A First Visit To Old Blighty

“Oh to be in England, now that April’s there..”

After our first big trip to the USA we started to cast our travelling eyes further afield and, for us, there was really only one choice. Like Robert Browning, the thought of visiting England ( and Scotland) in April was just too tempting. I’ve already written about our first week in London, but the rest of our holiday was a tour to find Neil’s roots in Scotland and mine in England.

We arrived in Scotland on the Caledonian Sleeper, an overnight trip from Euston Station in London. The train trip was an adventure in itself as it was the first time we’d done the “sleeper” thing. We were travelling with Erin and Liam on that trip so we had reserved 2 adjacent cabins with an interconnecting door. Some would describe the cabins as “small but perfectly formed” but the realists would just call them cramped!  It was an interesting exercise finding room for all our luggage, and at one stage Neil even contemplated putting them in a luggage rack in the next carriage ( but as it will become clear later, it was fortunate that he decided against it!)

I went to sleep with visions of ‘Murder on the Orient Express” in my head – and although there were no murders in the dead of night , I can’t honestly say that we slept well. The beds were comfortable enough and the clickety clack of the train was fairly soothing but there were several stops as well as some odd rattling sounds in our berth as well. We stopped for quite a long stretch at, I assume, Edinburgh. There was lots of banging and shunting and in the morning we discovered that the two cars ahead of us had been taken off and we’d also changed direction! When we left Euston we were the third carriage but when we arrived at Inverness we were in the last carriage!  We were VERY glad Neil hadn’t put our luggage in that carriage 🙂

Neil and I woke about 6.50am and were excited to see a bare “Scottish” looking landscape outside the window. We stopped at a station and after checking our book we realized we were slap bang in the middle of the Cairngorms. On our arrival in Inverness we collected our first rental car,  new Mercedes – quite spacious and with enough room in the boot for all our luggage. We set off to Culloden – using John Cleese ( my GPS app running on my trusty Palm) as a guide. He was brilliant, took us straight there. Through an extraordinary coincidence, it was the day for the “Gathering of the Clans”,- every year on the closest Saturday to the anniversary of the Battle of Culloden, people arrive from all over the place whose ancestors participated in the battle for a variety of ceremonies. We arrived at the centre just as they opened and there were already several people there all dressed up in full costume!

From Culloden, John took us back through the town and out onto the road south down the Loch towards Drumnadrochit. It’s there that they have the Loch Ness visitor centre – it was a bit kitch but Liam (then only 10 years old ) really enjoyed the audiovisual display and it was nice to go somewhere that he could enjoy after he had trailed uncomplaining through all those museums and galleries in London and Paris.

It was a short drive from there to Urqhardt Castle, a ruin but with an excellent visitor centre and another short film about the castle’s history. Liam absolutely loved wandering among the castle ruins.
We carried on down the Loch but then turned northwest to take the road out towards Skye, – as we went along the green, forested landscape gave way to bleak, heather  covered peaks that rose up higher and higher. There were still traces of snow on the tops. Our ultimate goal was to visit Eileen Donan castle which is the classic “ Castle on the Loch” picture that you see in every book or film about Scotland. The castle was ruined in the 1700’s but in the early 1900’s the Head of the Clan MacRea totally renovated it and turned it into a residence. While we were there a young lad in full kilt started playing the bagpipes by the lake so we walked out to the castle with the sound of the pipes drifting across the water – another of those “pinch me I’m dreaming” moments!

It was late afternoon by the time we arrived at the Glencoe visitor centre, just a brief stop there before we drove through the Glen – Wow! What a sight, so bleak and forbidding but wild and grand too. Finally reached our B & B at Crianlarich, the lovely Ewich House. The owners were a charming youngish couple who had done a marvelous job of renovating the house ( which was originally built in 1811) It was simply gorgeous, a grey stone rambling property, hugging the ground ,  in the middle of nowhere with lovely views up the glen.

The next day was our chance for Neil to connect with his family heritage, we drove a short distance to Dalmally,a pretty little Highland town where the Andersons came from. We tried to find the house of his  forebears , without success, so we took a couple of pictures of the train station instead. From there we took off straight down to Stirling, via Callander. Loved the towns full of little stone shops and houses. At Stirling we visited the striking castle, set up high on a hill. We watched an  interesting demonstration of armour and weapons and battle techniques of the Scots in the 15th century. At  Bannockburn we dropped in to the Heritage Centre, they had some informative displays about William Wallace and Robert the Bruce but the highlight for Liam was being able to try on some chain mail.

As we traveled east the skies brightened and it was quite sunny by the time we got to Falkirk to see the famous Falkirk wheel. It really is an extraordinary piece of engineering – a huge wheel that transports canal boats from one canal 80 feet up to a higher canal, in one rotation it does the work of a dozen more traditional canal locks. We were able to watch the full process of boats arriving at the lock, being floated up to the level of the wheel and then being rotated  up to the level of the upper canals.

On to the coast so Neil could pay homage to the birthplace of the game of golf. St`Andrews is another lovely stone town, but this time set with the backdrop of the North Sea. The beach was absolutely packed with  crazy Scots – the day was fine but there was a stiff cool wind blowing in from the ocean , but that didn’t stop the Scots. The sun was shining so it MUST be beach weather!? We watched a few kids running along the beach and were reminded that this stretch of beach was actually used in the filming of “Chariots of Fire” where the runners were training on the beach – so we all had the music from the film running round in our heads! We took a look at the Royal and Ancient Old Course club house and some of the people playing on the greens before we went up the road to visit the ruins of St`Andrews Castle. This obviously wasn’t a very big castle but Liam was happy to run among the rocks and into the remaining chambers etc. It was right on the cliff above the water and must have been a pretty bleak place to live in back then.

After that we made tracks for our stop for the night, Edinburgh. After  a good nights sleep we woke up bright and early to a beautiful day, bright and sunny and cold. Our itinerary only gave us one day to see the major sights before we caught a train to York in the late afternoon so we set off bright and early to accomplish as much as we could. We decided that the best way to start was on the classic hop-on hop-off bus tour, this one had the usual recorded commentary including a  special one just for kids. Liam plugged in and as we drove past Princes Street gardens, we were hearing the usual historical information when Liam tapped me on the shoulder and said “Mum, they used to dump their poo in there!!!”  He, was well entertained by similar useful stuff all the way around the tour! We drove up and around the Grassmarket area, past the magnificent Edinburgh castle – it really does dominate the views from everywhere in the town!. From there it had slow progress down the Royal Mile ( roadworks) down to Holyrood House, up past Carlton Hill and back around to Waverley.

It took about an hour and half to do the full circuit, then we stayed on until it took us back to the castle as it saved us the climb up that very steep hill. We spent an enjoyable hour or two wandering around the castle, viewed the Scottish Royal Jewels and the Stone of Destiny. Erin was a bit disappointed with the stone, it really is a fairly nondescript lump of rock for all its history.We ate lunch in a café, sitting right by a big window with a marvelous view over the town then lined up to watch the firing of the 1 o’clock gun – very impressive and extremely loud!!! From the castle we wandered  down the Royal Mile popping in and out of the shops, and a museum that is an original ancient home showing you how they lived back in the 16 and 1700s

Our first train journey had been quite successful so we didn’t anticipate any problems for our train trip back to England. how wrong we were! On the platform we were a  bit disconcerted to see the huge crowd waiting there but we weren’t too worried  – we should have been. It turned out an earlier train had been cancelled and two train-loads of people jammed into the train. It was a nightmare of confusion over getting our reserved seats and trying to find somewhere for luggage ( we didn’t – and ended up with our suitcases on our knees!)   Then we ground to a halt north of Newcastle. We sat for  a long time and eventually an announcement came over the speakers that a truck with a low loader had crashed into a railway bridge and the bridge was unsafe to cross, we were in a long queue of trains all stuck on the north side of a little village called Morpeth!  They said they were going to unload us all at Morpeth and buses would transport us to Newcastle where we could catch another train. Our hearts sank at the thought of getting our luggage off the train, onto a bus, off a bus and onto a train again!

The “Shambles”

Fortunately the train people came up with an alternative solution and we continued on our way, very slowly and so arrived 2 hours later than we expected to in York. Our hotel was only a pleasant 10 minute walk from the town along the banks of the river Ouse.  York has a strong connection to the Vikings who settled in the area in the dark ages. There is a wonderful museum in the town which covers all things Viking , at the Jorvik Museum we enjoyed a Disneyesque  “Time Travel” ride which took you through the Viking village of Jorvik as it would have been in around 900 AD. At the end of the ride there were displays which explained all the archeological work that they had done ( and are still doing) to determine the information they needed to recreate Jorvik.

From there we meandered through the quaint “Shambles” , a cute little street of overhanging, half-timbered cottages which are now all touristy shops ,  before going on to the York Minster.

It’s really an extraordinary structure, massive but very light and bright and has the most interesting  Undercroft and Crypt. Our audio tour of the crypt was really fascinating. About 20  years ago there was  a massive renovation undertaken to shore up the foundations of the Minster because they had discovered that it was on the verge of collapsing. As a result of the work they discovered the remains of the original Norman cathedral that previously stood on the site as

York Minster viewed from the city walls

well as, at a lower level, a large Roman building. The tour took you down to the roman level and pointed out various features before you rose up to the Norman level and eventually to the foundations of the current, Medieaval Minster.It really filled you with a huge sense of the history of the place to be walking through 2000 years of development in the one spot.

We enjoyed lunch in the pretty gardens behind the Minster and walked along the tops of the ancient walls that encircle the centre of the town. On our way back to the hotel we stopped to see  Cliffords Tower, the  only remnant of York Castle. It’s really just a hollow tower but there were some excellent views of York from the top.

The next day was an early start as we were making tracks to Manchester to visit another kind of temple – Manchester United Football Ground! We were booked on a tour which was quite interesting but I’m sure Neil appreciated it far more than the kids or I did. It was amazing to see how much money is poured into the ground and the  maintenance of club facilities. We also heard some of the little rituals that the team go through before and during the matches (e.g. they eat Jaffa Cakes and bananas at half time!)

I was definitely more excited about the next part of our trip, a stay in the Peak district. We drove along gorgeous country roads, past pretty little villages by fields marked out by grey stone walls  to Castleton, one of the main picturesque towns. At Castleton we parked in the main parking lot and climbed up the road to the Peveril Castle entry house. Peveril is a ruin of a Norman castle built high atop a very tall hill. The climb up the steep walk was very hard on the breath and the knees but the view from the top was simply stunning.

You look way down to Castleton below and across the countryside to Mam Tor and other high peaks. Only the keep of the original castle still stands with some of the surrounding low walls but there are information signs scattered around the site to explain what you are seeing.Not many people were attempting the climb to the top so it was very peaceful and quite breathtaking.

We spent the night in a lovely B & B that overlooked the grand park in Buxton, the highest town in England and famous as a genteel spa town.The next morning we made a brief stop at Lyme Park.,the first stop in Erin’s and my  Jane Austen crawl as the house was “Pemberley” in the 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. It also had a deer park and Liam was intrigued to see the number of them wandering the grounds.

From Lyme Park we drove across to Eyam, the famous “plague village”. When the plague swept across England in the mid 1600’s , plague was brought to the town in a delivery of cloth from London. The vicar of the town persuaded the villages to cut themselves off from surrounding villages so that the plague wouldn’t spread. A huge number of villagers died, including, I was to learn in later years, some ancestors of my own! The museum was quite good and very informative the village church, has a fine Celtic Cross there that dates from around 800 AD and several of the cottages had plaques out the front describing who lived there and how many people had died.

From Eyam we set off towards the grand stately home of the Dukes of Devonshire, Chatsworth. We went straight to the House entrance and walked around with our jaws dropping. The painted hall was stunning, and, again particularly interesting to Erin and I as Chatsworth was “Pemberley” in the recent movie of “Pride and Prejudice”.We wandered out to the grounds and walked to the top of the cascade , a stunning , water feature that runs down the hill in a series of terraces.

After a stop in Bakewell to sample pasties and bakewell tarts I then let “John” guide us straight on to Warwick and our next B & B. Here we enjoyed one of the classic features of accommodation in English B & B’s – bad plumbing!  I was the lucky one, I had 4-5 minutes of reasonable shower before it suddenly started to go berserk. First it was boiling hot then freezing cold and all of a sudden the pressure faded to a trickle. I had a head full of conditioner so I had to persist. Poor Neil got the hot/cold experience right from the start so Erin decided to skip her shower altogether.

We arrived at Warwick castle shortly after it opened and virtually had the place to ourselves for the first ¾ of an hour – it was great! First we visited the “Dream of Battle” experience – a rather Disney-style  audiovisual display that was based around the experience of the young squire before he goes into battle under the of command of the Earl of Warwick. This lead onto the Kingmaker display which gave a historical background to the period when the Earl of Warwick supported the House of Lancaster during the War of the Roses.

Madame Tussauds own the castle so this exhibit ( and others) was populated by very good life-size figures which brought the displays alive. Scattered here and there were real people dressed in costume who answered questions and were able to give further information about the exhibits. We watched a marvelous demonstration of the use of a Longbow  , then visited the State rooms, very beautiful rooms built around the time of William and Mary followed by another exhibit that displayed how the castle was used during a Victorian era House party. Life-size figures of the Countess of Warwick, Edward VII and a young Winston Churchill ( amongst others) made it really come alive. A brief visit to the Dungeon followed, not a place I would want to spend too much time!

That afternoon we made the short drive to Stratford upon Avon, the home of  William Shakespeare.  Our first stop was at his birthplace, looking  a little incongruent, it’s ancient grey timbers at odds with the 20th

century shops that surround it! However, the displays were excellent and it really gave you a frisson to think that you were walking in the steps of the Bard. We wandered down the street towards Nash’s House and New Place ( where his daughter lived) and on towards the river and Holy Trinity church to view Shakespeare’s Grave. He had pride of place right beneath the altar. It is a beautiful church, built in the early 1200’s. A wander along the river was a pleasant end to our afternoon, past the ducks and the geese and the row boats with names like “Miranda”, “Viola” and “Rosamund”

The pretty-as-a-picture Cotswolds was the next stop on our journey. As we approached we noticed the difference in the colour of the stone buildings – The Cotswolds cottages are renowned for the mellow gold  colour which is is very distinctive and unlike anything we’d seen elsewhere. Bourton on the Water is chocolate-box pretty with its little streams and bridges but it was pretty packed with  tourists and full of twee little shops.

After a drive through Upper and Lower Slaughter, (don’t you love those names!) we carried on to  Chedworth to visit the Chedworth Roman Villa, the extensive remains of a villa dating from about 400BC. The National Trust call it their “Oldest  Stately Home” . It was a fascinating glimpse into ancient Britain and the floor mosaics were beautiful.

 

Then we set off across country in search of Uley, which was my chance to connect with my family heritage. My maternal grandmother’s family, the Peglers,  came from Uley and we were looking for a local landmark, an ancient burial mound named “Hetty Peglers Tump” also known as  the “Uley Long Barrow” . We found it out in

the edge of a field looking down over a steep hill.  Neil was the first one to crawl in the little door then I followed with Liam – it was dark, cold and eerie inside. Erin and I kept thinking of the part in Lord of the Rings where the hobbits get trapped in the barrow by barrow-wights and have to call on Tom Bombadil to save them. (For those of you who’ve only seen the movie, they left that bit out!) I sat on the tump and thought of my forebears 🙂

Wales! We headed west towards Monmouth. We knew when we’d hit Wales because all of a sudden all the signs were in two languages, English and Welsh.  The centre of Monmouth was buzzing, there were market stalls out the front of the Shire Hall. This was another stop on the family history tour as one of Neil’s ancestors, Edwin Jones, was sentenced to transportation to Australia at the Monmouth Assizes. From

Monmouth we headed down the Wye Valley towards Tintern Abbey. The scenery in the valley was so pretty on a mild, sunny April afternoon. A pale green forest and a pretty river in dappled sunshine. Luck was with us when we pulled into the carpark of Tintern, last entry was at 4.30 and we walked in the door at 4.29!!  What a magical place Tintern was, Liam loved running and climbing on the lower ruined walls. I felt rather sad to think of what a beautiful church it must have been and felt Henry VIII had a lot to answer for.

Our  last two nights of that trip were spent in the lovely city of Bath . As we walked into the town we headed straight for the Roman baths. I had the same feeling of amazement that I’d felt in York Minster’s undercroft, that you could see the layers of history peeled away from Roman through Medieaval and Georgian to modern day.From the Baths we walked up to the Pump Room. What a grand room! I stood there and pictured all those characters in Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen novels grimacing as they took the waters! Of course we had to sample some for ourselves, it just tasted like hot water to me?

Erin and I visited the Jane Austen Centre while Neil and Liam decided to sit on the benches in Queens Square to wait for us . I bought myself a novel called “Darcy’s Story”, a view of P & P from Darcy’s point of view, something for me to read on the plane The boys joined us as we came outside and we all walked further up the hill to the Royal Crescent. It’s a very grand semi-circular boulevarde lined with magnificent terrace houses and a lovely green park in front.We toured the museum in No 1 Royal Crescent and then walked back through the Circus ( another gorgeous one of Nash’s streets) to the Assembly Rooms and the Museum of Costume. Another free Audio guide

here explained the use of the Assembly rooms , although again I already felt familiar with the place through my Regency readings.

That afternoon we drove over to see the stone circle at Avebury. It took about ¾ of an hour to get there but it was another pretty drive , passing one of the great Wiltshire horses along the way, a huge white  horse carved out of the chalky ground of the hillside. At Avebury we had visited the museum and were wandering amongst the stones when Liam decided to run down into the big ditch that surrounds the village. As he was climbing out he pulled on a plant to help himself up and yelled suddenly because he’d grabbed a handful of stinging nettles! He was in misery so I asked at the shop if they had any remedies. They found me a dock leaf (!) which I rubbed on his hand and we decided to head back. These old-English remedies!

Cold and wet at Stonehenge

We had plenty of time to fill on our final day as our plane was scheduled to leave Heathrow at 10.00pm .The day was grey and we saw the first real rain for our entire trip as we drove east to Stonehenge . What a thrill to see another one of those incredible English icons! The audio tour was good but the drizzly weather and the cold meant that we didn’t linger (but did visit the shop!).

On to Salisbury. Stopped in at Old Sarum which is the ruins of the original Salisbury cathedral, built high on a hill above the town. There isn’t much left of the ruins but the mound is amazingly high and you can definitely get a feel for what the original castle and cathedral would have been like. This whole area was particularly interesting to me after enjoying “Sarum” by Robert Rutherford.

In Salisbury we saw the  cathedral with it’s beautiful, towering spire. We were starting to feel like old-hands at Cathedrals now but it was  interesting to see how each one differed. Salisbury has a particularly lovely green “cathedral close” around it and a very beautiful modern font. We could compare it later that day to the one in Winchester , the penultimate stop on our Jane Austen tour. As we walked into Winchester cathedral the lady at the door asked if we were Jane Austen fans ( could she tell just by looking at Erin and I??) She directed us to the area a short way down the left hand side where the great authoress is buried. It  was interesting that her original stone slab makes no mention at all of her writing, despite the fact that she was already a published authoress at her death. However, the Victorians had added a grand memorial on the wall near her grave which gave tribute to her talents.

Our last stop was at the tiny village of Chawton. Its claim to fame is that it is where Jane Austen lived for a long period of her life.  Neil and Liam stayed in the park while Erin and I visited the house where she lived with her Mother and sister. It was a real thrill for us to see the small table at which she did her writing and to see her bedroom etc. A fitting end to our Jane Austen experience.

By then our day was coming to an end and it was time to head for the Airport. We were sorry to leave but we knew we would be back, we weren’t done with the UK just yet…