A Weekend in Cheshire

Saturday August 17

Today Joyce asked us where we would like to go and we chose Tatton Park which is National Trust.  We had a walk through the extensive gardens before viewing the house.

Pineapples growing in the hot houses.

The gardens have been recreated as they would have been in past times.

These are the formal Italian gardens which could be looked out at from inside the house form the upper floors to give the overall view.

 

Part of the beautiful Japanese garden.

Another part of the Japanese garden.

 

There was a Beatrix Potter exhibition in the garden and in the house.  So here is Jeremy Fisher on his lily pad.

Squirrel Nutkin and friends on their rafts.

Tom Kitten looking very surprised to find an interloper in his kitchen.

And of course everyones favourite; Peter Rabbit.

Lunch was in a recently opened restaurant The Gardener's Cottage.  A long serving gardener recently retired and the new gardener had no desire to live in the cottage so it has been turned into rather a nice restaurant.  They have used all the floor and we ate lunch on what would have been the master bedroom.



After lunch we visited the charming village of Knutsford. We went and viewed the Kuntsford Tapestry. Hand stitched by Knutsford citizens - with more than 6 million stitches and an amazing 52 miles of wool, the tapestry measuring 40ft in 3 sections is an impressive sight. Many of Knutsford's houses, shops and buildings are depicted along with street scenes.
The idea for the tapestry began in 1997 with Jennifer Holbrook and has now materialised into something already compared with the Bayeux Tapestry which depicts the time period of William the Conqueror.
With so much changing in the town the Knutsford Tapestry has already become a historical record of the history and architecture in Knutsford in the year 2000.



Here are a couple of pictures of the tapestry from the website.
http://www.knutsfordheritage.co.uk/the-tapestry

Afternoon tea was in a quirky tearoom full of Pennyfarthings.

Sunday August 18
Today we had a lazy start and headed out to late lunch in a pub at 3pm.  From here we went to Gawsworth where we there was going to be a concert by Foden's Band in the evening.

Gawsworth is a beautiful tudor building that has been well cared for by many generations.  It is now a lived in house by the Richards family.
We toured the inside of the house but were unable to take photos but there are some stunning photos of the inside of the house on this website.
 http://www.gawsworthhall.com/

We visited the church on the estate in the late afternoon..

The interior of the church.

In the evening we really enjoyed the concert by Fodens band.  They are currently double champions of the UK and had their marvelous trophies on display.  http://www.fodensband.co.uk/index.php

Finding Ringley

Friday August 16th

Today we were on a mission to find Ringley.  This is the tiny village where
Edith Collier's father's family originally came from before settling in Wanganui and starting a music business.  They built a family home in Wanganui and called it Ringley.  The house is now gone and the land has been subdivided into the Ringley Estate.  We plan to build our new house there  in Edith Collier Drive.  So we were really keen to get to Ringley on this trip if at all possible.   When we knew we would be coming up towards Manchester to stay with Joyce we felt sure she would be up for the challenge and she certainly was.

Alan had done a resasonable amount of research on the internet and had found an old map of Ringley dating back to the sometime in the 19th century.

In the morning we went out to visit a National  Trust Property, Dunham Massey, on the way.  None of us had read the guide book properly as we arrived on a day when the house was not open to the public.  The gardens were, so we decided to stay and look around them.

Mary and Joyce in the rose garden.

The stately home we didn't get inside.     

After  lunch in the cafe at Dunham Massey we set out armed with maps to find Ringley.  It was such an obscure place the satnav didn't seem to know about it.  However Alan was an excellent navigator and all went well until we saw a sign that the Old Ringley Bridge was closed for repairs until Dec 2013.  This meant a quick replanning of routes around the houses.  Eventually we got to a place where there was a footbridge over the river to the  other side that we were sure was Ringley.

The Ringley footbridge which was really the only way over the river into the part of Ringley we wanted to go to.  We could have driven but it would have involved leaving the area completely and getting back on the motorway and coming at it from the opposite direction.

This was confirmed when we found this street sign.

The church of Saint Saviour Ringley was across the footbridge that seemed to be the only way to get to old Ringley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The village stocks and the notice about the bridge.

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A helpful sign near the bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped by the local pub called the Horseshoe and tried to get as much information as we could from the locals.  There were lots of photos from the earlier days of Ringley on the walls.  We wanted to get to Higher Heaps as we knew that the Colliers had lived there at some stage. We found that we could take a marked walking track up through the woods to Higher Heaps so we set out to do this after having a drink in the bar.

The walking track up through the woods was narrow steep and wet but it was a sunny day and was all very pretty. We felt like we had taken a step back in time.  We had expected to find it all urban and fully developed but it was not like this at all. 

We did manage to find this sign so we knew we were in the right area. Joyce was very good at talking to the locals. most had horses and stables and the homes looked subtantial.  this one was being rented and was for sale.  We checked when we got back home and found it was offers over 995,000 pounds. We have not made an offer.

The only original part of a building we could find was this end of a cottage and a wall.  There was no evidence of Clough Cottage where the Colliers had lived.

The only evidence of old cottages but no one knew where Clough Cottage would have been.  On speaking to the current tenant at Higher heaps barn he told us that we could walk across the fields back to the pub down Ringley road and we would nto need to take the steep slippery slope through the woods.  It was a pleasant walk across the fields.  We notices that most of the farms were set up with livery  stables and horses. We made our way back to the village and came across a beautiful garden on the way.

 
This was the most beautiful hillside garden.

So now we have  been to Ringley and think that a good name for our house would be Ringley Fold as that was another area and one of the roads was named Ringley Fold.

A Trip Back to Suffolk

Sunday August 11
Today we were picked up by Kathy to go back and spend time at our 2001 exchange house.
After lunch Mike drove us over to Woodbridge and we had a walk along the river past the tide mill.

Here I am sitting on the milestone in Woodbridge finding out how far it is to everything.

Narrow streets developed before cars make driving through here a problem.

We then walked into town and around the historic centre.

 The oldest pub in Woodbridge. Note the scales where they weighed the cart before taking grain down the tide mill.  They knew the unladen weight of the cart so they were able to calculate the weight of the grain.

We visited the local museum which even Mike hadn't been into before.

Monday August 12
We caught the Route 66 bus into Ipswich,  Mary had a very successful shopping trip in town.  She really enjoyed knowing where all the shops were and going to her favourites.  It was amazing how many shops had closed since they were last here.

The Ancient House in Ipswich

Shopping street in Ipswich.

In the afternoon there was a gathering of the staff from Maidstone School in Felixstowe where Mary had taught in 2001.  They are now the Maidstone retired ladies.  It was great to be able to catch up with everyone and reminisce.

Tuesday August 13

Here I am at the lovely cottage garden on Jimmy's Farm.

The Orwell Bridge.

In the morning we went to Jimmy's Farm, the Suffolk food hall and then to Tesco. In the afternoon we were collected by our friends Richard and Margaret and spent the afternoon chatting and then went out for a meal at The Golf.

Wednesday August 14
Mike and Kathy drove us to Braintree.  Before they dropped us off we spend the morning at Freeport Designer Outlet.  After lunch they dropped us off with Mary's cousin Jacquie for the night. 

Thursday August 15th
Today was train day.  This was a rail pass day so we caught a train from Braintree to Liverpool Street Station.  At Liverpool St we got out to walk over to Spitalfields Market.  The market was quite different from the day we had been here before, but we  managed to find what we had come to look for and some more stuff!  Our bags are becoming seriously full after all the shopping this week.  it will all come right when we get back to Hamish's and we put them into the big suitcase.  We are actually quite proud of ourselves going away for 2 weeks with a cabin bag each.  It does make life easier for getting on and off trains when you only have a little bag.

Canal Trip in a Narrow Boat

Tuesday August 6

Today was exciting for me as I was going to see my friends and Ann and Tom and go on their narrow boat Harrier, for another holiday. Mary has taken me on their boat twice before so I am really at home there and know how all the locks work. 

Hamish and Louise were coming with us for a day trip. Bella was coming as well so it was going to be a big day out for her. It took us about 2 hours to drive to the boat. We set out along the canal from Ruby and stopped at a little park area for lunch.

 Bella enjoyed being able to run along the tow path for a little while. 

Hamish learnt how to drive the boat with Tom although Tom always took over for the tricky bits. We had to back track at the end of the day so that we could deliver Hamish and Louise back to their car.

After they had left we all hopped back on the boat and went back up the canal where we had just been and stopped overnight near a rail bridge where the mainline trains were flying over very fast and often. Most of them were Mr Branson's virgin trains. Hope I get to go on one of those they look like fun.

Wednesday August 7

Ton was planning to get us to Coventry by 3pm and we did this easily. We had been there before in 2003 so it was great to be back.

 Mary was really keen to revisit the cathedral. It more than lived up to her expectations. The old cathedral that was bombed during the war has been left as a ruin and the new cathedral is on the same site. A wonderful etched glass screen at the end of the new cathedral looks through on to the ruins. The glass screen is the work of a New Zealander.

ww.coventrycathedral.org.uk   There is a great website about it with virtual tours and apps for phones to explore. 

The cathedral is a treasure trove of modern art all on a theme of unity. The decision to build a modern structure to replace the old gothic one was inspired and Christchurch shoud take a leaf out of Coventry's book and build a new cathedral for the time we are now in. 

 Alan wanted the visit the medieval street; Spon Street. Some of the houses in this street escaped the blitz, but most were moved from other parts of Coventry to create this delightful medieval street after the war.

We also found the Lady Godiva statue in the town square. She was all decked out in blue bows, as were many other places in town to celebrate the birth of the Prince George. We got back in time for dinner on the boat in the Coventry Basin. 

While we were in Coventy Basin we had this man outside the window looking in at us.  He was Brindley and he was responsible for planning the inland waterways system which was once used for transport but is largely used for pleasure craft today

 It was quiet with a only a few boats tied up. It is quite different to sleeping on the canals ide in the country where you are away from traffic sirens and road noises.

Thursday August 8th

 

Today we were on the canals all day. These photos were taken at a place called Charity Dock. I think it is where boats go to die!  

 This boat was like a market garden!   Those are very healthy runner beans at the front and you could pick your salad off the roof.

Pubs like this are dotted all along the canal so there is plenty of opportunity to stop for a pint!

Tom wanted to head for Bosworth where the battle took place where Richard III was killed. So we left Coventy and then changed canals at the Mar4ston Junction and travelled up the Ashby Canal. We found a mooring place really close to where we wanted to go the next morning. It was not easy. The water level in the canal was lower than usual and there was not enough depth in a lot of places to moor. However we finally found a good place and settled in  for the night and had dinner.

Friday August 9

After breakfast we set out to walk to The Bosworth Experience. It is located in the contryside on Ambion Hill Farm to commemorate and tell the story of the events that took place on 22 August 1485. 

 

 The centre had been here in various form since 1973, but it has been upgraded to a state of the art exhibition in 2010. It tells the story of The Wars of the Roses. It is even more interesting now that Richard III remains have been found in a car park at Leicester. Richard died in this battle and Henry Tudor became King. 

http://www.bosworthbattlefield.com/index.htm

 A replica of King Richard's sword and crown in the rose garden memorial.

It was a fascinating experience and we finished it with a walk of the battle area. In the afternoon we made our way back to Hawkesbury Junction for the night, which was quite busy with overnight mooring. Alan and Tom went for a pint at the local after dinner.

 Ann and Mary waiting for a train at Shenton railway station  on the Battlefield line.The train only runs excursion trains on weekend and holidays.  It was a Friday so they would have been waiting a while.

Saturday August 10

Today was a travelling day where we retraced out journey back to Rugby where the boat is moored when not in use. Ann and Mary were packing and sorting all the stuff so that they would be ready to take all the stuff to the car when they got back to the mooring. Another mimi adventrue was about to come to an end. I rather like being on the canal where you travel at 3 to 4 miles an hour.

Tom was cross as we met a lot of stupid people on the canal today. One silly person forced him through a tunnel too close to the side and he has now damaged his chimney. He has taken it home to try and fix. There was a lot of traffic on the canal today and passing in the nrrow parts was quite difficult at times. Lack of rain hasmeant the canals are at a lower level than usual and you can get a bit stuck in the mud at he edges if you are not careful.

So here are some final shots on the last bit of the journey.

This could be a project for someone wanting to get into canal boating.  

In the evening the big people went to the FBI for dinner. That is The Ferryboat Inn at Felixstowe. Mary and Alan have very happy memories of dinners here when Mary was teaching at Felixstowe in 2001. It hasn't lost it charm.