Trip to England: Summary with pictures (Day 12: Wales - Hay on Wye to Caernarfon/Snowdonia)

[Clearwater]

I remember being unimpressed by Stonehenge in the early 80s which I think was just after it was fenced off. Oddly, I think the view you get from the A303 is better. It's quite nice to see at a real distance as you drive by (usually relatively slowly as that bit of the road is slow).

 

@OTB: Great photos. Perhaps when you reach the end of your trip, you could let us know how useful or not you found the advice of rmweb in planning and how accurate or not it turned out to be?

 

David

[Gilbert]

Not wholly surprising given that when the monasteries were disestablished in Tudor times a lot of the church's wealth ended up in educational establishments (e.g. The number of King Henry Viii, QE or King Edward Vi schools). In any event, many of the older colleges were founded when monks were sent to Oxbridge for education.

 

David

I was once told that you can walk from Oxford to Cambridge on land ownd by the colleages of the two universities....how true it is I don't know..

[Clearwater]

I was once told that you can walk from Oxford to Cambridge on land ownd by the colleages of the two universities....how true it is I don't know..

Ditto. Plus Trinity College Cambridge was the third largest landowner in the Uk etc etc. Suspect not all the wealth is liquid and possibly governed by complex trusts preventing sale etc.

 

One other great tale is that if Pembroke, Oxford. Pembroke's JCR was allegedly wealthier than the College. Story has it that the SCR made a series of disasterous financial investments thereby losing its endowments. However, the JCR art officer in the 1960s had a good eye for buying paintings and managed to acquire a number of works that appreciated massively in value...

[The Stationmaster]

Really - what sacrilege at Sally Lunns    All you should put between the two halves of the bun is butter - to help you better appreciate the bun itself, which is the thing you actually go there to eat.   Go back a few decades and they didn't even serve the Sally Lunn bun with anything in it - blinkin' commercialism strikes even there it seems.

[OnTheBranchline]

Really - what sacrilege at Sally Lunns All you should put between the two halves of the bun is butter - to help you better appreciate the bun itself, which is the thing you actually go there to eat. Go back a few decades and they didn't even serve the Sally Lunn bun with anything in it - blinkin' commercialism strikes even there it seems.

I was not as offended with the commercialism there compared to other places we visited.

[The Stationmaster]

I was not as offended with the commercialism there compared to other places we visited.

 

Commercialism everywhere nowadays I'm afraid Kevin - the simpler life left much of our island a long time ago alas.

[Sidecar Racer]

Commercialism everywhere nowadays I'm afraid Kevin - the simpler life left much of our island a long time ago alas.

 

I blame the Americans .    

[Northroader]

Mind you, if Stonehenge looks a mess because of the closeness of the A303, Avebury, much bigger, might be off putting because of the way a village was plonked in it and a main road goes right through the middle. I'm enjoying your trip immensely, Great pictures, thank you.

[bob hughes60]

(also the very sad tale of King Richard III killing his nephews).

 

Remember history is written by the winners in this case Henry the Tydder (Tudor) if you research this you may find the "tale" is exactly that.

We re-buried Richard the Third recently after finding him buried under a car park over an old chapel following his death at Bosworth.

Don't believe everything you get told at historic monuments (this includes the local pub)

Hope you enjoyed your visit.

Bob hughes

[OnTheBranchline]

(also the very sad tale of King Richard III killing his nephews).

 

Remember history is written by the winners in this case Henry the Tydder (Tudor) if you research this you may find the "tale" is exactly that.

We re-buried Richard the Third recently after finding him buried under a car park over an old chapel following his death at Bosworth.

Don't believe everything you get told at historic monuments (this includes the local pub)

Hope you enjoyed your visit.

Bob hughes

So the children had it coming to them?

[Welchester]

So the children had it coming to them?

 

No, but it wasn't necessarily Richard who did them in. A very readable account of an alternative view is Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time (the title is an allusion to 'truth'):

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daughter_of_Time

[Vanders]

Mind you, if Stonehenge looks a mess because of the closeness of the A303, Avebury, much bigger, might be off putting because of the way a village was plonked in it and a main road goes right through the middle. I'm enjoying your trip immensely, Great pictures, thank you.

I'm more offended by the current food & drink offered by the Red Lion than I ever was by the relatively minor road running through the centre of Avebury 

 

I have taken American friends to both Stonehenge (too many times: even one of the wonders of the ancient world gets a bit tiresome after your fifth trip...) and Avebury, and they've always been more interested in Avebury!

[Northroader]

Mind you, the Red Lion is a great meeting place for bikers, which may affect the menu. I haven't been in the "Stones" cafe for yonks, so couldn't really give a recommendation. The White Horse in Winterbourne Bassett, two miles down the road, ain't bad.

[The Stationmaster]

I'm more offended by the current food & drink offered by the Red Lion than I ever was by the relatively minor road running through the centre of Avebury 

 

I have taken American friends to both Stonehenge (too many times: even one of the wonders of the ancient world gets a bit tiresome after your fifth trip...) and Avebury, and they've always been more interested in Avebury!

 

The first time I saw Stonehenge I was distinctly unimpressed and even up clse among teh stones (allowed back then) I wasn't much keener.  But Avebury was a completely different thing - always impressive every time I've revisited.

[45156]

I recall reading somewhere that the stones at Stonehenge had been interfered with about 60 or so years ago, or am I imagining that?

[Vanders]

I recall reading somewhere that the stones at Stonehenge had been interfered with about 60 or so years ago, or am I imagining that?

There have been various "restorations" over the years, including 1954. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge#Archaeological_research_and_restoration

 

Although if you're worried about that, forget Avebury: that has definitely been interfered with over the years and the present position of the stones is essentially whatever Alexander Keiller felt was correct at the time.

[geoffers]

Also being of "old git" vintage I can remember having a picnic within the stones at Stonehenge. It is impressive in the snow as well if you are lucky to catch it. Am enjoying your trip - thanks.

[eastglosmog]

Just seen that the government has approved a £1.6billion (current estimated cost) approx 3km long tunnel to replace the A303 by Stonehenge (in spite of some archeologists reservations about it).  Supposed to be following a line about 50m further south.  Current estimate of opening date sometime about 2021, I believe, so OTB will need to schedule his next visit for then!  Plenty of time for someone to change their minds about it, though.

[OnTheBranchline]

Will post more in a few days, life getting in the way at the moment.

[OnTheBranchline]

Will post more in a few days, life getting in the way at the moment.

 

An update will be coming in the next few days. Wedding planning and work getting in the way.

[OnTheBranchline]

As promised a long time ago, here is the next update of our trip. For this update, I will only cover Day 9 which was spent at Didcot.

 

I will say that that the whole day was a dream come true for me. To say that I was as giddy as a school boy would be putting it mildly. Castle's tour was very very informative with The Stationmaster's excellent demonstration on signaling. It's probably the only time in my life where I will be happy to walk away with a lump of coal (shhh don't tell Castle that I took it!). It was great to meet other RMWEB members and discuss what's going on on their layouts and such. The rain thankfully was intermittent but it was a good downpour by the end of the day.

 

My eternal thanks goes to Castle & The Stationmaster. They are two of the nicest and knowledgeable people you will ever meet. If I lived in the UK, I would definitely be a part of the GWS.

 

You all should go to Didcot next year because it's absolutely worth it (pictures aren't quite the same). It really gives you a sense of how much love people have for railways and what a group of people can achieve if they put enough time, effort and money into it (regardless if it's the GWR or whatever).

 

These pictures are not in perfect order but it should give you an idea of what the day at Didcot was like.

 

 

By the way, after that day, we're still engaged!

[96701]

That's me climbing on to or off King Edward II

[Castle]

Hi All,

 

Sorry it's taken a while for me to get back to you but I've been a bit busy...

 

It's great to hear that the tour didn't result in a pre-emotive divorce type situation! It was great to see you all at DRC and I am glad you enjoyed it. It's always a pleasure showing like minded people round the 'toybox'.

 

Whenever your back in the uk, remember to drop in and see us!

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[OnTheBranchline]

Day 10:

 

We left our AirBnB and picked up our rental car (a brand new Vauxhall Makko which was a lot bigger than we were expecting but we liked it). We were using GoogleMaps to navigate for us to get to Castle Combe from the western outskirts of Bath. The first thing GoogleMaps did was take us through a small residential area which cars parked on either side. Then take us through narrow twisty roads which were scarely big enough for two cars. But alas, we survived and got to Castle Combe.

 

I must say that Castle Combe is beautiful and it's definitely worth the visit. It rained during our visit (suddenly and unexpectedly for England) but the rain made it more beautiful. However, I experienced the rudest customer service experience I have ever had in my life. We had a spot of lunch at the local pub in Castle Combe. I went to the bar to order 'tap water' because we didn't want to pay for 'still water'. The pub owner refused to serve us tap water and said that he doesn't open his doors in the morning to give away tap water! I couldn't believe it, I was on the verge of saying "excuse me?". The customer service during our UK trip was average (nowhere near as good as North America) but this was the worst.

 

After Castle Combe, we had to fill up with petrol at a Texaco on the way to the M4. I had another big shock when it cost 50 pound to fill up the Makko which isn't the smallest car in the world but it's not the biggest car in the world either. How can you guys afford to have cars if petrol costs that much? Driving on the M4 was no different than driving on the highways in North America. As an aside, I will say driving in the UK was a big adjustment (going beyond the obvious 'its the other side' of the road). I found it hard to get used to the speed cameras. Also, driving through towns is very 'stop start', you'll be going at 60mph then suddenly there's a town where you slow to 30mph. There's very little forewarning that you might have to slow down (like a 50 sign then a 40 sign).

 

We got to Thornbury Castle for our one night stay. Our room was beautiful with the four poster bed. The Tudor castle was interesting to walk around the well-kept grounds. We were the only ones in the dining room because there was a tour group eating together in another room. The Castle market itself as 'luxury' but they do offer deals for midweek stay and that sort of thing. One quirk is that they asked us what newspaper we wanted in the morning. We said The Guardian because we thought it was included with the room. Come to find out they charged us 2 pound for it (or something like that). But I would say it's worth it to stay one night at Thornbury Castle (for a romantic splurge).

 

 

[Ian J.]

That's a pretty picturesque village, and a nice room