Mark Home Alone

Badbury Rings

21^st July 2012

With Cal being in Australia unexpectedly, I thought I’d so some activities that would be difficult for Cal, such as long walks and air shows (not another one??) YEP there are lots over here, and I’ll try to make the most of it – over the next few weeks the Vulcan Bomber will be at a number of air shows that are held over some of the southern beaches: Eastbourne, Brighton and Bournemouth. Hopefully I’ll get to see this aircraft fly – for £60 I can get my name on a commemorative plaque that celebrates the 60^th anniversary of the aircraft’s first flight – the plaque is housed in the bomb bay. Anyway, so much for the Badbury Rings . . . back to the subject at hand.

Today I thought I’d do some walking around a number of the Iron Age forts that exist around the area. Ten years ago we visited Maiden Castle, which is HUGE, I wasn’t going to visit that, but did plan to visit the Badbury Rings and Figsbury Rings, and drive ‘round the back of Old Sarum (apparently it looks awesome from the back-side (you’re well below the level, so you look up at this impressive structure). So with my National trust walking guide printed, and my backpack packed it was off to Badbury (right near Kingston Lacy . . . hmmm, have we published that blog yet? Maybe not – something else to put on line before I post this). I love the features you see in the satellite images - the fields to the west of the rings were flat-ish, one wonders what's under the surface ??

The rings date back to the Iron Age (about 500BC), but there is evidence of Bronze Age round barrows (about 2800BC to 800BC), and flint tools from about 4000BC. The rings are also at the cross-roads of two Roman roads: Ackling Dyke, which ran between Dorchester (Durnovaria) and Salisbury (Old Sarum, or Sorviodunum); and a road running from Bath (Aquae Sulis) to Hamworthy near Poole. One of the main reasons for the occupation is that it is on relatively high ground (100m above sea level). After the Romans came the Saxons, who eventually conquered Dorset (to become part of the Kingdom of Wessex – oh, all those dead kings . . . see, it all links together J). There was some thought that the Saxon invasion of Dorset was held off by a Briton army in the west, perhaps stationed at Badbury Rings. It has been suggested that this could be one of the legends of King Arthur, and that Badbury could be the "Badon" of the legend of the Battle of Mons Badonicus (around 500AD).

Irrespective of the history, I found the site to be one of the most tranquil places I’ve ever been at. There is such a sense of peace in the groves of trees, notwith- standing the cows, and the hum of traffic on the road between Blandford and Wimborne. A great place to spend in quiet reflection and prayer for those back home at the time of the death of Cal’s father.

The wildflowers here are so different to those back home, so I couldn’t resist taking a few pics (you might notice one with the rings in the background).

After visiting the Badbury Rings, and a 5km walk later, I thought I'd earned enough credit to have a pint - well at least one (1 pint = 250 cal, 2 hour walk = 600 cal), and even if I didn't have enough credit, I was still having a pint (£3 each, rather than the £3.80 in Salisbury). In the end I only had one pint, but did add a side of chips :-).

After enjoying a quiet one in the sunshine (and yes only one – it was not followed up by six noisy ones) it was back to Salisbury. Opps, almost let that go unremarked . . . sunshine!!! Summer has finally arrived (now that Cal is back in Aus). I was beginning to feel a bit tired (not slept a lot in recent nights) so it was off home, rather than off to the Figsbury Rings – that will need to wait for another day . . . maybe on the way home from work one day this week.

A Day Out in Dorset

30th June 2012

A quick look online showed that one of our favourite beers (OK, it is our favourite beer) is brewed just down the road, and they have brewery tours . . . that includes a pint at the end – what more could you ask for?? It just so happened that there was also a king nearby in Wimborne Minster, and a fine National Heritage house as well – a good day out by all accounts.

“B” is for Blandford, where the Badger is brewed. “C” is for Cingston Lacy, where the Bankes family from Corfe Castle moved after supporting King Charles I in the English Civil war (OK so that should have been Kinston Lacy). “D” is for where another Dead King is buried (this time in Wimborne Minster.

The Badger Brewery

Hall began brewing in 1777, and called his brew “Badger” – back then with so few literate people a symbol was worth more than name, and for no other good reason the badger was born. Hall was also astute enough to know that with the coast so close, marketing to public houses where sailors fre-quent was also an astute move. With much needed capital, along came Woodhouse, and Hall & Woodhouse as born.

 

The pub tour was interesting – to see how English Ales are made, and what makes them bitter. We had an interesting guide – knew all about brewing, the hops, the maltings very informative. Working in a brewery, I don’t think he’d been in a pub in years . . . thought a pint cost £2.50 . . . that would be nice – try £3.50+. The Badger Hopping Hare is probably my favourite – and is thrice hopped. So, what does that mean? Well, two types of hops are used in the brewing process and a third is added into the firkin at the end – here’s what Hall and Woodhouse have to say (and I nicked both the logo above and the picture of the label from their website - hope that qualifies for acknowledgement):

 “Hopping Hare is thrice hopped with three types of hop used during the brewing process. Aro-matic Goldings and Cascade combine to provide an uplifting citrus-grapefruit and floral aroma, whilst First Gold carries the bitterness. The effect is a refreshing ale with a unique hoppy aroma and well-balanced bitterness that is bound to satisfy! It is a terrific match with roast lamb and spicy Thai dishes!” Pity that none of the Badger pubs serve Thai food ☹.

The brewery Museum has a number of quotes from the various brew masters and owners – here are some of them:

“Never trust a thin Brewer”

            John Woodhouse, Head brewer 1970 (127 kg)

“Better to be roughly right than precisely wrong”

            Jock Woodhouse, Director, 1968

When asked by the Bishop to define a lie: “A lie is an abomination to the Lord . . . but a very present help in a time of trouble!”

            George Edward Woodhouse, Owner, 1893

“What two ideas are more inseparable that Beer and Britannia”

            Sydney Smith, 1777

“I’m off for a quiet pint . . . followed by six noisy ones!”

            David Hoare, Retail Director 2002

Here’s our tour guide showing us how to plug a Firkin – 9 imperial gallons. The upright barrels in the photo are 18 gallons, and both are still used in pubs. By the way, the correct temperature to serve ales at is 12-14ºC (53-57º F) – that way you don’t kill the taste. Gosh I love living in England!!! (I’m gonna get so fat!)

Kingston Lacy

 Some time ago we visited Corfe Castle – this was the stronghold of staunch Royalists, the Bankes family. When civil war broke out in 1642, the formidable Lady Mary Bankes made it her home while her husband Sir John was away serving the King. Lady Mary held the castle against the Parliamentarians, end eventually it was taken through the treachery of an officer of her garrison – about the only way that castle would have been taken. 

Lady Mary was forced to surrender after 48 days under siege, but was allowed to keep the seals and keys of the castle in recognition of her courage. These keys and seals are still on display at Kingston Lacy (see left). Eventually the Royalists won the day in 1660 and as a reward the Bankes were granted a fistful of money and built Kingston Lacy, and the house was built between 1663 and 1665. The original site was chosen by Sir John (Lady Mary’s husband), and the house was built by his son Sir Ralph. Kingston Lacy takes its name from its ancient lords the Lacys, Earls of Lincoln, who held the area (along with Shapwick and Blandford (where the Badger lives ☺)).

 

King Charles I

Lady Mary Banks (with key & seal)

Sir John Banks

The last owner of the Lacy house, Henry John Ralph Bankes, was the seven times great-grandson of the original creator Sir Ralph Bankes. Upon his death in 1981 he bequeathed the Kingston Lacy estate (including 12 working farms and Corfe Castle) to the National Trust, its largest bequest to date.


 

Wimborne Minster

We had no preconceived ideas of Wimborne Minster – it is such a small town that we weren’t expecting much. However, the Minster was somewhat surprising (just what is a minster anyway??). Google and Wikipedia to the rescue! Minster is an honorific title. In essence, it refers to significant churches. It is derived from the Latin term for monastery, and was first used in 7th century (Saxon) royal charters of the 7th century. It went out of favour after the conquest when parishes were established – but was used as a term of respect for churches that had originated with an Anglo-Saxon foundation. 

The Minster is located on the site of an early 8th century Benedictine (nunnery) abbey (AD 705). In 871 Alfred the Great buried his brother King Ethelred (not the Unready) in the minster, which is why we were there. Whilst the monastery was destroyed by the Danes in 1013, the main abbey building survived. Between 1120 and 1180 the Normans added their bits – fantastic Norman arches in the transept. So, the central tower and nave are Saxon, but most of the building is Norman, with various gothic additions. All in all a very impressive building . . . would have looked very impressive with a spire on top of the tower, but that fell down in a storm around 1600.

But on to the reason for our visit . . . given that King Ethelred was buried here in 871 it was highly unlikely that we’d see his tomb – indeed, the only marker is a brass thingy on the wall. The exact location of the tomb however is unknown, though legend indicates that it resides somewhere near the altar. The metal brass memorial (made in 1440) next to the altar states that the former king is buried in the wall and is the only brass to mark the burial site of an English monarch. Darn, we didn’t bring any paper and crayons with us – wouldn’t that have been cool!! We also saw the tomb of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, and his duchess – who were the maternal grandparents of Henry VII.


 

The Organ was also pretty cool – it has an “orchestral trumpet” mounted above the front pipes. I have no idea if they produce sound (I suspect not), but they do look good.  The organ was being played while we were there (and walking around the organ case) very loud up that close!!

Somebody told us that Edward the Martyr (who was originally at Shaftesbury Abbey) is also buried in the minster. No big deal if we have to go back to confirm this as there are lots of Badger pubs to visit in Wimborne (in fact there are eleven pubs around Wimborne in the Hall & Woodhouse pub trail booklet!)

Still raining.....

Mark & I shared the writing of this blog - we'll leave you to guess who wrote what....

Farnborough International Air Show

10^th July 2012

Sounds wonderful – going to an air show for work. It’s a combination of meetings, looking at what’s new and up-coming . . . and there was some pretty cool stuff with regard to high speed engine technology. As it so happened the weather was doing it’s standard British thing – oh, that would be RAIN!! One of my meetings was in one of the gun runners’ chalets, and I’d just come in from outside, wiped my feet on the mat, and stepped onto the lovely, shiny, glass like floor. The next think I know, I’m on the floor feeling very embarrassed that I’d slipped over – and keen to get on with the meetings as unobtrusively as possible . . . but darn that shoulder was still hurting, and the arm just wouldn’t respond to my brain commands. I eventually gave up and went on down to the first aid tent. The tip down in the golf buggy was not the best – I felt every single bump along the route.

After finally convincing this 18 something year old that it was OK to take my shirt off (I finally managed to show her how to take off cuff links) I managed to see the guy with the medical knowledge who looked at my limp arm hanging off my shoulder and pronounced possible fracture and dislocation, so off in the ambulance (first time for everything) to the ER in the local hospital. It had been particularly busy, but being in a wheel chair with two paramedics helped get through the queue – I just hope I didn’t cut anyone off who was really in trouble. Eventually I saw the triage nurse, who wasn’t happy with my arm just dangling down (the fingers were getting a little numb) so she insisted that the forearm had to come up to the armchair rest – after a lot of NO2 and pain and assistance the darned arm was in a much more satisfactory position, and the pain gone up from 6-7/10 to 9.5/10. OK – long story cut short . . . Mr Alex – the very nice ER surgeon gave me lots of morphine and then something else that meant I had no recollection of the next hour or so whilst they put the humorous back in its socket. After “waking” I managed to send off some texts and Cal came in from Salisbury to pick me up.

At the time of writing this, I’m feeling pretty good – I now have some mobility back, an just wondering how far to push things – NHS were fantastic in the ER, but there is very little follow up – dunno what to do about physio, etc – hopefully this will come good in the next day or so.

In the mean time – some pics from the air show from the following day – with about an hour free on the flight line.

Weekend up North

 

Leicester

13^th July 2012

Cal was looking forward to something that English Heritage do every year – something called “A Festival of History” – normally covering conflict in Britain from the Roman conquest to the current day. When we were here 10 years ago it was call “History in Action”. At that time Coventry was at the limit of our day trips, and we are another hour to hour and half further way. We ummed and ahhed about spending the night near to where the location, as it was a fair bit north (near Coventry), thought about booking a hotel, and taking a flex day on the Friday and heading north (woo hoo – even the seniors in the UK get this treat!!!). Anyway – taking the afternoon off, we headed north on the busy Friday afternoon motorway traffic.

We had hoped to get to Leicester and then back to Rugby (where the hotel was) during the afternoon. It just so happened that King Richard III (died 1485) has his tomb at Leicester Cathedral. His tombstone is in the Cathedral, but yet again, his body has been lost – this time in the Church of the Grey Friars.

The hotel was a converted Victorian Gothic mansion – Brownsover Hall, just outside Rugby. The first thing that Cal noticed were the bunnies on the front lawn . . . so cute in England, but such a pest back home. We went looking for a pub in Rugby that caught our eye when we were here 10 years ago – the Fitchew and Firkin, but the Firkin chain of pubs went out of business in 2001, and the pub is now called “the Bull”. Now, just to let you know, a firkin is a barrel used to hold about 9 gallons of beer, and still used (by Hall and Woodhouse – makers of the fine Badger beers) for distributing beer to the pubs!!

We were on the top floor, 2nd window from left was our bathroom, 3rd from left the bedroom

This is the view from our room. If you look really, really close you can see a smudge that is a bunny.

Stratford-Upon-Avon

14^th July 2012

So, Saturday morning dawned horrible & rainy, but not to be deterred we set off for the Festival of History with a full day planned. We turned up at 9.30am only to be met with the news that because of the rain, the river’s banks had burst & the grounds were flooded. Event cancelled. So new plans had to be made (was Cal grumpy or what ??).

We were not far from Stratford-upon-Avon, the birth & burial place of William Shakespeare. (BTW – this River Avon is not the same as the River Avon that flows through Salisbury. With all the marvellous names these people called their many, many villages they couldn’t think up different names for their rivers – go figure).

After circling the town centre a couple of times we found a carpark & ventured forth. First to the tourist information centre, that wasn’t very helpful, then to a memorial to Shakespeare on the side of the river. Then we examined the possibility of hiring a canal boat to do a spot of slow boating on one of the luxury narrow boats at some time, they are very expensive so we may not.

Mark with Hamlet & Yorick

Canal boats in the background

Thence to the Royal Shakespeare Company to buy gifts & souvenirs & a mandatory fridge magnet. We walked through the RSC’s gardens on our way to Trinity Church where Will is buried. As we did we came across some young people (senior high school types) rehearsing A Midsummer Night’s Dream for an open performance for the following day. They were pretty good.

Trinity Church was not as grand as the many Cathedrals we have seen & were to see that day but its still a lovely building. We had to pay £2 each to get to the front of the church to see the grave (a large slab of engraved sandstone) . . . well the church has to pay for upkeep somehow. Cal was was more interested in the Bible, which was printed in 1611 with permission of the king of the day. It was then re-bound in 1695 but has not been altered since. There was also a great old guy who was keeping his eye on things. He must have been a retired Shakespearian actor (or a wanna be) – he had presence & drama. Apparently Will was born on 23rd April & that was the date he died. We were then told of all the other famous people who have also died on the 23rd April, including ‘everybody’s friend’, Joseph Stalin. Apparently 23rd April is a good day to die. So the advice we were given to live longer – on April 23 just keep moving!!!

Cal with Shakespeare's burial place

We then walked around Stratford a bit more, past his birth-place & other Shakespeare sites.

Cal with Shakespeare's birth place

It’s a lovely old town but apparently Stratford has nothing else to offer but the Bard as everything was centred around him. It was crowded though – many, many peoples. We did find a nice eatery with a table outside  - it had stopped raining for a while. Mark had coffee, but as I was still very put out about the Festival being cancelled I had my first cream tea of the day. We were serenaded by a busker who was playing classical guitar very nicely.

Worcester

14^th July 2012

We the left Stratford & headed to Worchester. If we couldn’t do the Festival of History we figured we could do a couple more kings on the way home. Worchester is the capital of Worchestshire – yes, just like the sauce. The Lea & Perrins factory is now gone, but this is where is all started. Oh, & there’s a dead king in the Cathedral. On the way the Tom Tom (with Stephen Fry’s voice) lead us on narrow roads again, but we did pass North Piddle & Upton Snodsbury (2 of those villages with really great names). Finding a Cathedral is quite easy – one just looks up & heads towards the really big building with towers or spires or both.

Looking down the Nave towards the High Alter

King John is in Worchester Cathedral – by this, we mean that he is actually in Worchester Cathedral (or what’s left of him), not a tombstone marker, or a few mixed bones or a probably sighting. First time we found a king who’s grave hasn’t been desecrated or lost. John was Richard the Lion Heart’s brother. He tried a rebellion against Richard while the latter was away fighting the Third Crusade (think Robin Hood times J). After Richard’s death in 1199 John was made king. He was both a good & bad king. He was “usually considered a ‘hard-working administrator, an able man, an able general’”. But he also had “‘distasteful, even dangerous personality traits’, such as pettiness, spitefulness and cruelty” – it was his tyrannical reign that led to the Baron’s standing together & forcing John to sign the Magna Carta, 15 June 1215, whose precepts are still a part of modern law & rule. One of the originals is on display in Salisbury Cathedral (still my favourite). John died 19 October 1216 aged 49.

Mark paid to climb up the tower, my knees would not have allowed me – I may have gotten up but would never have made it down. Instead I went down into the crypt to a chapel for a quiet prayer time (although it was pretty echo-y, & kid’s chatter was amplified many times). After wandering around for a while I then went to the café & had another cream tea (still pretty upset – needed an English “happy meal”).

View from the top of the Cathedral tower

Gloucester

14^th July 2012

Wow – what a day – and Cal thought that she’d spend all day on her now throbbing knee – God has a way of looking after her. Instead, we were at Gloucester Cathedral just in time for Evensong (4:30 pm on Saturdays, rather than the usual 5:30 pm). It is such an experience to absorb choral evensong in a building that is about 800 years old, with acoustics to die for. The soaring sopranos and (yes, even) the organ that is just so fitting, is so uplifting.

Just one of the spectacular windows

Gloucester Cathedral was also one of the Abbeys that was spared under Henry VIII, and went from the Abbey of St Peter (Benedictine) to a Cathedral within the newly created See of Gloucester under Henry VIII. There has been Christian worship at this site for over 1300 years, since Osric, an Anglo-Saxon prince, founded a religious house in 678 AD.

More modern window. Pic does not capture the beautiful blue

After Evensong we had enough time to go looking for King Edward II. We’ve been learning a great deal of English History on this quest of dead kings . . . here’s some more for you.

Edward II was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. His father was Edward I (fought Robert the Bruce in Scotland) and Edward the II who was crowned when 14 years old. Between I and III, the reign of Edward II was thought to be disastrous for England, marked by alleged incompetence, political squabbling and military defeats. Edward was forced to abdicate in favour of his son (who was controlled by Edward II's wife Isabella).

Edward II was widely rumoured to have been either homosexual (or at least bisexual as he also fathered at least five children by two women). The popular story that the king was assassinated by having a red-hot poker thrust into his anus has no basis in accounts recorded by Edward's contemporaries.

When he was alive..

...& now. The monument was built by his son.

So, despite getting a lot done it was still a bit of a disappointing week. First off, the previous weekend Mark couldn’t go to RIAT – Royal International Air Tattoo - or airshow, because of the weather; then he dislocates his shoulder at Farnborough Air Show while at work (really he was, . . . really); then the “Fire Garden” at Stonehenge was cancelled on Thursday night, something that they never plan to repeat; then Festival of History was cancelled. A week we had really been looking forward to . . . need English happy meal.