A Dickens of a time - 28 October 2007

Today we visited a different sort of ‘copy’, which is actually very successful. Dickens World, at Chatham, is a ‘theme park’ based on the life and works of the most famous local – Charles Dickens who lived at nearby Rochester. We thought they had produced a very attractive Victorian town, with cobbled streets and quaint buildings. Attractions include a 3D history of Dickens life, Haunted House of characters from his books; theatre presentation; school room quiz; and a ‘log-flume’ ride through a sewer (complete with smells), roof-tops, back-yards, and a cemetery.

We thoroughly enjoyed our morning there. It was a totally miserable day outside, but the whole attraction is undercover, making it a perfect winter attraction.

Peninsular perambulations - 27 October 2007

We set out to explore the Essex peninsular between the Crouch & Blackwater estuaries. We had passed through Maldon previously, and returned to see it with the tide in. Maldon is lovely, and the waterfront park seems especially geared towards children, with inviting play areas.

At the very tip of the peninsular is one of the earliest churches in England, near the very attractive town of Bradwell-On-Sea. St Peters-on-the-Wall, a Saxon church, built in 654 on the site of a 3rd century Roman wall.

We started a circular walk from Southminster. The walk passed near Mangapps Farm Railway Museum. We decided to break the walk there, and had a look at their extensive collection of railway relics.

Our route then passed through Burnham-On-Couch, a very attractive town, whose busy harbour has been in use for centuries. The final stop was South Woodham Ferriers. This is a 20th century town, built with a square surrounded by traditionally styled buildings. Although it must have looked good on paper, the reality just doesn’t quite come together. There is a real difference between the real & the attempted copy. Despite this, we enjoyed an excellent Persian meal at one of the many restaurants in the town centre.

Reflections - 21 October 2007

Another fine and frosty day was perfect for a morning walk around a country park, the River Nene and some water-sport lakes within the Peterborough area.

A recent TV production recommended visiting Wansford & Yarwell. Both towns are built of lovely stone, miniature versions of the nearby stunning town of Stamford. Wansford was the prettier of the two; in particular it's 10 span medieval bridge.

Our final stop of the day was Burghley House, home to the famous Burghley Horse Trials. This stunning house was built by Lord Cecil in Tudor times. They have recently added a lovely water garden, based on the trick water garden built by Lord Cecil. On such a glorious day the gardens looked wonderful.

Angels and the Trinity - 20 October 2007

As we drove north from London on a beautiful frosty autumn day, we passed through areas with heavy fog patches. Our first destination was Stilton of Stilton cheese fame, and we hoped that it wasn't in one of the foggy spots. Fortunately there was bright sunshine at Stilton (although only a matter of a mile away we had passed through dense fog). We enjoyed a walk through the crisp sunshine, finishing again at Stilton. We couldn't leave town without sampling some Stilton made & purchased in Stilton. Browns of Stilton have a very tempting shop, full of a variety of goodies.

From here we drove to Ramsey, a prosperous town in the middle ages, and still has the remnants of an Abbey. From here we drove the short distance to March. The special feature of March was the amazing double hammer-beam roof of the Church of St Wendreda. Over 400 years old, the 120 carved angels are stunning. We talked to a local lady who told us many interesting stories of the church and the angels, including her ingenious fundraising system when the roof needed extensive repairs in 2002.

Wisbeck was once an important port, and although miles from the sea today, ships from Europe still access it via the River Nene. The town has very pleasant Georgian houses lining the riverbank, including Peckover House, a home once owed by a philanthropic Quaker family but now in the care of the National Trust. We enjoyed looking round the house & garden, and in particular their apple themed restaurant's apple, quince & squash soup.

The whole area around here is called Fenland. Prior to the 16th century, many of the towns we visited today were islands in the low lying marshes. In the 16th & 17th centuries, the fens were drained by digging long channels and re-routing rivers. As we drove towards Crowland, our GPS indicated we were only 3 ft above sea level. At the time we were about 3 feet above the surrounding fields, so they were in effect the old sea level. At Crowland we completed our look at Croyland Abbey, which we started in April. Today the Abbey looked stunning in the sunlight, and we were able to have a look inside the church, once a christening was over. We had a look at Thornley, another abbey town nearby, before calling it a day in time to watch the final of the Rugby World Cup.

Also at Crowland is the rather unusual C14th three-cornered Trinity Bridge, now a curiousity with no water in sight. Originally built where the Welland river divided it cleverly allowed the townsfolk multi-way access across the river.

Centuries past - 13 & 14 October 2007

The leaves are beginning to turn, in what they promise will a fantastic autumn, so it was time to get out of London for a walk or two.



Saturday’s walk was from one of our favourite little villages close to London, Chalfont St Giles. The walk went from Milton’s house to Jordans, a planned Quaker settlement that never quite worked out the way that was hoped. Nevertheless it is a cute, quiet, rural village that looked a world away from the crime and violence of the big English cities.

Just outside the village is the Mayflower Barn, so named as it is supposedly built using timbers from the Pilgrim Fathers’ ship.

On Saturday night we thoroughly enjoyed a different sort of autumn when we attended The Four Seasons by Candlelight. Held at the Albert Hall, the Mozart Festival Orchestra, all dressed in period 18thC costumes and wigs, performed Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart, Albinoni and Hayden with stand-out solo performances by soprano Nicola Stonehouse; trumpeter Crispian Steel-Perkins; and violinist Daniel Rowland.


As we had splashed out on seats just three rows from the front, the view was fantastic and it really appeared that the performers were enjoying themselves as much as we were.


It was not at all hard to imagine that you were back in the 1700’s listening to the premiere performance of these pieces.

On Sunday we headed northeast from London to a rather pleasant dormitory suburb with some very nice and, clearly, very expensive houses. From Brookmans Park we walked west to North Mimms to have a look at a C14th church with its Beresford Tomb. This has a very unusual alabaster tomb cover with the picture of a lady outlined in bitumen: it dates from 1584.

Walking east we eventually came to the Folly Tower built in 1754 as the entrance gate to a Pleasure Ground and then turned westward back to our starting point.

Also out enjoying the unseasonably warm autumn day was a grass snake, the first snake we have seen since 2002 when we came across 3 in a matter of months.

Curious Constructions - 10 October 2007

The sky was no bluer today than yesterday so our photos could not be improved upon. Nevertheless we went for another wander through the trulli areas of town before leaving town in the direction of Bari. Murray's Dad served the last few months of WWII in a hospital based at the Bari Polyclinic. The Polyclinic still occupies the same site so we thought we should at least call by since we were so close. We knew, from war archive data on the web, exactly where the medical stores were based so headed for that part of the site. The traffic into Bari and around the hospital was horrendous but we found the particular part of the hospital without getting lost in the one-way system, took some photos in the rain and left.

A little way to the north of Bari was our last World Heritage site, Castel del Monte. An amazing and intriguing structure build in 1240 by Emperor Frederick II. It is entirely composed of octagons: eight octagonal towers positioned around the corners of an octagonal building, of eight rooms, that enclosed an octagonal courtyard with walls eighty feet high. No one is quite sure why it was built that way or, in fact, why it was built at all. It is not defensive and it has no kitchen, storerooms or servants quarters - so was probably not lived in. Theorists have pointed out that it is built at the intersection of two great alignments: halfway between Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid of Egypt; and halfway between Jerusalem and Mont St Michel. "The truth is out there somewhere." Unfortunately the day had not improved by the time we arrived so once again the pictures lack the blue Mediterranean sky.

Our official itinerary was now complete but as we still had quite a bit of day before our flight left, we headed out to the coast rather than straight back to Bari and enjoyed a leisurely drive along the coast past several fishing ports and finally stopping for pizza at Santo Spirito. The fish market was in full swing with the fishermen selling their catch from stalls right on the water's edge. The fish were so fresh that many were still flapping on the counters.

The inevitable could not be delayed much longer so it was off to the airport for the tedious business of queuing and waiting that is air travel these days.

Housing styles - 9 Ocober 2007

Because of the rain last night when we arrived, we could not explore Castelmezzano so we were relieved when today dawned dry with patchy cloud cover. Wandering aimlessly through the village we finally arrived at some signs for 'Fortezza Normanna', which we took to mean Norman Fortress, so followed the streets and stairs to the site of an old fortress which provided commanding views of the village and, over the ridge, across the countryside. We finally dragged ourselves away from this beautiful village and left town via a different route headed for Matera. 5km down the road a motorcycle policeman stopped us, indicated the road was closed and sent us back the way we had come. Passing back through Castelmezzano we felt compelled to stop for another photo opportunity before retracing our inward route from yesterday.


From here the day became another World Heritage Day as the next two stops were UNESCO World Heritage sites. Matera claims to be the oldest continuously settled city in Italy having had traces of settlement going back at least 9000 years. The tourist feature is the Sassi, a huge complex of dwellings carved out of the soft tufa stone the city is built on and of. Up until a Resettlement Act in the 1950s these dwellings were still occupied by the city's poor.

We declined the offer of a personal guided tour by the professional guide even though the price dropped from €30 to €25 to €20, as neither of us thought we could cope with the Italianesque rapid-fire English for an entire hour. Instead we made our own way around the sassi and paid to visit a typical home set out and furnished as it would be in the C19th. The small space would, typically, be home to Mum & Dad, 6 children, a donkey, a pig, and several chickens.

From Matera we travellled across some fairly boring countryside, along basically straight 'roman' roads to Alberobello, the 'capital' of trulli country; and another UNESCO site. Trulli are houses built of limestone with drystone conical roofs similar in construction to some 'beehive' dwellings we had seen in Ireland. This type of construction does not exist elsewhere in Italy and it seems that is was begun here simply as a means of flouting building regulations.

Our accommodation was in a trullo which consisted of a open-plan bedroom, lounge, kitchen, dining room and a separate bathroom: it was a 'trulli' delightful place to spend the night.

After getting ourselves settled in we went for a wander through the trulli parts of town where there are wall to wall trulli along the streets. It makes for an amazing streetscape.