Cousin Colin and the family villages...Part 2

Tuesday 24th May - (Catch-up)

After taking the photos of Codrington Court grounds, we headed down to Little Sodbury, via a very narrow lane. No trouble finding St Adelines church and the village which is only a cluster of really nice homes (probably some have been re-done). The church was rebuilt in 1859, from the stones originally used for the original chapel. It is where William Tyndale worked on his translation of the Bible.

There are only fairly modern burials in the churchyard (e.g. post-1859), and Lee believes from her research that most ofd the burials in the 1600/1700's were in Old Sodbury.

 

We met a man and his daughter who were having a jog, and he explained to Lee that Little Sodbury is right on the edge of the Cotswolds, and, and it is Sodbury Vale where the countryside flattens out. He also said that Chipping Sodbury was built in the 1200's or possib;ly earlier and was to replace Old Sodbury, which he said was a 20 minute walk, but we decided to drive!

Had lunch at The Dog Inn, (circa 1590), but not a memorable one as the quiche was zapped in a microwave. On up the hill to the Old Sodbury Church, which is in a fabulous location, overlooking Sodbury Vale. Some stones were still readable from the 1700's, but lots of unmarked and/or unreadable ones as well.

Lovely church inside. There were some plaques on the wall for the name Brookes, and we took photos as there are some Brookes/Brooks family connections that were in Old Sodbury, (Mary Brooks married William Beazer - Gordon's 4 X Great Grandfather).

Our final visit was to the Cross Hands Hotel, which has been renovated and bears no real resemblance to its earlier days, so we took a photo from across the road, just for the record.

Not a bad morning of discovery, but both tired now and back to the hotel for the requisite nana nap.

Cousin Colin and the family villages...

Monday, 23rd and Tuesday 24th - (Catch-up)

We rang Colin about 10.00am and went over to see him and sat chatting for a couple of hours. I had my digital voice recorder with me, and forgot all about it, and so a lot of what we talked about is memory.

Colin had suggested we go out for lunch to a place called the Gumstool Inn, which he had known from previous visits. It was a lovely place and quiet, and on the way back, he took us past and through Horton and Chipping Sodbury, pointing out places he knew and had worked, and his brother's house, where Maurice and his wife lived.

As we'd had such a large lunch, we opted to have a couple of starters (entrees) for dinner, and then shared a cheese platter, and that made for a really nice meal, and not too much.

On the Tuesday, we had decided to try and see as many of the villages and places relating to the Bezer family that we could find.

small part of Wapley Common

First we went into Yate, and found where William Bezer and Hannah Turner were married in 1730. As with many churchyards, the stones were very old and unreadable, and many graves had no stones at all, so the frustrating bit about not actually finding anything continues. After Yate, we went all the way along the lane that runs by Colin's house, and found Wapley Common, and yet another area of allotment gardens, which we hadn't known of last trip. Wapley Common is huge and so peaceful. We are still in awe of just how much land is still "countryside", especially when you think of the population of this country. It includes Wapley Bushes (wildlife area), and was quite different from Westerleigh Common where Colin had driven us through yesterday, which had lots of roaming cattle, contained by cattle grids at either end.

There was also a grand gateway to a large property, which had no name on the gate, but we might be able to identify it from the lovely hand-drawn map Colin gave us last trip.
Further up the hill we took this photo of the Old School House, which belongs to Colin's cousin Shirley.

The Old School House

Colin had told us that great-great granmother Hannah Bennett had worked at Codrington Court
before she was married, and her initials are carved in the lintel, and that Codrington Court was opposite the Codrington Arms, which we found opposite the gates of the estate, and is now called The Wishing Well Hotel.

Part 2 next time

Bath, Trains, The Pump Room, Assembly Room and pizza...

Sunday, 22nd May - (Catch-up)

It was only going to be a short trip to our next stopover, so we decided to go into Bath, and see some things we'd missed last time.

The staff at the Premier Inn told us the Park and Ride did not run on Sundays, and suggested we go and Park at Chippenham Station and get the train. Good idea, but being a Sunday, many other people had the same idea, and we had to stand up all the way in. It is only a 20 minute ride so no problem. Then, everyone spills out into Bath to take in the many sights.

 We had thought we wanted to see the Pump Room, and the Roman Baths, but couldn't find where the Pump Room was, apart from a restaurant named the Pump Room, and when we then went in to enquire about the Roman Baths, they said we should allow at least an hour, and they wanted 12 Pounds each! Didn't want to see it that much.

Instead we asked at the Visitor Centre and found we could go up to the Assembly Rooms, and the Fashion Museum, both of which were very interesting, and you could imagine people like those Jane Austen wrote about, standing around being seen by others. Lovely place.

Downstairs there was a Museum of Fashion, (no photos allowed), and it was really quite interesting, showing some early costumes from 1660, and then right up through to to the current time.

The plaque outside said these rooms were built by John Wood the Younger, in 1769-71, and were given to the National Trust in 1931. They were severely damaged in WW2, and restored in 1955-63.

On the way back down the hill, we stopped for lunch at place called "Ask", and shared a very simple pizza of tomato sauce, topped by mozzarella and rocket and proscuitto.

Then the train back and standing again, and discovered someone had parked right behind us (see photo), when there were scores of places they could have stopped!! I got his rego plate number just in case.

Next, cousin Colin...

Castle Combe, and Tiddleywink...

Saturday, 21st May - (Catch-up)

Continental breakfast, and then headed in to have a look at the town of Chippenham. Found the car park (not usually an easy thing), and headed for the main street, and shops. The centre is like many towns mentioned in earlier posts, in that it is given over to pedestrians, either all the time or when they close it because of the local market day. 

Many stalls, including an extensive cheese stall, (without refrigeration), so we wondered how they kept everything cool enough. (So much for e-coli and bean sprouts in Germany!)

Anyway, there was some local produce so we bought a few tomatoes, and some tiny bell peppers to do our own dinner tonight.

Asked at the local info centre about a laundromat and Lee found a book about Calne, and one on Castle Combe, so naturally we bought these! (see later posts about sending stuff back to OZ!!) 

Then we had morning coffee and bought some sandwiches to have for lunch, intending to have them back in our room. As it turned out we turned off one exit too soon and found ourselves on the road to Castle Combe.

Not sure there wouldn't be hoards of people there as we'd seen posters on the roadside announcing a Steam Rally in Castle Combe, so we assumed we would confront hundreds of people, and no parking.

As it turned out, the rally was in a large field and Castle Combe was spared. We were early. ({Please note EARLY, it is important)

St Mary's, Yatton Keynell

On the way to Castle Combe, you pass through the village/hamlet/cluster of Tiddleywink, and if you blink you literally miss it!! Then almost immediately you come to Yatton Keynell, where we stopped and inspected the local church and churchyard, as there had been some Bezer's there in the 1600's/1700's. Had a good look at the headstones but they were either falling over or illegible. Also saw a wall with the label "Church Farm", which is probably several hundred years old.

On to one of my all-time favourite villages, Castle Combe. We've been here before, and we should have gone down closer to the village, where we would have found a car space, but 'assumed' there wouldn't be one and so parked up the hill, and walked down. It is a long way, (at least half a mile), and you have to come back!

This is the one used in the ill-fated movie musical, "Dr. Dolittle" with Rex Harrison

Still, it was a lovely day and we had our sandwiches near the stream, and then a cup of tea in one of the local pubs. This one is a bit up-market and we were asked to have our tea in the lounge, as they wanted to keep the tables for lunch guests. (We really only wanted to use the loo anyway!)

I'd kill for this!!

Then across the road to St Andrew's Church, Castle Combe, and discovered on a notice board the names of Brian Cyril Beazer, and Patricia Beazer, both current residents, and we took down some details of the church in case we want to contact people. (Found out later from cousin Colin, that these are the well off Beazer's, and Colin said from Marshfield, and they don't have much to do with Colin and his family. There is most probably a "connection" to the family somewhere)

Next time...Bath

Chippenham, Cheltenham, Calne, Cirencester and chips...

Friday, 20th & Saturday 21st May - (BIG CATCH-UP)

Headed off from the Edward Hotel about 9.30am towards Chippenham. It isn't far and we couldn't get our room until the usual 2.00pm, so headed for Cheltenham.

It is worth a look and is a very attractive town with wide streets, and tons of shops of all kinds, from designer stuff down to the ubiquitous "Pound Shop" (read Dollar shop for Australia). Cheap and nasty stuff in shops I will go into, but hope nobody sees me coming out of!

Found a good car park and Lee bought a shirt, and then we walked around a bit. Very nice stone in the buildings, of Corsham or Bath stone, and it was a pleasant sunny day with lots of people around. We think it is quite an affluent town compared with Gloucester, which is only a short distance away.

On to Chippenham via Cirencester, which we had been to on the last trip in 2007,but this time came in from another direction and the houses are really attractive in that lovely stone used everywhere in the area. From just out of Cirencester we kept seeing signs indicating the direction of "Amy and Anton's Reception". Obviously a wedding, but the signs appeared for miles and miles, almost all the way to Castle Combe.

As we came into Chippenham, we decided to go on to Calne, which is an area in Lee's family history for the ancestors with names like Parfit/Perfect; Sage, and Little in her Loveridge family. Walked to St,Mary the Virgin Church and spoke to a very helpful local man, who told us some of the history of the area. Then we did the required look around the graveyards, but some of the stones are so old and are of the same stone as the church, and they don't work well as headstones.

We had a really nice lunch at a little cafe, and they did simple salads, of ham and salad or cheese and salad, and so we had one each and shared the ham & cheese. Just nice plain simple salads like you used to have when you were growing up.
Another Premier Inn tonight, but this one didn't have such an interesting menu as some others, and you start to get sick of "pub" meals. They all seem to come with chips! Lee had lasagne, and I had a very disappointing plate of slow-cooked pork ribs with a glazy sauce. Trouble is the pork ribs were probably sitting there and all they did was pour a sauce over them! And, the accompanying veg was a poor overcooked piece of corn on the cob, grilled tomato, chips and coleslaw!!! Not a combination I would ever think of having on one plate.

When you stay at Premier Inn, (which we am more than happy with for many reasons), it usually comes with a chain restaurant "attached", like 'Brewers Fayre', 'Table to Table', 'Beefeater', and 'Brewer and Chef' , and they all have their own cooks and staff. Most are excellent, but just sometimes things tire a little, and they drop their game. It can't be easy having such extensive menus, and wondering how many servings you will need, but if you're out there in the market, the standards have to be maintained or people will stop coming.

Oooh wah, guess what I did????...

Filled up the diesel tank with petrol!!!!

We are at Sandwich, and we'd come across from Winteringbury. Before we left there I went into the Shell garage, and topped up the tank with 'diesel', but although I have been very careful in doing this, the more I think about it, the more I believe that the person ahead of me had put the filling nozzle in the wrong holder, and I didn't notice it. 
This may well mean that other people before me have also done the wrong thing, but I know I put the nozzle back in the diesel holder after I finished, and therefore I might have screwed up the next person!

So, the upshot of all this is, that at the point we were to drive off to find a nearby launderette, the car wouldn't start! No real panic, just called the Hertz rental people emergency number, and within minutes they had told me that an AA person would be with us within the hour. They came in 30 minutes, and soon told me the bad news. Then, that AA man arranged for someone else to come out and drain the tank and refill it with at least some diesel to get us going. Very efficient, and I am so impressed that it all happened on a Saturday morning as well.

The good thing that came of it, was that whilst I was stood outside waiting for the AA man, I discovered that there was a market going in the Market Place. (Good place for a market that).

The better thing, was that the market stalls were selling all things French, and Lee wandered over there and bought some fine delicacies for our lunch, like fresh-out-of-the-oven baguettes, still warm! Plus, some beautiful squidgy-raw milk-creamy brie cheese, and some freshly made chorizo, and some olives. Just the sorts of things you can deal with in a self-catering place.

The car was fixed, and we then had our yummy baguette lunch, and we can still do the washing tomorrow. Who knows what Hertz will say, or do, or charge us for any "damage", but at this point I don't care, and we do have some sort of coverage with the travel insurance.

Interestingly, the second AA man said he sometimes does this drainage/refill thing about 5 times a day! You would think that manufacturers would invent something that doesn't allow you to put the wrong fuel in your tank, like a petrol nozzle that won't fit in a diesel tank, or vice versa!!??