Our Kent Holiday–Day 11: Our Return Home

Today we returned home. We set off in reasonable time and made good progress. We stopped in the village of Wylie in Wiltshire for a pub lunch. This village is absolutely exquisite, and I managed to take quite a few pictures. All the houses and cottages are full of character, and many are made of stone and flint in a chequer-board pattern.

You can see on the end of this cottage the very pretty chequer-board design in the stone. This is a close-up of it:

(I love photographing things like this!)

This is the view out of the church door. I love the house opposite - that chequer-board pattern again:

 

There was more chequer-board stonework on the outside of the church:

This is some lichen growing on a tombstone, which makes such gorgeous swirling patterns and such subtle colours:

Finally, there was a lady in the church doing the flowers, and she recommended that we took a little detour before getting back on the main road, and to drive up the hill out of the village where there was a beautiful bluebell wood:

We arrived home in the early evening to a rapturous welcome from two kitties who must have given us up for lost after 10 days of no spoiling, no treats, and no cuddles!

What a wonderful holiday we have had. With so much beauty on our doorsteps, why does anyone need to go abroad for their holidays? I am so grateful that we live in such a beautiful country, with so much variety close at hand and easily accessed. Thank you to everyone we encountered on our holiday who made it so special for us - workers and volunteers in all the venues we visited, and especially to our bed and breakfast hosts who provided us with the Full English fuel needed to sustain us throughout the day - including a perfect fried egg every morning! Who could ask for more?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you've enjoyed it.

Our Kent Holiday–Day 10: Walmer Castle

We've had a real adventure today, our last day. As I thought last night, my hubby had decided to go to Walmer Castle today, the home of the Wardens of the Cinque Ports, and it was a very, very good choice for our final day. On the way, we visited a windmill at Deal:

and had lunch in a lovely country pub in a village with the delightful name of Ripple. We then went on to Walmer, a beautiful quadrifoil Tudor castle with a lot of emphasis on the Duke of Wellington - you can even see a pair of his original "wellies" there! The gardens are simply magnificent.

Here's one of me on the bridge leading into the castle:

 

There's a special walled garden, "The Garden of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother" and I bought a postcard showing her sitting in it. Lovely. When we went in, I could just imagine how she must have loved it. It was a very beautiful, peaceful place with lovely proportions, and well-planted. There were also some stone urns planted with flowers, including heather, to remind Her Majesty of her Scottish home.

Up the middle is a rectangular pond, at the top of which is a sort of pavilion.

 

There were goldfish in the pond, and some water lilies. As you can see, it was a nice sunny day and everything looked lovely as a result.

There is an avenue of extraordinary "sculpted" yew hedges which we found fascinating:

 

This is the gate out of the garden:

 

On our way there, we took a particular route from our B & B which we'd taken a few times before, and each time we were very intrigued by a modern building which seemed to be in process of construction, behind a waterworks building, and we thought perhaps it was new headquarters being built or something - the waterworks building was a typical 1930s red brick edifice. This morning we stopped in a layby and photographed it from the road:

(this was taken with the zoom so it's really quite a bit further away) and my hubby said, "Let's go up and see what it's all about." We drove past the red brick building and found a locked gate and a "beware of the dog" sign which didn't look too hopeful, and a large Alsatian dog came up barking, and then a man appeared, and came down. We got out and smiled at him, and said how intrigued we were etc. He said it was a private house that he and his partner were renovating. His partner was out, but would be back later if we wanted to call in on our return, which we said we would.

He told us that it was a water treatment plant which had fallen into disrepair, and after a lot of battles with the planners they were allowed to do it up - now the planners are asking permission to send people to see it because it shows what can be done with derelict buildings in Kent!!!

We got back there at about 5.30, and they were both there, and they invited us to drive up. It is still a bit of a building site, but the windows are in, and they are making very good progress. The partner said "Come in and I'll show you around." Of course, it was all totally unsuitable for the Rolls Royce so I went round this 5-storey huge house on my crutches - quite an ordeal but more than made up for by the sheer beauty and wonder of it all. My hubby and I both adore Art Deco and this place certainly didn't disappoint - it was like an ocean liner: white, clean lines, lots of curves and fabulous shapes and shadows which changed wherever you moved. There was a vast full-height atrium between what had originally been two cylindrical water tanks, and they've left various bits of its industrial past which added character. Vast areas of glass, spiral staircases, ciruclar rooms... They already had certain items of furniture in, which you can imagine were very stylish and totally in keeping with the place. When it is finished it will have absolutely the last word in mod-cons, with a library, cinema, gym, sauna, jacuzzi, roof garden, and --- wait for it --- a roof-top swimming pool! It was absolutely to die for, a real fantasy dream house!

They asked us not to photograph anything, because it was their private house, which we respected, of course; the photos we did take were before we went up the drive, and which we took from the road, which is open to anyone to view. They were so generous in sharing it with us. We felt extremely privileged that they had agreed to show us round, when we had simply turned up as total strangers who expressed an interest. They said do come back when it's finished! I think I should faint away with the beauty of it - it was amazing enough in its present state!

This was an unexpected bonus at the end of our holiday and I'm still reeling from the incredibleness of it.
The trouble is, of course, after all that traipsing around and up and down goodness knows how many stairs, I am suffering from it big time now, and my arms were really bad when we first got back after all that crutch walking, but they seem better now, but boy it was worth it! I'd do it all again five minutes from now if we were invited, even if it put me in bed for a year!

Well, that's it for our hols for another year, unless we stop and get any photos tomorrow. I hope you've enjoyed sharing our hols with us - it's been tremendous fun for me doing this each day, and so lovely to have Nilly and E's input too! What a truly wonderful holiday it's been. For anyone reading this who lives in or near Kent, you live in a beautiful part of the world and it's been marvellous experiencing it.

Our Kent Holiday–Day 9: Godstone Farm, Surrey

It was soooo great to meet up with my online friends at last! We had the whole afternoon together after a lovely pub lunch. We went to Godstone Farm in Surrey, a convenient meeting place for all concerned. It is a children's farm where there are lots of animals, and at this time of year, lots of baby animals too, so Nilly and I were in our element!

My hubby took this splendid picture of a turkey showing off before his lady folk:

Isn't his tail magnificent? A perfect fan, and I love that black bar that decorates its edge. Unfortunately his ladies took about as much notice of him as that peehen did of her magnificent hubby at Leeds Castle the other day! (Are these male birds missing the point somehow???)
There was a very pretty decoration all along the wall of an outbuilding, made of cut out wooden shapes. Here's my hubby beside it:

 

This gorgeous black duck was very tame, and came right up to my feet and obliged me by standing still long enough to be photographed:

I just loved these two baby bunnies:

and the guinea pigs:

My hubby took this one of us three foggers having a cup of tea, but unfortunately it's not very good of me - I am looking awfully superior, just how I imagine pawsh Mrs. Tom Tom tries to look - i.e. down her nose!

This is a smashing one he took of the 3 of us outside:

We had such fun, and I'm soooo glad it all worked out - thanks to E for arranging it. I'm so thrilled! What a lovely day!

Got payback now, though... I crashed out fast asleep in the car on the way back and have got painful legs, esp. the left one, and can't get comfortable. Feeling pretty rough actually, but hopefully will stay the course for our last day tomorrow! My hubby is now asleep so I can't ask him to remind me where we're going - it's a small Tudor castle somewhere near Dover, where the Wardens of the Cinque Ports lived - Churchill was one, and W.H. Smith, and the Queen Mother.

Our Kent Holiday–Day 8: Historic Dockyard, Chatham

Today we weren't sure what we would do, because my hubby thought there might be a steam rally somewhere, it being Bank Holiday Monday, but there wasn't, so we decided, on the recommendation of our B & B host, to go to the Historic Dockyard at Chatham. I wasn't sure whether I would enjoy it, thinking it would be an exclusively "boys'" day, and after breakfast this a.m. I thought I could feel payback advancing relentlessly and I felt really poorly - but nothing daunted, we set off, and I had a deep sleep in the car and felt a lot better when I woke up.

Contrary to my expectations, the Dockyard was truly amazing. They've got so much stuff to see! To start with, absolutely everywhere is wheelchair accessible - there are ramps, spiral "walkways" ("wheelways"??) and lifts, and as we usually find on our outings, the staff are so friendly and helpful and nothing is too much trouble. I risked going on another land train and all was well - no chance of falling over in this one!

We went in the lifeboat museum. I took a picture of this which particularly attracted my attention:

This lifeboat was pulled in and out of the water by a horse. There was another on tracks; they apparently used any suitable method to launch the lifeboats from different types of shorelines. We also saw the lifeboat "The Grace Darling" which reminded us of the heroic Victorian lady who saved the lives of the shipwrecked sailors.

Alongside the lifeboat display was another huge area, "The Store" where there was sooo much stuff - huge machines and bits of old boat etc. I thought these huge gear wheels were rather fun with their chevron design:

Above the lifeboats and the Store was another floor which we reached by lift, and it was a vast empty space covered by the roof that had once covered one of the docks. It was very impressive, the more so because there was nothing up there:

 

We then went onto HMS Gannet which is part of the permanent display - a lovely little sailing ship. This is her figurehead:

and this is her ship's wheel - with a lovely motto above:

At this point we went for lunch, and the restaurant was the only disappointing thing about the whole place. We had very indifferent fish and chips selected from a very limited and poor menu; the table was not cleared from the previous people and the place was none too clean. I think it's often the case in such places - they have a super display and enough to do for all ages to make it a whole day out, but they fall down on the eating arrangements. They could have a franchise for several different catering firms supplying a good variety of food suitable for children and adults - and a more "posh" restaurant for those who want a quieter, more leisurely meal. It's a shame really, as they could make more money that way, and everyone would be better pleased if they could actually enjoy their meal.

Afterwards we went on the land train to the other end of the Dockyard and went first into the Museum. At first I didn't think I'd find anything to interest me in there, but I was wrong. It was fascinating - following through this country's maritime history chronologically, with lots of different displays - maps, posters and artwork, model ships, cases full of instruments, diving equipment, cooking, flag-making... you name it. The stewards (retired gentlemen) were so knowledgeable and loved to chat about all the different things. Here are a few of the things that particularly delighted me:

This is the bow of a boat - I just love the way the planks make such a beautiful design on boats which have lovely lines.

There was quite a large collection of hand-carved wooden patterns for making castings of ships' badges - they press the pattern into sand to make a mould, and then pour in the molten metal. My grandfather (the one who wired Dover Castle) used to run a large foundry in Scotland, and I have got one of the apprentice pieces - a large bas-relief of Da Vinci's "Last Supper" in bronze, which is so detailed that you can even see the toenails on the figures.
These "master patterns" were all displayed on the wall, and the detail in the carving is amazing. Here is one of them, for HMS Collingwood:

Talking of apprentice pieces, we found a display of miniature tools and instruments made by engineering apprentices - tiny micrometers and vernier callipers, clamps, dividers etc. - all tools to be found in my dad's workshop and I know he'd have been delighted with these tiny things - none more than 2 or 3 inches in size. They were exquisite, and fully working.

The next thing I wanted to show you had particular relevance to us personally. When we got married, my hubby had a friend in the navy who had been part of the team that made Charles and Diana's wedding cake, and he made our wedding cake. He borrowed the wooden boxes from HMS Cambridge where he was serving, and baked the cakes in the large ovens there. We had a 3-tier square cake, and I was surprised when I first saw it at the reception, that the bottom layer was slightly smaller than the middle layer - it actually looked rather stylish - very unusual. Later, my hubby told me (he was sworn to secrecy until after the wedding) that his friend had made the bottom layer, and had brought it home ready to ice. He went out for a short while, and came back to find his Alsatian dog mauling it in the corner of the room!!! He didn't have time to make another one, so he had to cut it down to remove the chewed bits, so it ended up smaller than it should have been!

We were very surprised and pleased to see the boxes used for Charles and Diana's cake:

and this is a picture of their actual cake:

After leaving the Museum we went on to the high spot of the day - the Ropery, where since 1600-odd, ropes had been made for the naval ships (31 miles of rope on HMS Victory alone). My hubby has always wanted to see a rope walk - the one in the dockyard at Plymouth (where we used to live) was just an empty building. We had a lovely Irish guide called Brenda, who was so delightful and made it all such fun - she was brilliant with the children in our group. She explained the process from the raw hemp:

right through to the finished rope:

They had a big room with wooden mock-ups of the machines used, and she got the children and one or two adults (including my hubby who helped a little boy turn a very big handle) to work the different bits, and they made a length of rope between them! Here's the part where the yarns are threaded up:

 

and here is a lady using a special tool to keep the winding even, between the 2 twisting machines:

- you can see my hubby's back view as he helps the little boy turn the winder on the fixed end - the other end moves along on wheels. When they'd finished making a rope, she wrapped sticky tape around it at intervals along its length and then cut it into sections, the tape stopping it unravelling, and then everyone who'd made it was given a section - my hubby is thrilled to have a bit of rope he "made" himself and can't wait to put it in his little boat and show all his boating buddies!

We then went into the rope walk proper:

 

It is a quarter of a mile long! It was so thrilling, and our guide gave us so much history, and described the awful working conditions, with 12-hour shifts, and if you didn't make enough rope, it was docked from your already pretty meagre wages... When they introduced more machines, they employed women, because they could pay them 1/3 the wages of men!! These women were widows whose husbands had been lost at sea in various wars, and they had to work these long hours, and often another job as well, just to survive. There were no health and safety rules either, and it was hard, dangerous work; the air would have been filled with dust and fibres from the hemp, leading to lung disease.

She also explained that to prevent theft of rope from the Ropery, each shipyard had its own colour-coding; that for Chatham was yellow. A single "rogue's yarn" was twisted into every rope, so if a coil went missing and a worker's cottage was searched and any rope with the tell-tale yellow thread in it was found, the man was summarily dismissed from his job. (I understand something similar was done in WWII with petrol; to prevent it being sold on the black market, petrol for different uses - commercial, military etc. - was colour-coded with added dye.)

When we left I was absolutely exhausted and again slept in the car. I was a bit desperate because we were getting hungry, and nowhere seemed to be open to sell sandwiches - even the motorway service station was closed! I know it's a Bank Holiday but do they think people don't want to eat on Bank Holidays? Eventually we found a garage that was open and managed to get some. Although I'm achy and tired, I feel a lot better now I'm in bed and have eaten and had a good sleep.

Plans for tomorrow? We are meeting with some foggy friends from the Forum and going to a farm with lots of baby lambs and ducklings after a pub lunch, which I am really looking forward to.

We've then got one day left (Wednesday) to decide where to go, and then we go home on Thursday. If I get payback - so be it. It will be worth it!

Our Kent Holiday–Day 7: Canterbury Cathedral

I was Very Good in the Cathedral, you'll be glad to hear! My hubby's friend wasn't there - all the details he found on the website seemed to be wrong. I was very restrained, except when it came to the singing! Fabby hymns and I just let rip!!

The weather was quite appalling today - torrential rain and a strong icy wind - very difficult to get around, even with my hubby's help. We spent most of the time in the Cathedral - we arrived late for the a.m. service as my hubby had to drop me off, and I had to have help from one of the staff (all of whom were soooo nice, friendly and helpful - nothing too much trouble and all done with a smile). Canterbury has more steps than any other cathedral we've ever visited, and in the 11th century they didn't consider accessibility for wheelchairs a top priority! They had some lifts, including a hand-cranked job which was brilliant but needed a member of staff to operate it. By the time I got up to the Quire where the service took place, my hubby had already arrived, and a lady steward came straight up to me and said "Your husband has already arrived - I'll go and fetch him so you can sit together!" They'd obviously been detailed to look out for me. I was really impressed.

Afterwards we had a bit of a look around, and then made a dash for it through the rain to the nearest place that served food - an extremely crowded pub with excellent pies. Steps to get in, so I had to get out of the Rolls Royce and my hubby had to hump it up the steps. Then the loo was at the back, upstairs, and no disabled one! I hadn't got my crutches so my poor hubby had to help me a lot, although I just about managed without him having to come into the loo with me! I was wet, glasses steamed up, cold, tired, hungry and dying for a pee. Not a happy bunny...

Felt a bit better after eating, then we braved the weather again and back into the Cathedral - we decided it was far too wet to explore the city although we had tantalising glimpses of intriguing small ancient streets with marvellous buildings and very classy shops - what I'd have given for an afternoon moseying around! We attended choral evensong in the Quire and the singing was sublime - and the organ too. At the end of the voluntary the echo went on and on... Afterwards my hubby asked one of the stewards about bringing the car right up, and they arranged it all - a bollard would be removed etc. This gentleman reminded me a bit of my dad. He was so dapper and charming and said how much he enjoyed being involved in the Cathedral since his retirement.

My hubby left me to go and get the car and he was ages, so I started to worry that something had happened, but it was just traffic and complicated streets, and he'd also bought some sandwiches for our tea. All was well, and soon I was able to rest in the car.

Having eaten, washed my hair and had a lovely hot shower I feel much better now but my legs are aching and I'm glad to be on the bed. Tomorrow I'm hoping for a less frantic day, and hopefully the weather will have improved. It couldn't be much worse, anyway!

Here's a selection from today's piccies - I love the detail in the art work, carving, embroideries etc. - so many beautiful things made by so many talented people through the centuries!

This modern chapel marks the spot where Thomas Beckett was martyred, and is known as "The Martyrdom."

I thought this altar cloth absolutely beautiful, with its subtle colours and symmetrical design. It is known as the Compass Rose.

To one side of this altar were these modern wooden chairs, which are very slender and elegant. The cathedral has such a mix of the very ancient and the absolutely contemporary, and it all seems to fit well, reminiscent of the way a stark, modernist house can be a complementary setting for antique furniture.

I loved the delicacy of the font, and its detail and pastel colouring. Around the base are carved four figures representing the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

On the underside of the lid is painted a dove to symbolise the Holy Spirit.

There were so many wonderful stained glass windows in the Cathedral that it was hard to decide which to photograph. This is the great west window at the back of the cathedral.

At the back of the cathedral is the tomb of Archbishop Benson who was Archbishop of Canterbury during Victorian times.

While he was Bishop of Truro, he created the now world-famous Christmas service, the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, which is broadcast from King's College Chapel, Cambridge, every year on Christmas Eve.

Phew! What a day! At least I didn't get any more bumps to my head!