Whitby, The North Yorkshire Moors and Rievaulx Abbey

Saturday 10th July 2010

The day started with a giggle for us, as Ray bought a newspaper. The headline was a warning regarding the expected heatwave. Temperatures we expected to reach as high as 28 degrees!!!! Even the night time temperatures were not expected to drop below 18 degrees in some areas!!! Goodness me - how wold we survive???

We headed away from Scarborough across The Wolds - I have absolutely no idea what a The Wolds are, technically speaking, but they provided us with some lovely scenery. We were headed for Whitby, from whence, my tour guide informs me, Captain James Cook set out on his voyage of discovery that gave us what we now know as Australia. First stop the Whitby Abbey (oh yes - I know - there are many more of them here than you and poke a stick at), where we got a great view over the town and the bay below. We decided not to go into town as the view was good enough!

I forget where we were headed for next, as we never actually made it there, but we drove through some very steep, windy and narrow roads accompanied all the way by some of the most breathtaking scenery I have ever seen.

We got right up on top of the North Yorkshire Moors, and I was delighted to find that the heather was in flower!! We did stop to ponder, though, how desolate this area would be in the dead of winter............. Luckily for me - it's summer right now. The heath is way more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. I'm really not sure what I expected, but from some angles it's a carpet of lilac as far as the eye can see.............. I simply don't have the words for it.

After our random tour across the moors we went to Rievaulx (no - I can't say it!) Abbey. We went specifically because they were advertising medieval arts and crafts there. I really didn't want to see another abbey, but it turned out to impress Ray very much. It was apparently the first and largest Abbey in England.

It did have an awesome drystone wall that impressed me - and I can hear you all thinking what is the fascination with stone walls - If you have an answer to that then you have solved a long standing puzzle of medical science - how Narelle's mind works!!!

The fun bit for me was the demonstrations and explanations of life in medieval times.

The woman below was making dishes from sugar and coloring them with dyes made by mixing rosewater with things like saffron and strawberries.

This guy was demonstrating the lettering of the time and explaining how they made ink. They found a recipe that involves placing crumbled 'oak galls' (these are basically, small, round, empty wasps nests, about the size of a cherry) and a rusty nail in a jar of water for two weeks. Hey Presto - Ink.

He also talked about dyes. Blue dye was the most expensive as it was somehow derived from Lapis Lazuli ( a semi-precious stone not found locally). It was used infrequently and they say that the cost made it so precious that this is why the Virgin Mary is always depicted in blue.

Although I didn't get a photo, the most interesting discussion was about midwifery. There was some very interesting folklore. For example - they would wrap a shed snake skin around
their waists believing that this meant they would give birth as easily as a snake sheds it's skin. Another interesting trick was to use a chafing dish, filled with hot coals and with frankincense resin thrown in to create a pleasant aroma, they would arrange the woman's skirts over the chafing dish and then give the mother something nasty to smell - often burnt hair. The baby would want to escape the nasty smell and be attracted to the pleasant one, hence an easier birth!!

After all this information we made our way back to Scarborough for a rest, a walk, a lovely dinner, a few drinks and some karaoke!!

Stamford Bridge, Sledmere and Scarborough

Friday 9th July 2010

Are you going to Scarborough Fayre???
We may not have been going to a Fayre, but we were on our way to Scarborough.
We were quite pleased to leave Leicester behind. It was a little too large and hectic for our liking.

Our first stop along the way to Scarborough was Stamford Bridge. This was the site of a battle (surprise!) against the Viking invaders in 1066. The English soldiers beat the Vikings here and then headed south to wage another battle at Battle (Battle of Hastings - See also a blog about Battle).

It's hard to imagine this tranquil scene (below) was once the site of a battle, but apparently one Viking fought off heaps of English soldiers on this bridge before they finally won and carried on down south!
Stamford Bridge was a charming little village with a park chock full of ducks and geese (and corresponding amount of poo) and a mill house that actually still has the water running under it (below)

We hadn't planned on stopping anywhere else, but came across this amazing memorial (below) and as there was somewhere convenient to stop we did. It turns out to be the most elaborate war memorial I have ever laid eyes on! It's a memorial to all the men and women throughout the ages that have lost their lives at war. When I say throughout the ages, I mean - ages and ages and ages.............

After that very brief stop we kept on to Scarborough. Scarborough - so we found out after we arrived is England's oldest seaside resort. It is absolutely jam packed with Edwardian and Victorian terrace houses (most of which are now B&B's and Hotels). I imagine it would have been very grand in it's day, it had a 'spa' and a couple of very impressive and large hotels. It still attracts lots of visitors now - waaaay too many!!

There are two beaches - North Sands (pictured below) and South Sands (where the 'spa' is - a trip for tomorrow). They are separated by a very high cliff faced headland that just happens to have a castle on top (as you do!).

At North Sands they have donkey rides - lots of seaside resorts here do. We were too late for a donkey ride, but I will have one at Blackpool when we get to Lancashire.

We put our feet into the sea here. It's the North Sea - it's a tradition for us to put our feet in the ocean where ever we go. The smile you think you see in this photos is actually a grimace of pain. By the time I took Ray's photo and I waded over to him (6 feet tops) to give him the camera to take mine, I was actually in pain from having my feet in such freezing water. And people had their kids (and dogs) swimming in there - I had a good mind to call the RSPCA!!

Beacon Hill - Leicestershire and Sherwood Forest - Nottinghamshire

Thurdsay 8th July 2010

Lured by the promise of the remains of a Bronze Age Village (we got the info from a brochure in our hotel) we started the day by heading for Beacon Hill Country Park. When we arrived and parked the car we made a beeline for the information board to find the route to said Bronze Age remains.
Although the board says it is an important archeological area, there was no hint of the remains of any kind of village - let alone a Bronze Age one.

I was slightly mollified by these interesting rock formations (after walking UP yet again) that are said to be more than 700million years old. I guess that's their archeology! There were a few of these very large cattle on the top of the hill. My trusty tour guide (aka Ray) tells me they are British Longhorn and are the breed seen in cave paintings. They sure do hang on to things for ages over here!

The huge bonus for the morning was the 360 degree views of Nottinghamshire from up on Beacon Hill. Yet again, my unedited photos can't do it justice, but it was spectacular!!

We could have, if we would have - or is that we would have if we could have - walked around for hours here - there were trails and paths everywhere, but sore feet (mine), old knees (not mine) dictated that we push on to the next destination for the day.

And what a treat!! Sherwood Forest! Absolutely beautiful! I confess I think it was nicer than The New Forest!

First stop was a snack and then, fortified by yet another "cream tea" Ray decided to try his hand at shooting an arrow with a long bow. He did very well and just missed the inner target by "this much". It's true - the instuctor said it - "this much"!

In around the 1400's all boys from the age of about 7 had to learn to shoot a longbow. It is still in law to this day as the law has never been repealed. Everyone had to practice on Sundays and Holy days - in other words every day off that they had!

Jai and Bella - each of you need to go to the library when school goes back and borrow a book about Robin Hood. Then you, Jai, will have to read it to Taj and you Bella, will have to read it to Will. It's OK Bella - it's not all bows and arrows and goodies and baddies, there is a love story in it too. The lady in the story is called Maid Marion - I think her clothes are really cool.

The picture below is where Robin Hood meets Little John - at first they fight, but then they become very good friends!

This big tree has lots of hollows inside the trunk and it's where Robin Hood and his Merry Men hid from the nasty Sherrif of Nottingham (read the story guys).

Poppy Ray and I think that this clearing in the forest might ahave been where Robin Hood and his Band of Merry Men camped

Bosworth Battle Field and Donnington-le-Heath Manor - Leicestershire

Wednesday 7th July 2010

Yet another battlefield - this time associated with Richard III, one of Rays favourite characters in history. Basically another dead king.

Above is the Battle field. You can just see Richard III's flag flying. This is the site for the final Battle of The Roses, where Richard III was slain (I like that - 'slain' - sounds so much more refined than plain old 'killed') on the battle field, the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster. Seems like an anomalous symbol for a bunch of guys killing each other

Here is Ray wearing a helmet and a breastplate from that time. They are incredibly heavy, and of course only a fraction of the armour that was worn. This kind of armour was only worn by rich people - kings and knights I guess. The very poor soldiers had only jackets that were like a parka. Cloth coats stuffed with flock.

It was, all in all, an interesting morning. The exhibition was really well put together. It was not something that we had planned before we left home. Perhaps that appealed to my perverse nature!!

We left Bosworth Field in the hope of having a canal boat ride. There was a wharf with a cafe, so we did have cake, but the canal boats were only operating on weekends.

What we did see (below), was this row of canal boats where people live permanently. Each has outdoor furniture and a garden shed on the canal side.

We left the cafe and headed for Donnongton-le-Heath Manor House. The house has had many incarnations across the centuries, but was really interesting and showed (and the audio guide explained) the different styles of architecture and different uses of rooms across the ages.

The part of this visit that we found most interesting was a personal tour of the gardens. We were treated to an explanation of the uses of various plants and a volunteer has painstakingly labelled each plant with it's use and when it was introduced into the UK.

The picture below is an example of how hedges are made. These twisted branches are living plants. This thickens and strengthens the hedges that are used instead of fences.

I really loved this rose (below). The roses are all old varieties - not new hybrids.

"Little Miss Muffet, sat on her Tuffet"

This was the highlight of the garden for me. Here I am (scroll down a bit) sitting on a Tuffet!! It is basically layers of turf - grass to grass and dirt to dirt until you build it up as you like. It was comfy and I can just see myself lying on it reading a good book on a sunny day!

We also had a demonstration of how soapwort works. Pick the leaves, add water, rub vigorously and it lathers and cleans. The roots are used similarly for personal washing as they are white.

Soapwort and wild marjoram were used to make beer frothy.

They had both purple and white carrotts - orange ones weren't introduced until much later.

The hedges in the garden were yew bushes. Every August they are trimmed and the trimmings are sold to a drug company to use in making cancer treatments. They discovered this use because yew (a different variety) was also used to make long bows and a man who makes these was diagnosed with cancer but no sooner had they diagnosed it than it began to clear up. His specialist wondered if there was a connection to the yew he used in his craft and - hey presto - a bit of research and a new treatment.

Last was a Black Mulberry tree. These were routinely planted in prison exercise yards. they provided a source of Vitamin C for the prisoners and hence the nursery rhyme - "here we go 'round the mulberry bush"..

I love this stuff!! More useless information in my useless head!!

More Random "Stuff"

• Food

I tried black pudding in Wales. Black Pudding is primarily composed of animal blood and offal. I can't say it did much for me. Not much flavour really. Ray says it's good fried on the BBQ - maybe I wanted it to be cooked differently?

I also tried a Chicken Vindaloo in Wales. Vindaloo is often mentioned in British TV comedies - especially the older ones. I can't say I noticed it on the menus of Indian restaurants in Australia, but you would think it would be there. - anyway, when Ray ordered it the people in bar (small local pub in Wales) erupted and I wondered what I was in for, but as I love hot spicy food it was great!!

Hereforshire and Stratford-upon-Avon

Tuesday 6th July (I'm back on track with the date!)

We left Wales and head east for Leicester. We had to go through Herefordshire on the way. There is a 40mile tourist drive through Herefordshire that takes in a number of Tudor villages. We went through one of them, but didn't stop, thinking we would come to another one soon enough.
Wrong!! Our route took us in the opposite direction, so although we saw one of these villages, we have no pictures of it.
this house (below) is actually in Stratford. There's plenty of these buildings there too.
We did go into a tea house for a snack in one and it was incredible. They are soooooo wonky!! the floors bump and slope in all sorts of directions. I don't think they would allow an Australian business to operate from one of these buildings as we are so obsessed with OHS and litigation! In the "town square" is this monument to Shakespeare that was presented by an American business man.

Very impressive craftsmanship - like so much of what we have seen here.

I seriously cannot remember the name of this house (below), but we wandered through it. The furnishings were amazing. There was the most marvellous carved high chair that the tour guide told us they suspect had never been used. it may have been the piece that an apprentice made at the end of his 7 year apprenticeship and presented to his 'master' - hence the term masterpiece.

We were not allowed to take photos inside, but of course have the ever available guide book and there is a photo of it in there.

Of course all of the furniture was staggering.

Andrew, one of the staff there, was very knowledgeable about Shakespeake (as you would expect) and he and Ray had an interesting conversation.

I gave the guide fella a 'clingy koala' and then I ended up discussing the virtues or otherwise of both British and Australian film, TV and theatre. Kylie Minogue and Kate Blanchett were top on his list, but Skippy made it into the conversation as well. If his colleague hadn't told him it was time for his lunch break we may still be there!

We headed off to find the Church of the Holy Trinity and Shakespeare's grave. The church actually overlooks this canal - very pretty. My first look at the canals over here and there was a 'lock' evident as well.

The picture below is of Shakespeare's grave (among others - it's the middle one if you're interested). It's in the Holy Trinity Church.
I have to wonder why he was buried in church, given that he was not a religious or royal figure??
According to my new best friend Andrew (he of film, TV and theatre discussions) Shakespeare wrote to specifically please whoever was going to pay to see his plays and given the royal influence over society, perhaps he sucked up to royalty enough to be buried here. Perhaps if I read the guide book I will find out??!

Having walked - again!!! - enough for one day we headed to our hotel in Leicester. I do believe we are slowing down - finally!

Newgate and Saint David's on the Welsh Coast

Still July 4th

We left Tenby to travel via the coast road to Saint David's. On the way we came across this fabulous view over Newgate. this was one part of the road where you could stop and take in the view.
Newgate seems to be a surf beach and the scenery was, yet again, breathtaking!
After this brief stop to take in the view, we kept going to Saint David's. Saint David's claim to fame is as the smallest city in the UK. To be a city you have to have a cathederal, and even though we have seen several cathederals to date, this was lovely. It seemed to have a different kind of ambience to those we have seen before.
Again, we avoided the walking/climbing and viewed it from above.

We left Saint David's to head back to Llantrwyd Wells for our last night in Wales.