A Touch of History
Saturday 14 June
Saturday 14 June
Today we went to Coedpoeth where Deb spent some time when she came to Wales with the Linnet Girls Choir in 1974. The house has changed very little since we visited there just after we were engaged in 1977, The house was an old public house before it became a private residence and the sandstone step at the rear of the house has worn down by about a quarter of it's thickness. The house itself was built in 1852.
The streets in the older part of the town are extremely narrow and when we were looking for the house we drove past and had to go about 500 m before there was a place where we could make a three point turn. It is impossible to do a "U" turn in the streets.
Today was another day of international travel. We passed into England from Wales and visited the city of Chester. The city of Chester is well worth a visit. It has a wall around the city that has been repaired in places so that if you wished you could walk around the city on the wall. Deb and I didn't wish to walk around the city, however we did walk a section of the wall where it passed over a road. It gave us an idea of the advantage a defending army would have if they had to put the wall to use in the defence of the city.
Like a lot of medieval cities the centre of the city had a church, in this case a cathedral. Chester Cathedral is a very imposing structure and has a number of similarities to York Minster that we visited earlier in our trip. Because it is a cathedral it has a link with the local army regiment which is the Cheshire Regiment. There is a chapel in the cathedral that is dedicated to the regiment.
Some of the cathedral dates back to the early 1200's and it makes you wonder how the building was constructed all those years ago. There is no admission charge, however when you enter the cathedral you must get a ticket and they suggest a donation of 3 pounds would be appropriate for admission.
We had lunch in the cathedral. They have a coffee shop in part of the cathedral. I don't think there would be a coffee shop in Britain that has walls and ceilings nearly 800 years old. I don't think the electricity or plumbing are that old though.
The Lakes District is our next port of call. The mobile phone coverage over here leaves a lot to be desired. Deb has been trying to organise accommodation for us and the mobile coverage has been sketchy to say the least. Because it is a Saturday it is somewhat difficult to get accommodation but we have managed to get a room in Barrow-in-Furness which is on one of the Lakes Peninsulas. The place we have got the room is East Mount House. It is bright and light with a pretty reasonable shower. (we have had some very small and dodgy ones).
We had dinner at a pub which was about 150 metres down the road from East Mount House. The pub's name was Strawberry which seemed a bit woosey but the food was excellent. In Perth (Scotland) we had some ribs at at a local restaurant which were pretty ordinary. We chose ribs here and were assured that they would be good. They were. Nearly as good as the ones Deb did in Vancouver.
Tomorrow we are off to the Lakes District to have a ride on a steam train.
Sunday 15 June
Today we went to a town called Ravenglass which is the start of the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway. It is a 15 inch (38 mm) gauge that runs from Ravenglass on the coast seven miles to Dalgarth Station near a little village named Boot. Originally it was a 3 foot (914 mm) gauge started in 1875 for carrying freight. In 1915 it was converted to it's present gauge by model makers. The railway wasn't used for fun but transporting granite from where it was quarried to the crushing plant and goods and produce for the valley.
There was a problem with one of the steam locos so they put some diesels on for the day. We took a diesel from Ravenglass to Dalgarth and returned on a train drawn by a steam loco.
When we got to Dalgarth we took a walk to an old water powered mill about half a marathon distance away. It felt like it to me but according to the brochure it was about a quarter of a mile. The mill was built in 1578 and is still in operation. It is not producing anything much but does demonstrate how the water powered mill works.
The trip back to Ravenglass was excellent. Was able to get some good photographs both on the outward journey and return. The carriage we went up in had a roof on it but open sides. We thought that there might be a little rain so didn't want to take any chances. On the way back we took an open carriage because it was a really beautiful day by this time.
After we had a cuppa at the Ravenglass Station we headed to Windemere. It was a very interesting trip. I thought that the roads to get to Ravenglass were a little narrow but we came across a few on the way to Windemere were very, very narrow. We came across a BMW on one section where we both had to fold the external mirrors in order to pass. Luckily it only happened once although the road did narrow a few more times.
From Windemere we decided to go to Preston which would take us a little closer to London. We wanted to extend the time we had the car but when we contacted Europcar they said we had to do it through the travel agent that originally organised the hire. We tried but the time difference made things a little difficult so we have to return it tomorrow.
The trip down the M6 was very interesting. The traffic was a little thick but nothing to worry about. When we got near Lancaster the GPS took us off the motorway and through Lancaster. It brought it back onto the motorway just south of Lancaster. I have finally got a name for the GPS. I think Wendy would be a good name. Wrong Way Wendy.
Finally got to Preston and into the Holiday Inn. Free car parking and free WiFi. (car parking has been hard to get at a few places we have stayed)
Off to London to return the car tomorrow.
Deb and Den
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