SOUTHERN ENGLAND

I must say that we both had some trepidation about navigating our way out of London after picking up the hire car, especially as we didn’t have a GPS. However, armed with directions as per good old Google Maps and of course the skills of an excellent navigator, we managed to cruise through to the motorway and were on our way to Dover in East Kent. Our hire car was a VW so it was to be a new motoring experience. As in the US, the indicators and wiper controls were on the opposite side of the steering column to the Toyota at home so again, John had to get used to that. Mind you it wasn’t so bad as he had had 5 weeks’ practice in February. Another peculiarity was the hand brake which was a button on the centre consol. The car was also a manual which we thought unusual. Most new cars in Australia and US are now automatic. All of these features weren’t so bad but the fuel saving feature where the car turned itself off every time you stopped, even at lights, was very annoying. One thing we would advise you to check when you book your hire car is what level of insurance you are covered for. We had been told that there were no further costs by our travel agent, but in fact, we weren’t covered for comprehensive insurance with 0 excess, meaning we either pay about $200 extra or risk a $2000 excess. We opted for the 0 excess and we were happy that we did when we saw some of the roads and where you have to park.

The first thing we noticed as we drove into Dover was the beautiful old castle which sits majestically on the hill overlooking the town. The second thing we noticed was how narrow the streets were and how people park along these narrow streets. It is not unusual to have to pull to the side or back up to let oncoming cars through. We were soon to learn that this is also the case on many of the country roads which are only wide enough for one car in lots of places. We arrived at our B & B to discover the host wasn’t home yet so we decided to take a drive around town. First up was the waterfront. The harbour is walled in obviously to protect from rough seas and outside the wall looks very shallow so they must be dredging constantly to keep it safe for the hundreds of ferries, cruise boats etc which must use the port each day.



Dover Castle overlooks the marina. At left is the Dover Marina Hotel & Spa.

 


A Channel ferry leaves Dover.

 


And another arrives. At right is also one of seeral cruise ships that were anchored in the marina here as well.



We then drove up the hill to explore Dover Castle which is the largest castle in England, containing the main castle and tower, a church, old barracks and lots more. It was here that we ended up becoming English Heritage Members. For about $110 a couple, it entitles you to entry into hundreds of castles, churches and historic places throughout England, as well as discounts to many attractions in Wales and Scotland. We figured it would be worth it as the average price to get into most places is from $20-$30 each. Unbeknownst to us the grounds of the castle hide a large network of tunnels built originally in 1216-17 to improve the defences of the castle. They are about 70 feet below ground and were the staging point for Operation Dynamo which involved the rescue of the British Expeditionary Forces from Dunkirk during WWII. The tour through the tunnels was excellent as were the views from the balcony which hangs of the adjacent cliff. There was also a lookout above ground which gave excellent views of the famous white cliffs of Dover. Unfortunately we ran out of time and only got to see the tunnels.



The barracks at Dover Castle.



External balcony accessible from the tunnels.
The balcony sits in the side of the cliff.

 

Looking back to Dover Marina from the tunnel balcony.

 

The white cliffs of Dover.

 

We were lucky to have a clear day. In the distance is the shoreline of France.

We walked into town in the evening to one of the local pubs for dinner. The weather had been changing all day with showers here and there but nothing too heavy. It was a bit of a surprise when we heard a light pattering outside and discovered there were small hail stones coming down with the rain. It didn’t last long though and we managed to stay dry on the walk home. It doesn’t get dark until after 9 pm so you tend to lose track of the time of an evening.

Sandown Guest House, Dover

Martin and Sonya, our hosts at Sandown Guest House were fantastic and gave us lots of good info re what to do around the area so we decided to stay for two nights. Sonya even did our washing for us while we took a day trip on Tuesday, first down to the south coast then up through the ancient old town of Rye, also visiting Winchelsea where Spike Milligan is buried and Canterbury to see the Cathedral.

It took a while to learn where you can and can't park. Note the yellow area marked on the left hand side in front of the red car. That is a bus stop as well as parked cars you can have buses, delivery trucks etc all pulling up in front of you. Patience is vital when driving over here.

A very grand holiday hotel on the foreshore at Hythe.

On the south coast we followed part of the sea wall which stretches from Hythe to Romney Marsh and is an amazing structure built to keep the sea from swamping the adjacent countryside. When you stand on the wall, it is obvious that the land is much lower than the wall and would be totally flooded without it.

 

 

 

 

Further on we pulled up at a local beach, which unlike our beaches was not sandy but rocky. It was disappointing to notice a lot of rubbish, both on the foreshore and in the water.

 

Heading north we pulled into a small car park downhill from the oldest part of Rye and explored some of the many antique and second-hand stores before taking a stroll up through the old town. It is a quaint old town and like most of the towns in this part of England, has been built high up on a hill. We have decided that the towns were normally built on the hills to as to free up the flatter areas for farming.



This shop in Rye was chockers with old stuff!

 


Looking up toward the old part of town.

 

 


Looking down to the road which leads into Rye.

 


Part off the old town fortifications.

 

Just out of the old town is Rye harbour at the head of a canal which leads up from the coast.

St Thomas’ Church in Winchelsea looks old and insignificant. We had no trouble finding Spike’s grave. The Gaelic epitaph (9^th line) on his headstone which he decided on before he died, reads "Duirt me leat go raibh me breoite", or "I told you I was ill". His relatives weren’t allowed to put it in English.



St Thomas' Church, Winchelsea

 

 

 

 

While we were in Winchelsea we discovered that it was an open day for the local gardens so we had a little wander around the locals’ vegie plots and a grand garden belonging to one of the local mansions.



Local vegie plots.




Open garden at Winchelsea



 

At Canterbury, we left the car at the park and ride just outside the city wall. It cost about $5 to park the car and take a bus into the city centre and back again. This was a great option as parking is a nightmare wherever you go over here. Apart from the Cathedral, the biggest attraction in Canterbury seems to be the shopping. Inside the city wall is like one big shopping mall. We decided to buy a GPS in one of the electronic stores. It cost around $200 and we figured we could sell it on E-bay when we got back as it is only good for England and Western Europe. We very quickly decided it was an excellent decision as navigating around the back roads here would be almost impossible without one. Even if you stick to the motorways, which we don’t like to do, it is still difficult without a really good road atlas.

Canterbury Cathedral was established as a monastery by a monk, Augustine in 597AD.  Today it consists of the Cathedral, St Augustine’s Abbey and St Martin’s Church and is the Mother Church for the world’s Anglican Community. The nearby Kings School has close links to the Cathedral and is also connected to Kings School at Parramatta, NSW. Former pupils of Kings School in Canterbury who are connected to Australia include the Blaxland brothers, Governor Gipps, after whom Gippsland is named and Bishop Broughton who became first Bishop of Australia in 1836. Like Westminster Abbey, the Cathedral houses the tombs of lots of noted people including former Bishops, military leaders etc. And of course the building itself is impressive.

 

 

 

 

 



The herb garden is part of the monastery at the Cathedral and contained a wide variety of herbs mainly used for medicinal purposes.

Unfortunately, by the time we got back to Dover, it was too late to go see the rest of Dover Castle so we missed out there. We walked up the road to one of several local pubs for a lovely fish and chip dinner.

Next morning we headed off toward our next destination near Bath. We managed to see lots of the countryside in Kent, Sussex, Winchester and Wiltshire on the way.

Some of the country roads were really pretty.



One of many thatched roofs we were to see in the south-east of England. The workmanship in them is amazing.



Our history lesson for the day was taken at Battle in East Sussex. It was here, and not in Hastings on the coast, that the famous Battle of Hastings was fought. Atop the hill where the battle took place now stands an Abbey, part of which is used as a school, while other buildings house a museum and discovery centre. The movie which explains the battle was really well done. Walking around the grounds, you can see where the battle took place and even the stone marking the exact spot where King Harold was killed. William the Conqueror founded the Abbey a few years after the battle to commemorate his victory and as a monument to around seven thousand men who died here on October 14, 1066. The altar of the church sat on the site of Harold’s death but the church itself no longer stands. We found this site a very interesting and informative spot on the English Heritage trail.

These old accommodation chambers overlook the hill where the Battle of Hastings took place.

 

1. All that remains of the monks' monastery.

 

This part of the Abbey is now used as a school.

 


The grand entrance to the Abbey

Next we decided to drive through the famous Brighton so we could take a look at the pier. On the way we passed The Long Man of Wilmington, a 69 m tall human figure carved into the hillside. Unfortunately there was nowhere to stop for a photo. and as we were to discover, most of the roads have high hedges on both sides, often stopping the view.

These hills are near where we saw The Long Man of Wilmington. To see what it looks like click on the link below.

Click here for more info on The_Long_Man_of_Wilmington



Brighton Pier - there was even a merry-go-round right on the beach.



One look at the crowded streets of Brighton convinced us not to stop so we did a drive by and continued on our way. The rest of our afternoon was spent just driving through the countryside, looking for a suitable B&B. Most were either full or very expensive to we thought going into Winchester might be a better option as it is a bigger centre. At the information centre they told us that all of the hotels were full and their booking service was closed for the day. They did however give us a book detailing all of the local B&B and hotel options. The traffic in the city was horrendous so we headed straight out of town to take our chances in the outlying areas. There was a particularly lovely one right on the River Test in Overton. It was called Mallards but unfortunately they were full up.

The owner of Mallard's owned this tame harris's hawk which he had imported from USA. He even took it out hunting.

The owner rang around for us though and found us a room at Rose Cottage further along London Road toward Whitchurch. The hosts, Bill and Jean again were lovely people and we really enjoyed our stay.

Another beautiful thatched roof.

 

We also spotted this free-range pig farm near Stonehenge.

Next day we headed toward Bath again, stopping off at the legendary Stonehenge. We had heard people describe it as just a pile of old stones but it really is worth a visit as the history of the whole area is really interesting.

 


Note the knob on top of the pillar at left. The lintel has a hole that sits into this just like a dowell joint in carpentry.

The western Jackdaw was the most common bird we saw at Stonehenge.

These huts are replicas of those which the people who built Stonehenge would have lived in nearby.

After Stonehenge we decided to go through the village of Westbury so that we could see one of the many white horses scattered around the English countryside. It turned out to be a great decision as we discovered that the location of the horse had a lovely area where we could enjoy our picnic lunch as well as an outstanding view across the valley below.

 

We arrived at our next stop, Starlington Cottage at around 2 pm and were quite amazed to discover that we had an excellent view of the White Horse we had just visited from the cottage garden.

The view from our cottage at Freshford. The white horse could be seen just to the right of the white tower at top right.

After settling in and a short rest, we wandered down to the Inn at Freshford – the village where the cottage is located – for a couple of drinks and dinner before an early night. We had three nights here at Freshford and it was lovely to be able to stop for a bit and unwind. The cottage was very private and peaceful although having no TV was hard to get used to. The only other negative was the bathroom. It had a huge tub but the handheld shower rose made it impossible to have a shower as well as the fact that there was not shower screen or curtain.



Scenes from the streets of Freshford.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Friday we walked down to the train station and caught the train into Bath. It was about $8 return each and was a lot less hassle than driving in and then trying to find a park etc. The Roman baths really are very interesting. The story of their burial and eventual rediscovery is quite amazing. Mind you looking at the water now you wouldn’t want to swim there.

Bath Abbey



The Roman Baths



On these pillars tiles were laid with holes in them through
which steam escaped to create a steam room.

Click here for more info on the Roman Baths

As with Canterbury, Bath seems to have become one big shopping mall, spread around the baths. While we enjoyed seeing the baths, the multitude of shops was a bit of a turn off, though I know some might love it. We did however, call into Sainsbury’s and get some supplies so I could cook us a nice meal for our next two nights in Freshford. It was again really nice to be able to cook a meal at home, enjoy a wine and a piece of the delicious chocolate cake that Jem had dropped in for us. We even picked out a DVD and watched it on John’s computer, although we both ended up falling asleep before it ended.

More scenes from Freshford

 

 

This beautiful flower is on the tree below which
grows abundantly in southern England.

 

 

These two vans were just down the lane from the grand house shown earlier. It looked like someone was living there too!

 

Seen beside one of the public footpaths. Friendly chap!!!

 


Growing in our cottage courtyard.

On Saturday morning after breakfast we set off on a jolly jaunt across the Somerset countryside. There are public pathways everywhere in the British Isles and we didn’t really know exactly where we were going. All we do know is that the paths are really only bush tracks which obviously become really boggy after some rain. We encountered a couple of bog holes which we managed to negotiate without getting totally bogged. We ended up at Iford Manor, one of the local posh houses on the River Frome, and then wandered back toward Freshford. Walking is obviously a popular pastime in England and it would definitely keep you fit. We probably walked about 5 miles but it wasn’t flat country as most of the villages sit atop hills. Freshford is no exception. Most of the hills have a grade of around 60⁰. After three days here I reckon my calf muscles have doubled in size. You tend to walk everywhere because there is nowhere to park if you drive and when you get home you will probably have lost your parking spot there.



Iford Manor

 


The River Frome

 

In the afternoon we took a drive to the west and drove around Chew Valley Lake. It is a lovely spot but we were really surprised and disappointed to discover that there was a lack of public facilities anywhere. The only spot we found where there was some access apart from the sailing club was a small car park (cost £1.50 to park for the day) and a small grassed area near the lake. There were no picnic tables or seats let alone the free barbecues like we have at home. We have notices a real lack of public facilities like this over here and what there is you have to pay for in one way or another. Some lord or council usually owns the land and even the rivers so you have to pay to go fishing, boating etc. No wonder most people just walk for recreation!!!!

 


Feeling 'hedged' in!

Chew Valley Lake and residents below. Note the difference in size between the white and black swans.

 

Next morning it was up bright and early and off to Wales through Gloucester.

In Gloucester we saw row upon row of terrace houses.
They are terraces behind the building straight ahead as well.

We could have gone through Bristol but decided against paying the toll for the suspension bridge there. We should have checked though as the toll was only £1. The extra fuel to go around the top end of Avon Gorge which is spans would have cost a lot more.