4 April – Travels

The last 10 days have been quite busy.  We had a lovely day out visiting Wells Cathedral and attending a said communion service.  The cathedral is truly stunning!  We were quite surprised to realise that neither of us had been there for about 40 years! The weather was kind to us as we strolled around the grounds and the Bishop’s Palace including the moat.  It was so peaceful.  We then went into the town to buy some lunch which we ate sitting in the cathedral grounds.

On Sunday we headed to Canterbury and were disappointed to find that we had missed Evensong as it was at 15:15 not 5:15 (silly Gerry).  Nevertheless, we had a lovely walk around old Canterbury and along some footpaths outside of the city walls. 

On Monday we went to stay with Gene and George Bland our friends from Maine in the USA. They are in the UK for a few weeks and were spending the first couple of weeks in Kent before heading to the Cotswolds.

We had a lovely couple of days with them including a visit to Dover Castle. Dover Castle is a massive site and would need a couple of days to do it justice however, we took a tour of the wartime tunnels and then an hour later emerged into the sunshine to head for the Keep.  The ladies declined to climb to the top but George and Gerry did and were treated to some great views including the church and also within the Keep, the Royal Chapel which was a small austere place of worship.

After Dover Castle we headed for Deal and a lovely lunch followed by a walk on the promenade. 

We left Gene and George on Wednesday morning as planned.  Originally we had expected to head back to Fairford but because of the good weather and the fact that we did not know Kent very well we decided to spend a couple more days in the area. 

We visited various National Trust and English Heritage sites but the undoubted star was Scotney Castle.  It is a must if you are ever in the area south east of Lamberhurst in Kent.  The old castle was deliberately ‘ruined’ to create a sort of folly when the new castle was built high on the hill above it. 

The grounds were delightful to walk around and the new ‘castle’, which was built between 1835 and 1843 and lived in until 2006, great fun as there was much from our childhood and from our grandparents era as well as the older art and furniture.  In order to make ends meet, the last owner (before the National Trust) had split the house into flats one of which had been the home for Margaret and Dennis Thatcher (who was granted a baronetcy and took the title 1^st Baronet of Scotney).

We also enjoyed a couple of country walks and visits to Sissinghurst Castle, Ightham Mote, and the Roman fort at Richborough before heading back to Fairford.