Dennis Severs' House

Thursday 19th December was the night we had tickets to go to Dennis Severs. house, in Spittalfields. I'd wanted to go to this house ever since I saw a documentary about it.

The house is a 18th C Huguenot Silk Weaver's house and the late Dennis Severs turned it back just as it would have been at the time the family lived there. The Christmas Silent Evenings are pure magic, with real fires in the grates in every room, candlelight and the scents and sounds from the time.

I only have a photo of the exterior, to go round in silence is part of the experience and it would be too intrusive to be taking photos.

When we arrived in London, at Liverpool Street, it was dry. Within minutes, the heavens opened and there was thunder and lightning all around. This was the storm that probably brought down the ceiling in the Apollo Theatre. We were soaked but saw a Card shop that had a stand of umbrellas outside. Great we thought and bought one for £4.95. That was probably my biggest waste of money ever. We walked no more than 200 yds and the bloody thing blew inside out and one of the ribs broke!! The rain was so bad it was hard to work out where we were going and a 9 minute walk turned into a 40 minute walk, by which time I was dying for a pee and I knew there wouldn't be any toilet facilities in the house we were going to. With that in mind, we had to nip into a pub down an alleyway, that looked rather like Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter film.

What I love about London is the way the old and the new sit side by side.

It's a good job the house visit lived up to expectations, as the walk there was a nightmare and later, when we returned to the MotorHome, the dog had had an attack of the runs, which needed cleaning up. Not the perfect end to the evening!

Catching Up

Just as I nearly get up to date, it all falls behind again as life takes over. Now, sitting in my house and Christmas done and dusted, it's a chance to fill in the gaps. Maybe my New Year resolution should be to keep this blog current, rather than retrospective.

Having arrived back at Waltham Cross, for 6 days, I was looking forward to a quiet time and a couple of trips into London.

On the Sunday we woke to find both our football team managers (Watford and West Brom) had left their positions and not only that, QPR, whose training ground was at the bottom of the lane from where we were staying, had also given their manager the elbow.

Which is why, for the next few days, this was the sight that greeted us when we walked by.

First trip into London was a daytime one and we arranged for our dog walker to call in and feed and exercise Rowley, while we were out.

Mike wanted a quick peek at the Olympic Village, so with our excellent Day Travelcard £8.90, to go wherever we wanted by train or bus in the 6 zones, we hopped on a Tube to Stratford. Then back into Liverpool Street and then a Tube to the Museums. When we got there, we decided the V & A was the one for us. Mike had never been and I went on a school trip, so that has to be over 40 years ago!

This was going to be a day in London on the cheap, as the Museums are free entry and we really enjoyed the V & A.



A wonderful glass sculpture, with the Hereford Screen up on the balcony.

The actual wedding suit worn by James II

A selection of clothes from the 1950s, These are just like the things I remember my Mum wearing when I was little. She was a bit of a social butterfly and Dad always liked her to be dressed well.

The Great Bed of Ware.
It's huge!

The Hereford Screen, removed from the Cathedral in the 1960s, when Victorian styling was considered unsuitable for a Medieval Cathedral. At least it has been beautifully restored but what a poor decision. One I suspect that is regretted now, as it would have been a big attraction for visitors.

Then, when it was getting dark, we caught the Tube to Covent Garden,

We got ourselves somewhat lost and caught in a rainstorm, while trying to find another Tube Station. We decided to call into The Old Bank, where I had a lovely, warming glass of Mulled Wine before we continued our walk, which took us past St Paul's, which looked really dramatic and made the Shard look quite insignificant in comparison.

 And look what I found! 'Ome, Milady?

Back to London.

On our previous visit to Waltham Cross, we'd tried to go to Dennis Severs House but it was fully booked.

We managed to get tickets for the 19th December, which is why we were coming back to Theobalds Park on 14th December, where we can easily get the train into London.

On the way it was too good an opportunity to miss, Saturday lunchtime we were going to meet Mike's newly discovered Sister for lunch in Chelmsford.

I've previously explained how Kate came into our lives and although I have met up with her 5 times, including a memorable Muse Concert, this was to be only the third time Mike had met Kate.

We had a lovely lunchtime together, on our way to the site.

I have a big wish for my Christmas present, not sure it will happen but I would love for Kate to met her birth Mother.

It's easy to see they are closely related.

Although their Football teams could hardly be further apart!

Visiting the Past

Another reason for being over Ipswich way was for Mike to have a look at Jaywick.

He had memories of a holiday in the 50's and he wanted to know if it was a bad as he remembered!

It was! It was a wet day and the shanty town of huts built in the 30s for Londoners to have a holiday have been made slightly more permanent and are mostly lived in as a main residence now. It is also the most deprived area in Britain. Bit sad really, as they have a lovely beach there. 

We didn't stop to take any photos, we quite liked the idea of keeping 4 wheels on our wagon.

While we were at the coast we had a trip to Clacton on Sea and Brightlingsea.
They had both suffered with the storms of a week earlier.

Rowley loved Clacton and became very excited by walking under the pier. I was fascinated by the Oysters growing on the concrete plinths, although the photo I took was a bit out of focus.

Brightlingsea had suffered more from the storm, with flooding, which devastated the beach road. Many of the Beach Huts were at strange angles and in places there were little groups that had been swept from the foundations.

I was talking to a man, who was walking his dog and looking at one of the gaps, where a Hut had been. He told me it had been his family's Hut since he was 7, he must have been around 50 years old now. He was very sad, as it had been washed across the playing fields and was languishing, upside down at the bottom of a pile stacked up against a Skip.

So sad, all those happy memories and now their special place is lost.

11th December - On A Mission

During our 30 years together, Mike has at times mentioned his friend Colin they worked together when Mike was in his first job after leaving school, making Meteorological Instrument, they remained friends after Mike left the job and joined the Royal Navy. Mike was Colin's Best Man when he married Christine and Christine was Godmother to Mike's daughter. This was all back in the 1960s.

Due to both Mike and Colin moving to different parts of the country and other events, they lost touch with each other.

Because of my BIG hobby of Family History research, I have both the knowledge and resources to find people. I'd decided earlier in the year to do my best to find Colin and Christine, bearing in mind they would be aged around 70 now, there was always the possibility I'd turn up bad news. But I did know this was important to Mike, who doesn't usually make a fuss about things but he had talked about this all year.

I thought I had found them, well, no, I was sure I had found them, living near Ipswich but they hadn't appeared in the Electoral Roll for around 8 years. I checked and checked again, no deaths, so that was encouraging but I did only have a partial address for them. A house name, a road and Ipswich.

Which is why the next three nights of our travels were going to be spent on a farm, outside Ipswich.

Having arrived in the area, I started to get 'cold feet' about the address and the road I had found via Google Street Maps. The more I looked into it, the more roads of that name came under the Ipswich Post Code. So, I decided to bite the bullet and pay for a more detailed search.

That was when I discovered they didn't live over near Harwich, as I'd thought. They were living just a short distance across the fields behind where I was sitting. Not only that, now I had the full address, I could see the house hadn't been sold in the last 15 years, which meant they were most likely still living in the house but in recent years had opted to not appear of the searchable listing for the Electoral Roll.

So off we trundled, it was too far to walk up narrow lanes and being in the MotorHome, we took the longer main road route.

This proved to be far less easy than we'd thought! The house is about a mile out of the village, on a busy main road and at that point the road, which is narrow and full of large lorries, is built up like a causeway, with nowhere for me to pull up.

First day no one was home in daylight hours. The second day they weren't there in the morning but when we did another drive by, just as dusk was falling, also 'Rush Hour' a car was on the drive and I pulled into the entrance of a farmhouse opposite and sent Mike on his way. I managed to execute a turn in the driveway and headed back to the village, where I could turn round and come back to pick him up. If necessary.

As I returned, I could see Mike and a man in the smallish drive, the car had been moved through gates to the back of the house. The man was waving me into the drive, which gave me a fairly good indication we had found Colin and Christine.

We were invited into their lovely cottage, had a cuppa and sat and chatted for about an hour. Turned out they also have a MotorHome, which was also parked out back and that they have been to several of the Sites we've stayed at recently.

I was so pleased to have been able to give Mike this gift of his old friends and I don't think there is anything I could buy him this Christmas, that would please him as much.

Leaving the house was a logistical nightmare and involved the two men going out into the road and with the aid of a torch, stopped the traffic and the onus was then on me, to make a clean reverse out, in the shortest possible time. It was by now totally dark. I did it! No trouble, although I think the manoeuvre possibly took a few weeks off my life!  

Sometimes the best gifts don't involve too much money at all.

Leaving Ashwell

I'd seen this Black Squirrel, near to the gate of the campsite but it was a feisty little blighter and moved too fast to get a photo of. As we were checking out of the Site, I saw him over the road from the gate, so I sprinted out with the camera and finally managed to get some photos.

I really like living at this site, being so in the village. I hope we go back.

Cambridge

We'd planned to go to Cambridge on Sunday 8th of December but when I looked at the Council Website, it said there were height restrictions at all of the Park and Ride sites.

I sent a slightly sniffy e mail to the council and was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply on Monday morning, early too, saying the Trumington Site did have MotorHome parking. This was NOT mentioned on the website, something I did point out.

So off we trundled the 18 miles to Trumpington. Well, for a start it was a bloody nightmare accessing the Car Park. I got in the slip road for the entrance and then saw the height restriction warning, plus a notice say, over height vehicles to use the next entrance. Trouble there is, you can't see the sign until you are in the wrong lane and I had to get out of it, or be stuck. Although I indicated, I still got bibbed. Well stuff you! What was I supposed to do?

The next entrance also had a height restriction, for goodness sake! Yet again, by the time I was stuck in the wrong lane, there was a sign telling me to get across to the right and use the John Lewis entrance. I was getting a little fraught by now. Even with big wings mirrors and a rear camera, it isn't easy suddenly changing direction without annoying someone!

So having negotiated the intercom at the barrier,k which politely told us to be off site by 6.20 pm, we headed off to find the Motorhome designated spaces. Yet again, these were not properly signed and quite some distance from the entrance barrier.

When we reached the small, MotorHome allotted spaces. Or Camper Vans as they like to call us (to be honest most Camper Vans would probably get under the height barriers) what was the sight we were greeted with?

To say I was upset and annoyed is an understatement and the crazily parked Volvo got a note on their windscreen, Saying "Idiot, are you a Camper Van!" 

Thankfully I found a space in a corner, by a hedge, that allowed me to not block anyone's passage and there we parked. These cars were parked her due to the laziness of the drivers. There were plenty of spaces, but they would have involved a slightly longer walk to the Bus Stop.

Cambridge was lovely but no public toilets that we could find, which was a big disadvantage. I asked a Tour Guide and he said the best bet was McDonalds. What is this Country coming to? We'll all be pissing in the streets soon, like in Medieval times.

Anyway, having had a good moan, here are a few photos of the City.

Walking

Apart from the village itself, the other aspect that I loved is that it's surrounded by wide open countryside. Hedges don't feature much here and it isn't very hilly, so going for a walk rewards the walker with massive vistas.

We found a near circuit of the village, through the fields took about an hour and a half and covered around 4 miles, so good exercise for these elderly bodies.

Village Life

If I were to live in a village, Ashwell is the village I would like to live in. It has everything I would like, including bus routes and a train station just up the road, so anywhere is easily accessible.

Saturday the 7th was the Church Christmas Fayre and we walked around the village, bought various nice things from the shops and then a handmade Tree decoration from the Fayre.

Here are some of the places in the village I liked, or found interesting.

Then we went to The Three Tuns for a pint because it would be rude to not support the local economy.