the village which is exceedingly quaint with chocolate box houses and lovely gardens.

Then onto Stow on the Wold which is also very pretty but unfortunately the rain did not let up so after a short soaking we headed to our last night in a B & B or hotel as we were heading back to East Anglia to visit with John's mates.


That night we spent in a Travelodge south of Northhamption.
Really falling behind on these postings to the blog. Connections are so slow and there are so many pictures to review that it is taking hours.

Glastonbury

Our next stop is Glastonbury which had many legends and claims to fame. Of all the possibilities, it could be the burial site of King Arthur and the island of Avalon, the place Jesus visited in Britain, Joseph of Aramethia was to have bought the Holy Grail to this site, etc.
There is another tor which is much taller than the one at Burrow Bridge being 521 feet high above sea level. At the top, there is another tower and you can see 3 counties Somerset, Dorset, and Wiltshire. This was a tough climbs for me as it is quite steep.

At the base of the tor is the Chalice Well which archaeologist claim has been providing water for over 2,000 years. Regularly, including through droughts, the well produces 2,500 gallons per day. Early in the 20th Century, a well cover was designed and installed.

Glastonbury is a ‘New Age’ village with Tibetan prayer flags, Sufi charity shops, tarot cards and so much more. There is the remains of the Glastonbury Abbey which was one of the richest in the country prior to Henry VIII’s dissolution of the Catholic institutions.

Avebury and Stonehenge

I wanted to visit the stone rings and I was told that the one in Avebury was the best as there is still the opportunity to walk through and touch the stones. Avebury is a very pretty village built throughout the rings. The National Trust has been responsible for maintaining the stones since the 1940s but before then, stones were broken up for construction of houses and/or walls and others were buried in the fields. Of the approximately 600 stones in the original rings, only about 120 remain standing.
According to a local antiques dealer and historian, the Avebury rings pre-date those at Stonehenge. I am not convinced that he was corrected but he was so passionate about his subject. He grew up in the village and had great stories about finding coins about the village. He had a number of them for sale in his shop and I suspect that when, the inventory gets low, he visits his favourite digs.
He had a great lunch at the local pub and then explored the village and its church.

Stonehenge is fairly close and is full of tourist buses and people everywhere. On one side of the road is the Stonehenge and on the other are 3 huge mounds. The admission fee was 15 pounds per head and you were behind a fence following others in a circle around the site. There is a second fence between paying guests and the roadway which is only about 10 feet apart. We decided to see what we could of Stonehenge from the road and visit the mounds instead. There were less people and more cows and sheep on our side of the field. We were rather amused at the number of people who paid the price and walked through the site talking on their cell (mobile) phones.

I preferred Avebury. There is a real sense of being with the stones. They are not exhibits but rather part of daily life. The sheep graze through the area keeping the grass clipped and the visitors walk where they wish.

Minehead

Burrow Bridge is inland and John wanted to see the coast so we headed to Minehead. Minehead is a place John and his family spent a summer holiday when he was a young man at a place called Butlins. Butlins is institution exclusive to England. After World War II, military bases which were no longer needed and an entrepreneur thought that these would make great holiday places. These camps were run in a military style with breakfast at a specified time and so on. The camps are fenced with barbed wire along the top. The joke is/was that the fences were to keep the holiday makers in. While they have had to evolve, they still exist with only minimal new frills.

The day we were there was a typical autumn day (in early August) with drizzle interspersed with heavy rain. We walked the sea walk, played a few arcade games and smelled the chippy. In other words, a typical English holiday ~ wet and greasy.

On the way back to our lodgings, we went through a number of villages...Dunster was the most memorable with a medieval festival and a dog show. However, there were no parking stalls for miles.

The roads in Somerset are truly incredible affairs ... really they are more like gullies with hedgerows planted on the tops. As the road is at the bottom with about 18 inches built up on each side, it would be almost impossible to have an accident; unless of course there was a car coming towards you. Ever so often; when the topography permits, there are pull-outs where one car can pass another. I have no idea what the etiquette to determine which car is backing up as luckily we did not see another car. There are also lovely road tunnels with very large beautiful trees on either side meeting over top of the road.

Back into England ~ Somerset

We crossed the very long and curvy Severn Bridge back into England into the county of Somerset. Among other things, Somerset’s claim to fame is the production of great apple cider called Scrumpy.

We spent two nights at the King Alfred Inn in Burrow Bridge which is the smallest of villages next to the Burrow Mump. The Mump is built on top of a tor which is a limestone covered hill. There is a small tower remaining onto top of the tor to which we did climb on a rainy, muddy day. (so far, a fair few of our days in the UK had moisture.)


I was really lucky with this lodging as they had a laundry machine; combination washer and dryer. Unfortunately, it was very inefficient as an hour's worth of drying was inadequate to dry a small load of tee shirts. But... I did get the washing done by machine rather than by hand.

John wants you to know that, in spite of prior warnings, I did play Monopoly with him and, yes, he did win.

The two days were also notable as we had 3 Indian curries; purchased from Tescos and heated at home. This is a record even for John.

Glagrwyney, Wales and the 2nd Blue Bell Inn

Believe it or not, our next pub stay was at yet another Blue Bell Inn in Glangrwyney (no this is not a typo and I really have no idea how to pronounce it). This pub was being operated by a group of young people hoping to improve the trade. The young man cleaning out the room was part of the group as well as doing the ‘hands on’ work. He told us that they had no funds to improve the structure so their plan was to improve the cleanliness and service as well as to do promotions such as children eating free.
We saw some great challenges in what they were doing as we were there on a Sunday and there was no one in the pub but staff at about 7 pm. We played a couple of games on the Pub Quiz Machine and had a glass of cider each before we went out for a walk leaving the place vacant. Hope that things improve for them but, even I know, the staff cannot exceed the number of punters.

We were told that in the past, this area as all about coal mining. All the smaller hills are actually slag heaps which 10 years ago would have been black. There is an active coal mine at Blaenavon which is now an interactive museum taking people down into the mine and is operated by the miners.

We took an exploratory run to try and find it and we witnessed a terrible motorcycle accident where a young woman missed her turn and ran into the stone wall of the train overpass. John went to help her while I tried to get to a telephone which I finally was able to get by flagging down a motorist. With reluctance, I headed back to the accident site where to my great relief the ambulance service had already arrived. I could hear the young lady's cries of pain but was relieved to see her move her legs. The assistance was very quick and we were told that the hospital was near by and her husband was with her. We both think she will be hurting for a while but miraculously(hopefully) she will be fine.

The next day after driving over hill and dale, all of which was filled with sheep, we found the mine. We were kitted up with a helmet, a light and a safety gear containing a gas mask before we went down in a cage to about 300 feet below the surface. Before we permitted into the cage, we had to hand over our contraband: watches, cameras, anything with a battery or which could cause a spark. This was mandatory for the miners as there are gases in the mine and this could readily ignite them causing an explosion. Our decent into the mine was a third of the speed that used to be used to take the miners down and it was quick enough.

Our guide was one of the miners whose first day underground was when he was 17 years old and he worked at the lowest level in a space only 2.5 feet high with ground water running constantly. It would run down his neck and out his boots. The only benefit to this job was that they were allowed off 1 hour before the rest so they only worked an 11 hour day.

In the mine shaft, we were shown where the work was completed and the machinery including cutters and conveyors which were actually used into the 1990s. Water is constantly running through pipes and gutters along the edges of the shaft; it is rusty with the iron which is also in the ground.

One of the most interesting areas was the stables for the pit ponies. In many respects, the ponies were better treated then the men but it was still no picnic. There were approximately 70 of them underground in this mine and they were brought down after their 4 birthday and worked 12 hours with their human partner. Once a year for 2 weeks they were bought to the surface for a holiday. Care had to be taken to protect their eyes if they were being brought up in the daylight. After a few of these holidays, they got smart and at the end of the 2 weeks they would lie down in the pasture making it really difficult to move them so they would be tipped into a cart to get them back underground. The miners had the daily task of removing the manure which ensured that they had great gardens.

The canaries were also an important part of operations as they react quicker to gases than humans do providing an early warning system. As an important part of the team, they were given great care and never harmed. Two of the canaries are named after Margaret (Thatcher) and Arthur (the Union Leader) who fought each other over the mines.

While there is great pride and camaraderie displayed in the museum, this was never an easy job but at one time it was brutal. Until reformations were made to the labour laws, children as young as 4 and 5 were underground for 12 hour shifts 6 days per week to open and close the doors between the shafts to permit the coal carts and ponies to pass by. They would sit in complete darkness which was demonstrated to us by shutting off our lights. You could not see your hand in front of your face the darkness was so complete. To add to this terror, the mine shafts were full of rats feeding off the remains of the ponies feed and the men’s sandwiches so the children would feel the rats scurrying about them. On the 7th day, they had to attend school.

Over time, the technologies and the labour conditions did improve but it was always a very difficult and dangerous job until the strikes of the 1980s ended much of the mining in the UK.

The museum had a number of displays besides this trip underground which were all run by the miners who used to work at the Big Pit Mine. All the museum staff where miners and their families and they spoke of their time in the pit with respect and camaraderie among the men.