Wednesday, September 22, 2004
The Great South England Road Trip 2004
We have a very special treat for you. It is a post guest columnest Joy Owen aka Mum, take it away:
Hi All,
It’s Wed. morning, we’re back in London, and we’re having a sleep-in after all our travelling around England. Obviously not me and not Paul, he got up at 4am and headed off to Heathrow for his flight to Paris, we’ll see him back in NZ. His next week entails the Paris motor show, Italy to test-drive another Ford, then up to Scotland to test-drive a Landover. It sounds exotic, but he’s had a relapse of flu, and he’d rather be resting in bed reading a good novel!
But we’ve had a good week, despite coughs and snoring. It’s been a mixture of visiting relatives and exploring the sights. On leaving London, we weaved our way round the ring road (I’ll never complain about traffic again!) over to Langdon Hills in Essex, where I was born. Back then it was a little village where everyone knew everyone. Now, sadly it is purely a suburb of Basildon, which is not far away. I was disappointed to see that all the shops have gone along the high street and Auntie Audrey says she has to have a car to drive over to Basildon to do all her shopping. Vowler Road looked so narrow and our old house looked so small and a bit run down, but ‘Stonecrop’ was still on the gate, and no visible alterations have been made except Dad’s beautifully kept garden is no more. Auntie Audrey has a nice little place just round the corner in Berry Lane. She hasn’t changed much really after seeing her last 30 years ago, still quite active in a choir, in her garden and painting watercolours. I wasn’t able to catch up with my cousins, but I saw a family photo in the lounge and Auntie Audrey explained who was married to whom and which children belonged to each and what they are all doing. It’s interesting that 3 of my cousins are doing jobs related to health. Gaye, is a theatre nurse, Dawn manages a Rest Home and Annette, works in a home for the disabled. We had a photo taken out the back, I told Paul to watch out as there was an animal poo in the garden, Auntie Audrey was blasé saying it was from a fox! Apparently they often come into suburbs on the search for food.
From there we travelled up to Norfolk. We passed through Billericay, where we lived when we returned to England when I was 12. Billericay has retained all it’s quaintness and looks a prosperous town.
On reaching Reedham on the Norfolk Broads, where Auntie Doris lives, we needed to get a ferry across the swift flowing river. To do this, the car ferry was attached to chains that spanned the river. On the other side was Stephen, Jill’s son (my sister), who had travelled up from Suffolk to meet us. He showed us the way to Auntie Doris’s, just up the road, and there had a warm welcome from Auntie Doris and her dog, Holly (they live in Hollyfarm Road), who ran from one to the other in circles.
Later, we visited Annette (Auntie Doris’s daughter) and Rob. Annette has a room devoted to collectable china teapots and Rob has a garage full of motorbikes including a Gold Wing Honda with gold-plated trim! Paul was in his element talking with him. So while we chatted, Rose, Simon, Joseph and Stephen went down the local (The Ship) to play pool. They saw Amber (Annette’s daughter) and boyfriend, Dan, down there and came back stinking of smoke. The pubs here are worse for smoke than one’s in NZ!
Next day, after a leisurely chat with Auntie Doris, we travelled down to Great Yarmouth, to see a seaside town. It was just as I remembered Southend, (another seaside town of my youth) with it’s pier and amusements, the tacky shops selling rock, postcards, cups, t-shirts in fact anything that they can write Great Yarmouth on, to say you were there. We had a game of mini-golf (called putting, over here). It cost £4 each! but we had a fun time, and believe it or not, I won! Back at Reedham, we gathered up Auntie Doris for a meal at the Ship. Joseph and I had skate, a first for Joseph.
Time was moving on, and we realised that if we wanted to do a bit of sight seeing, we’d need to leave the next day, so Sat. lunchtime, we bayed farewell to Auntie Doris and headed towards Bath. We went through so many quaint villages with narrow cobblestone roads, thatched-roofs, stone or Elizabethan styled houses. I have so many photos all surpassing each other. I was keen to look in every church and pub, but after so many the family said enough! as we were not getting far. Any place with a castle, cathedral or where a famous person lived was just crawling with tourists and cost the earth to visit. It just makes you very aware that England thrives on tourism, and that tourists will pay exorbitant prices to see anything if it’s mentioned on a tourist brochure.
We became acutely aware of this when we tried to find some place to stay as evening approached. We had left Worchester (where there is a very interesting castle) and were planning to stay in Stratford-upon-Avon. Wrong, move. It was really crowded, No Vacancies anywhere. We travelled on to the next village, the same. We travelled to obscure villages off the beaten track, just the same. B&B owners phoned around, but all were booked. So, at 9pm, after looking for over 3hrs, we went into Cheltingham, to an expensive hotel and secured the last 2 rooms at the outrageous price of £190 ($600), this was discounted from £210 and Simon was on a fold-out strecher! Luckily, breakfast was included, so we ate up large so we didn’t need any lunch! I didn’t want to get in the same predicament for the next night, so I rang ahead and booked us into the YHA in Bath for £63 a night. No breakfast, but a room with an ensuite. So, we travelled through the Cotswolds en route to Bath the next day, got in touch with Auntie Peggy, Dad’s sister, and arranged to meet the next day. The afternoon was spent walking around Bath visiting the Cathedral, listening to buskers, viewing the Circus and the Royal Crescent built in the 1700’s by John Wood the elder and finished by his son. A feat of architecture building a row of terraced houses in a circle.
Next morning, we visited the Roman Baths, amazing to think the town had been built over them and that there is still much to be discovered if only they could get to it. Pity they are so ancient and you can’t enjoy them. Even to taste the water costs money.
We went out to Hinton Charterhouse afterwards. We arrived in the village, but for the life of me, I couldn’t find the road to Auntie Peggy’s. It’s no wonder, as after I’d been into the local post-office, I was told it was just up an alleyway round the corner. It was just wide enough for the car to squeeze through, then opened up slightly wider so we could park with a push.
Auntie Peggy’s house was one in a terrace block, with a tiny garden in the front. The front door opened into the tiny kitchen with concrete floor. Dear old Auntie Peggy is pretty bent over with osteoporosis, but as lively and interested as ever. It’s lovely to hear snippets of information about the family and me as a kid. Uncle Ray kept busy in the kitchen preparing lunch while we chatted away. Margot (another cousin) had taken the day off work to meet us. She and I looked quite alike and she had a lovely personality-just like me!! The house was so small that we had to split into 2 groups to sit down to lunch, half in the dining room and half in the lounge. Uncle Ray commented that this is the largest group they have entertained since they moved in there over 50 years ago, and there were only 8 of us!
Mid afternoon, we retired to Margot’s place in Frome, about 20mins. away. The family had arrived home early to meet us. Martin (husband), Chris (21) and Nick (18). Nick’s girlfriend, whom we also met, is a millionaire’s daughter. Her father made money selling Nigerian oil on the black market. Nick is an interesting character; he has dyed his hair jet black and wears punk clothes. He is in 2 bands as guitar player and back ground singer. One of the bands made a recording and performed Gladstonebury recently and is well respected around the area. He would like to play in a band for a career, but it’s not paying enough yet, but I reckon we should keep posted.
I know this post is getting mighty long, and maybe incredibly dull for some, but I guess it’s a way for me to write my diary. I’m almost finished!
Yesterday, we left Bath and travelled round a few ‘must see’ sights. These included one of the huge chalk horses carved into the hillside in Wiltshire, the Cheddar Gorge, Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral.
We walked over the windy hills to get close to the chalk<> horse, and were rather disappointed that it had been repaired recently, and by the feel of it, it had been done with concrete!
While travelling down Cheddar Gorge, we were made to stop for a while, as loose debris and rocks were being cleared by guys abseiling down and climbing up the gorge walls. At the bottom, the caves were swarming with tourists, so we left, I’m sure they cannot be better than Waitomo Caves.
Again, at Stonehenge, the site was thick, but we travelled up a side road and had a perfectly good view of the area with an Historic Places plaque telling us all about the area, this was good enough for us.
I insisted going to Salisbury Cathedral as Ted and I has seen a sculpture of Thomas Becket in the throws of dying, made by an ancestor of Joseph’s, but alas, the cathedral was undergoing extensive repairs and we couldn’t get to all of the grounds, and I couldn’t find it. The town was very old with many Elizabethan houses in good repair. Inside a jewellers shop we could see a part of the old wall of the town, seemed strange and made the shop very narrow, but interesting.
After that, it was straight to London on the M3, M25 and finally the M1. It’s been nice to chill out today. Rose has been reading, Simon has made an attempt to study with interruptions from watching Joseph on the computer, I’ve been write this and we’ve been doing washing. Next, we need to go to the bank to change some money into Euros for Germany. We leave early catching the tube to Heathrow. You’ll have a few days to digest this before the next instalment.
Just forgot to mention the weather. It's been sunny/cloudy with showers at times. A cold wind in exposed places. So, I guess, what you'd expect for England in autumn.
Cheers for now, love Joy.
Hi All,
It’s Wed. morning, we’re back in London, and we’re having a sleep-in after all our travelling around England. Obviously not me and not Paul, he got up at 4am and headed off to Heathrow for his flight to Paris, we’ll see him back in NZ. His next week entails the Paris motor show, Italy to test-drive another Ford, then up to Scotland to test-drive a Landover. It sounds exotic, but he’s had a relapse of flu, and he’d rather be resting in bed reading a good novel!
But we’ve had a good week, despite coughs and snoring. It’s been a mixture of visiting relatives and exploring the sights. On leaving London, we weaved our way round the ring road (I’ll never complain about traffic again!) over to Langdon Hills in Essex, where I was born. Back then it was a little village where everyone knew everyone. Now, sadly it is purely a suburb of Basildon, which is not far away. I was disappointed to see that all the shops have gone along the high street and Auntie Audrey says she has to have a car to drive over to Basildon to do all her shopping. Vowler Road looked so narrow and our old house looked so small and a bit run down, but ‘Stonecrop’ was still on the gate, and no visible alterations have been made except Dad’s beautifully kept garden is no more. Auntie Audrey has a nice little place just round the corner in Berry Lane. She hasn’t changed much really after seeing her last 30 years ago, still quite active in a choir, in her garden and painting watercolours. I wasn’t able to catch up with my cousins, but I saw a family photo in the lounge and Auntie Audrey explained who was married to whom and which children belonged to each and what they are all doing. It’s interesting that 3 of my cousins are doing jobs related to health. Gaye, is a theatre nurse, Dawn manages a Rest Home and Annette, works in a home for the disabled. We had a photo taken out the back, I told Paul to watch out as there was an animal poo in the garden, Auntie Audrey was blasé saying it was from a fox! Apparently they often come into suburbs on the search for food.
From there we travelled up to Norfolk. We passed through Billericay, where we lived when we returned to England when I was 12. Billericay has retained all it’s quaintness and looks a prosperous town.
On reaching Reedham on the Norfolk Broads, where Auntie Doris lives, we needed to get a ferry across the swift flowing river. To do this, the car ferry was attached to chains that spanned the river. On the other side was Stephen, Jill’s son (my sister), who had travelled up from Suffolk to meet us. He showed us the way to Auntie Doris’s, just up the road, and there had a warm welcome from Auntie Doris and her dog, Holly (they live in Hollyfarm Road), who ran from one to the other in circles.
Later, we visited Annette (Auntie Doris’s daughter) and Rob. Annette has a room devoted to collectable china teapots and Rob has a garage full of motorbikes including a Gold Wing Honda with gold-plated trim! Paul was in his element talking with him. So while we chatted, Rose, Simon, Joseph and Stephen went down the local (The Ship) to play pool. They saw Amber (Annette’s daughter) and boyfriend, Dan, down there and came back stinking of smoke. The pubs here are worse for smoke than one’s in NZ!
Next day, after a leisurely chat with Auntie Doris, we travelled down to Great Yarmouth, to see a seaside town. It was just as I remembered Southend, (another seaside town of my youth) with it’s pier and amusements, the tacky shops selling rock, postcards, cups, t-shirts in fact anything that they can write Great Yarmouth on, to say you were there. We had a game of mini-golf (called putting, over here). It cost £4 each! but we had a fun time, and believe it or not, I won! Back at Reedham, we gathered up Auntie Doris for a meal at the Ship. Joseph and I had skate, a first for Joseph.
Time was moving on, and we realised that if we wanted to do a bit of sight seeing, we’d need to leave the next day, so Sat. lunchtime, we bayed farewell to Auntie Doris and headed towards Bath. We went through so many quaint villages with narrow cobblestone roads, thatched-roofs, stone or Elizabethan styled houses. I have so many photos all surpassing each other. I was keen to look in every church and pub, but after so many the family said enough! as we were not getting far. Any place with a castle, cathedral or where a famous person lived was just crawling with tourists and cost the earth to visit. It just makes you very aware that England thrives on tourism, and that tourists will pay exorbitant prices to see anything if it’s mentioned on a tourist brochure.
We became acutely aware of this when we tried to find some place to stay as evening approached. We had left Worchester (where there is a very interesting castle) and were planning to stay in Stratford-upon-Avon. Wrong, move. It was really crowded, No Vacancies anywhere. We travelled on to the next village, the same. We travelled to obscure villages off the beaten track, just the same. B&B owners phoned around, but all were booked. So, at 9pm, after looking for over 3hrs, we went into Cheltingham, to an expensive hotel and secured the last 2 rooms at the outrageous price of £190 ($600), this was discounted from £210 and Simon was on a fold-out strecher! Luckily, breakfast was included, so we ate up large so we didn’t need any lunch! I didn’t want to get in the same predicament for the next night, so I rang ahead and booked us into the YHA in Bath for £63 a night. No breakfast, but a room with an ensuite. So, we travelled through the Cotswolds en route to Bath the next day, got in touch with Auntie Peggy, Dad’s sister, and arranged to meet the next day. The afternoon was spent walking around Bath visiting the Cathedral, listening to buskers, viewing the Circus and the Royal Crescent built in the 1700’s by John Wood the elder and finished by his son. A feat of architecture building a row of terraced houses in a circle.
Next morning, we visited the Roman Baths, amazing to think the town had been built over them and that there is still much to be discovered if only they could get to it. Pity they are so ancient and you can’t enjoy them. Even to taste the water costs money.
We went out to Hinton Charterhouse afterwards. We arrived in the village, but for the life of me, I couldn’t find the road to Auntie Peggy’s. It’s no wonder, as after I’d been into the local post-office, I was told it was just up an alleyway round the corner. It was just wide enough for the car to squeeze through, then opened up slightly wider so we could park with a push.
Auntie Peggy’s house was one in a terrace block, with a tiny garden in the front. The front door opened into the tiny kitchen with concrete floor. Dear old Auntie Peggy is pretty bent over with osteoporosis, but as lively and interested as ever. It’s lovely to hear snippets of information about the family and me as a kid. Uncle Ray kept busy in the kitchen preparing lunch while we chatted away. Margot (another cousin) had taken the day off work to meet us. She and I looked quite alike and she had a lovely personality-just like me!! The house was so small that we had to split into 2 groups to sit down to lunch, half in the dining room and half in the lounge. Uncle Ray commented that this is the largest group they have entertained since they moved in there over 50 years ago, and there were only 8 of us!
Mid afternoon, we retired to Margot’s place in Frome, about 20mins. away. The family had arrived home early to meet us. Martin (husband), Chris (21) and Nick (18). Nick’s girlfriend, whom we also met, is a millionaire’s daughter. Her father made money selling Nigerian oil on the black market. Nick is an interesting character; he has dyed his hair jet black and wears punk clothes. He is in 2 bands as guitar player and back ground singer. One of the bands made a recording and performed Gladstonebury recently and is well respected around the area. He would like to play in a band for a career, but it’s not paying enough yet, but I reckon we should keep posted.
I know this post is getting mighty long, and maybe incredibly dull for some, but I guess it’s a way for me to write my diary. I’m almost finished!
Yesterday, we left Bath and travelled round a few ‘must see’ sights. These included one of the huge chalk horses carved into the hillside in Wiltshire, the Cheddar Gorge, Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral.
We walked over the windy hills to get close to the chalk<> horse, and were rather disappointed that it had been repaired recently, and by the feel of it, it had been done with concrete!
While travelling down Cheddar Gorge, we were made to stop for a while, as loose debris and rocks were being cleared by guys abseiling down and climbing up the gorge walls. At the bottom, the caves were swarming with tourists, so we left, I’m sure they cannot be better than Waitomo Caves.
Again, at Stonehenge, the site was thick, but we travelled up a side road and had a perfectly good view of the area with an Historic Places plaque telling us all about the area, this was good enough for us.
I insisted going to Salisbury Cathedral as Ted and I has seen a sculpture of Thomas Becket in the throws of dying, made by an ancestor of Joseph’s, but alas, the cathedral was undergoing extensive repairs and we couldn’t get to all of the grounds, and I couldn’t find it. The town was very old with many Elizabethan houses in good repair. Inside a jewellers shop we could see a part of the old wall of the town, seemed strange and made the shop very narrow, but interesting.
After that, it was straight to London on the M3, M25 and finally the M1. It’s been nice to chill out today. Rose has been reading, Simon has made an attempt to study with interruptions from watching Joseph on the computer, I’ve been write this and we’ve been doing washing. Next, we need to go to the bank to change some money into Euros for Germany. We leave early catching the tube to Heathrow. You’ll have a few days to digest this before the next instalment.
Just forgot to mention the weather. It's been sunny/cloudy with showers at times. A cold wind in exposed places. So, I guess, what you'd expect for England in autumn.
Cheers for now, love Joy.
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