Sunday morning.
Late start and it's sunny, so we go up to Wazeemes market for breakfast. It turns out that today, as well the day all of Europe has to vote in the EU elections, is also Mother's day in France.

Mother's Day Flowers

The market is awash with colour and fragrance of the many and various flowers for sale this morning. We have moved in to the apartment next door as this one has a washing machine, the old one didn't. The reason we booked here was to use the washing machine and to have secure parking. The owner was very helpful in allowing us to move from one to the other, particularly as he was on holiday in Greece at the time. So we spend the rest of the day, lazing around while the washing gets done. I think I only went out again to see if anything was open for me to buy something for tea. There was, we didn't starve.
Just something we've noticed is the shopping hours, late starts and closures as I expected, but weekends in town, supermarkets are open for shorter hours early and big surprise, most of the fuel stations in town close at 6pm every day. We were very nearly caught out with that one.

Monday, sunny again, some clouds though.

Another day at home, after our very busy week and lots of driving, while not long distances we have covered some territory. The WW1 battlefields cover about an 80 mile radius form Lille. Today we walked across town to find out where we catch the train to Amsterdam on Thursday and to see where we drop off the hire car as we will be coming into the station from a different route from the one we left. At the Euraille Centre, as well as trains, there is a fabulous three story shopping mall.

Roubai Gate in old city ramparts

 Do you think I could find a pair of bathers to fit...not on you life. Now I'm sure nude bathing will be frowned upon in Dubai so it's pretty important that I find a pair soon. Oh that I were a size 6. (not that I ever was.)
After lunch here, we walked home....the long way. We walked around one side of the perimeter of the city. Not that we were lost, just misplaced. We did discover that there's a fabulous park along the canal at the other end of our street, so it was a good walk.

Lille Canal

Tuesday...so it MUST be Belgium
Yes today we were, In Brugge
What a beautiful city, it's only a 50 min drive from Lille, so we left late, parked outside the city and walked in.
We'd had a recommendation to have lunch at one of the breweries. The Half Moon, and we didn't need to see beer being made again, so we skipped the tour and had a great lunch with a couple of good beers.

The very best Waffles ever.

We then hopped on a canal tour, which took us around all the old town and was fantastic, the beauty of this town can been seen everywhere. There are shops selling all the usual tourist tat but amongst that there is some delicate lace, delicious chocolate and good beer. Rick says 2 outa 3 aint bad!

Bottle shop and Chocolate shop, side by side, someone's happy 😃

We are almost at the end of out time in France and it's been so good. Being once again in a smaller city makes it easier to feel more comfortable as we go about the town.

The Euraille train leaves from St Pancras Station, it's almost like an airport lounge. We leave about 11am Saturday morning
The train is fast...and I do mean fast even through London and the immediate country side.
The train stats for those interested
Average speed 290kmph
Fastest speed 332kmph (we went just over 300!)
Tunnel lenght  50 km
Tunnel depth 75meters
Trip London to Lille 2hours

We found our apartment without too much trouble, dragging suitcases over cobblestones on the way.

Rick at the front door.

We are quite central between Place de Republic and the Grand Place (town square).
After getting some food for tea we had a quick wander around our area.

Sunday, drizzley today,
The hire car is ready for collection so we wander back to the railway station to collect it. Peugeot auto with sat nav 😊. And as she sends us home to our parking garage without a hitch that's a big plus.
The rest of the day is spent having a look around the old town in the Grand Place area. It's quite beautiful.

Lille, Cloth Hall

 There are a lot of people out this evening, it turns out that it is a celebration for the museums and they are all open tonight and free, also there is a demonstration against the European elections (I think) and there are heavily armed (machine guns , the lot) riot police alongside the Prefecture of Police at the end of our street. It turns out to be a quiet night.

Monday, Sunny and bright and our exploring of the Somme begins.
Our tour of the WW1 battlefields begins, we are both following in family footsteps, as both Rick and I have ancestors who took part in these events.
First stop is the town of Villers Brettoneux and The Sir John Monash Centre which has only been opened in the last couple of years. As we walked up through the cemetery toward the SJM centre I was quite taken by the wonderful sculptured flags along side the gate posts...then I saw the thousands of names along the walls between the gate posts. These are the missing Australians who have no grave as yet. There are about 10,000 on these walls. between those and the very moving museum films it has been an emotional morning.

View from Tower at Monash

Le Hamel monument

Next we visit the Australia Corps memorial at Le Hamel and Albert Iles grave at Crucifix corner.
(Family Tree Note; Albert Henry Iles KIA 8/7/18 was Jack (Grandpa) Iles uncle, brother of John Edward (Pop) Iles)
Back to Lille via Dernancourt.

I pinched a Poppy from roadside in Villers B

Tuesday, another sunny day.
A visit today to a wonderful little museum at Bullecourt. Most of the memorabilia has been collected by the late Mayor of Bullecourt. He was a farmer and found most of the collection in his own fields. He and his wife had put together the museum themselves.
What I particularly liked is that he didn't discriminate and there are German and Allied artifacts here.
On our way again and next we find the Lochnagar crater, another private exhibition (this time owned by an Englishman who bought the field as the crater was part of an English army action)

 .
It's not far from Pozieres, where we have a picnic lunch overlooking Mouquet Farm (called Moo Cow farm  by the irreverent Australians). Mouquet is still a working farm, although the buildings are all new.
That's one thing that I thought curious as we drive through the villages, that they aren't the quaint 'chocolate box' prettiness of the English countryside. Then it dawned on me, not one of the buildings in any of these villages and towns is more than 100 years old. So many were rebuilt after WW1 only to be once again smashed to smithereens in WW2.
Our final call for the day is the huge and very moving Thiepval monument, it looks toward Mouquet Farm. The monument recall the names of 72,000+ missing ( no known grave) Commonwealth soldiers.

The whole area of the Somme is quite flat, there are rises and dips but it is not hilly, so I can imagine any wood, forest, or farm building would provide essential shelter as did Mouquet Farm for both sides at various times.


Wednesday sunny again
For a change of scenery we head for the coast, to Dunkerque, (and a change of war, WW2). Here is where the allies were evacuated from France to England in thousand of little private boats over the nights of  May 26 to June 4. Over 300,000 servicemen escaped by waiting several days for their turn, while a war was going on behind them.

We had lunch on the edge of the wide flat beach and explored the old part of town that is still intact as it was before either war. Cobblestones and all.
On the way home we called in to Poperinge, to see a wonderful RnR house for mostly English soldiers in the area.

Talbot House

Talbot House garden

 It's called Talbot House and its here behind the lines that the soldiers relaxed, put on music hall shows, caught up with friends etc. It's a really restful place for we travellers too who have had our emotions rattled for the past couple of days. It has really peaceful feel and the garden in the back is quite a treasure within any of these towns.
Ypes is also on our way home and it's here every night of the year that, buglers play the Last Post at the Menin gate.

I feel I can't tell you yet again that the Menin gate is a memorial to soldiers with no graves  as it's all we seem to have seen. That's not strictly true but the cemeteries appear everywhere. I do mean everywhere, every village or towns has at least one if not multiple Commonwealth War Graves. It turns out that in many cases these arose out of necessity. They began as Clearing Stations, Medical Stations and Military Aid stations, which all required small cemeteries, which became CWGraves in the time after the war.
For instance the cemetery where Alby Iles is buried has about 1000 graves and is quite small and almost hidden by raised main road, we nearly missed it altogether

Thursday, sunny
We've decided to take day off. We'd lost our camera so that had added a level of frustration as it has on it some photos we needed for further investigation.
So we each did our own thing this morning, I went shopping ( of course, I'm in France!) decided that nice shoes and cobblestones don't mix. So after a bit of shopping and a bit much hobbling on cobbles I came home to a much happier husband, Rick had found the camera in the car.
Now that we are all happy again off we toddled to the other end of town, where I sniffed out the Wazeeme market. Like most markets there's a lot of junk but there as also great fruit, veges, meat, bread, cheese etc.

Palace de Beaux Arts

Tonight the art gallery at Beaux Arts is open till 6pm so we wandered over and had a look. There's masses of religious art ( as you'd expect) which is not to my taste at all, however there were a number of good little portraits and a lovely room of impressionist, in particular some Edouard Vuillard still lifes.
The gallery (palace) has only recently been completely renovated and  after being damaged in WW1
The Grand Place, (town centre) has a wonderful clock/bell tower so we made it in time for the 6pm bells, which Rick recorded for a guy at work who is a bell ringer at the bell tower in Perth.
I made some soup for tea and we had an early night.

Friday, still sunny, (they keep promising rain)

Ypes Cloth Hall. We climbed the clock tower!

Back to Ypes to have look around the town, we climbed the bell tower. I don't know how I did it as it was quite scary. Though not as terrifying as when we had to go out onto the battlements, which even made the men a bit nervous. I'd like to say I enjoyed the view, but I doubt I saw much (and that was the only way down btw)

On the Bell Tower, holding on tight

On the way down Rick and I stopped on the carillion floor to catch our breath just as the quarter hour bells chimed. OMG!! Lucky we were safe inside as we both jumped and took off in fright. Man it was loud.
Ypes has been rebuilt as it was before WW1 after some discussion. It seems as not everyone wanted to look back and many rather wanted to take advantage of new homes and town centre. The centre market place and ancient Cloth Hall and all the buildings close to the town centre have been built as they were and I have to say they are magnificent.

A town close by is Zonnebeke which has a lovely wooded park and lake. From here we walked out to see the Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world ( has the most actual burials) and my god it's big.

Can't show how big it is

But can show how well they are looked after

More Australian are buried here than at any other war cemetery in the world. There was a woman on a tour who I over heard say " That's it, no more cemeteries for me". I know how she feels, it's quite overwhelming, but that is why we've chosen to come to this part of France and it has been quite fascinating, otherwise. We had walked to the cemetery and memorial along the roads but found an old railway line ( now a walking/ cycling trail) back to town which was much nicer and settled the mind after the cemetery.
We'd also had enough by then and after buying some steak for tea hopped back on the road to home, along with all the workers at peak hour, it took us over an hour to travel about 5kms home. We'll be back at Zonnebeke tomorrow though as I left my phone at the cafe where we had afternoon tea!

Saturday drizzle early sunny later
Today is the last day of our tour of the battlefields etc. First of all though we had to return to Zonnebeke to retrieve my phone that I had forgotten after we had afternoon tea yesterday. Then on to Polygon Wood, just out of town. It's early, drizzly, quiet and the only sound is the birds in the wood and our footsteps on the gravel.

Behind me is the monument to the Australians

 It's here that a cafe owner recently ( last five years or so) found the remains of five Australians and as we were having a coffee at his cafe he began re-counting that experience to a group of contributors who are financing the next step in their recognition/reburial.

Polygon Wood Cemetery and monument

It's not far to a little known "museum" at Hooge crater, it's in the grounds of an hotel and quite eerie as it's been left much as it might have been in 1918. Most other places with trenches have lawns and gardens surrounding them but here there is a mess, makes it a bit more real in a way.
Hill 60 of the Australain movie fame is next down the road.( It's very surprising just how close to each other all of these places are). Hill 60 is another memorial that has been left much as it was (ie no cemetery or headstones) and nature is reclaiming her own, so though it is a memorial it's also a wooded walking area for the towns folk.

Anzac Rest Cafe

Toronto Road now all Australian graves

One little cemetery that we did find (eventually) was a small Australian one from quite early in the war, Called Toronto Road as the Canadians first used it. It's very near to the place where both the German and the Allied soldiers celebrated their first Christmas with a truce and a game of soccer. Though it's so well hidden, we took two days to find it.

These sticks German trench/ those sticks Allied trench, soccer in between!

The cemetery is hidden away in the wood behind the soccer game memorial and took some finding. As to the Christmas truce, there are rebuilt trenches to show where both sides were at the time and, honestly they could have almost reached out and shook hands without leaving the trench. So close.

The last port of call and one I had been waiting for was Fromelles, the Australian's first engagement in with the Germans. The town itself is very small and indistinct from many others.
There's a monument  called The Cobbers and a cemetery, VC Corner, here also with no headstones, which after acres and acres of them is somehow a easier to take.

We drove through Armentieres, no madamoiselles to be seen so we have come on home.
We'e quite done now with this part of our French adventure and now on to some cultural exploits...
It's been an interesting and some times tough week as our emotions have taken a battering, but I'm really pleased to have finally been able to put places to the names I've read about for so long.

Leeds to London

Monday 13 May Kirkby Stephen and Barnard Castle

A day just wandering through a couple of towns. We started the day heading over to Kirkby Stephen, going the opposite way to the other times we'd been there. The day was bright and clear, allowing us to get some even better views than we had the previous times, when it was either drizzling or overcast.

Stunning scenery abounds.

A wander around the main street ending up at the market square.

Kirkby Stephen Market Day

 It's Market Day, so we purchase some local fruit slice for afternoon tea. Back up the A66 toward Barnard Castle, we decide to grab some local cheeses, and together with a nice Bramston Pickle we'd already bought in Reivaulx Abbey, we are heading to the front lawn of the Bowes Museum for an afternoon tea (without the tea).

Bowes Museum

After a stroll around the gardens it's back home to our beautiful cottage for our last night.

Tuesday 14 May Goodbye Barny and the car. Hello Leeds.

We are heading back down to Leeds to hand back the car, stay overnight prior to heading to London tomorrow. After a fantastic time at Avelin Cottage, we spent some time saying goodbye to our wonderful hosts. We could have driven down the main A1 motorway and taken about an hour or so, but have decided to take the less direct route that takes twice as long. The drive today is going to take us over to Hawes, across the top of the northern moors, and onto Skipton. At Hawes we stopped to get some local snacks for the drive - it's Market Day. The same people who were at yesterday's Market Day in Kirkby Stephen! Then we have a cheese tasting at the local diary. Since Hawes is in Wensleydale, we had to have some Wensleydale cheese. It was delicious and Wallace and Grommit would have loved it too.
Heading south we pass directly through the middle of the Yorkshire Moors National Park. It's hard to describe how overloaded you become with incredible view after incredible view. Every view is worthy of stopping and taking a panorama of pictures, but as the road is only one lane wide it's rather dangerous to contemplate.

Between Hawes and Skipton

We finally reach Skipton, a pleasant town on the main Liverpool to Leeds Canal. We had some lunch by the canal, watching the local 'wildlife' pass us by. The was also some birdlife on the canal as well.
After this we headed toward Leeds and our overnight stop. We eventually find it. It an Ibis right in the middle of the city, and Leeds' roads system is difficult. Chuck the luggage into the room, then back in the car to handover to Hertz. It's only a short walk, so we walked back into the centre, passing through the main thoroughfares. After so much time 'isolated' in the country, the brights lights and noise gives us some preparation for our next destination tomorrow, London by train.

Wednesday 15 May Take the fast train to London.

A slow start to the day for our trip to London. After checking out we stroll down to the station, to wait for a couple of hours in the busiest station we've seen for a while. Our train is about 30 minutes late, but it doesn't matter as we don't have a connection to make or somewhere else to go. We pass through rolling farmlands completely different from the farms and dry-bricked walled paddocks we'd seen in the moors. Rick turned on our GPS to get an idea of where we were in relation to London. It was funny to see the speed reading showing over 200 Kph, and the info line advising what was coming up. Occasionally, it would flash a warning, telling that we were exceeding the speed limit, or too take care with an upcoming railway crossing. We're glad we did take the train to London. It saved a whole heap of hassles with traffic and saved time.
Our digs for the next few days are in Cartwright Gardens Bloomsbury, near the King's Cross Railway Station. They are called Studios,( read bedsitter) but are really a converted slighter larger than small bedroom. They have all the conveniences you could need except space. It's lucky we are only in here for 3 nights.

Karen took this while leaning on the opposite wall.

Thursday 16 May Free time wandering around London.

After about 5 weeks of living in each others pockets, we decided to have some time wandering around by ourselves.

Rick: While looking for something to do I came across a 'Harry Potter' walking tour. I picked out some sites, worked out a route and off I went. Just around the corner is St Pancras station, where the scene of the flying Ford Anglia was filmed.             

Just missed the Ford Anglia...

About 50 metres away is King's Cross station, home of platform 9 3/4. This is actually a heavily populated store, even early in the morning. Onto the tube and over to Leadenhall Markets - the site of the Leaky Cauldron and some of the Diagon Alley shots in the first movie. Unfortunately, there was scaffolding all around so I couldn't get too good a look. Wandering down to the river, I crossed over London Bridge to the Borough Markets. Again this is another location for the Leaky Cauldron in the later movies, but as it's a working market it's hard to get clear photo's. Crossing back over London Bridge I walked down to the Millenium Bridge, where the Death Eaters attacked it in the Half Blood Prince.

From Millenium Bridge up to St Pauls.

They've done a really good job fixing it. Back up passed St Pauls Cathedral to the underground for a trip to Leicester Square station, exiting on Charing Cross Rd. A few streets down is Cecil Court, supposedly the inspiration for the film-makers version of Diagon Alley. Guess what, more bloody scaffolding. I wandered through the alley anyway and I get the connection. I next wandered down through Leicester Square itself, and took a deviation to the M & M's store. Karen rang while I was in here so I waited for her, then together we went down the short distance to the last destination, Piccadilly Circus. The circus featured in the Deathly Hallows (part 1). Throughout the walk I was passing lots of other landmarks and taking them all in. It was a long walk but an extremely enjoyable one. By the way, my ankle is now almost all better. Thankfully.

Karen: As we'd been quickly through Covent Garden market yesterday I thought I'd start there, even after taking a couple of interesting rabbit-holes along the way I was still a bit early for the market so kept walking past Australia House again down Fleet St, past the Royal Courts of Justice, where I had a peek inside ( I wasn't bothered to go through the security check) to St Paul's Cathedral.

St Paul's

Already there are masses of people waiting to enter for their tour. Groups of bus tours and school kids and even a couple sunbathing on the grass ( well, the sun is out!).

Sun lovers

 So I decided I'd just take a walk around the outside, who knew there was a garden behind the cathedral? It's quite small but empty and I have some alternative photos of St Paul's now.
By the time I made my was back up Fleet St ,via a few more rabbit-holes, the Market was in full swing. This was a place I went to often when I was here in 1970's. There's been some great reconstruction on the site since then but I'm please to see it's still a market much as it was quite a bit of tourist tat but also some lovely pieces of handmade jewelry, art, clothes etc.
As I walked back up The Strand, I pass the entrance to the Savoy Hotel,

Love the elegance of this entrance

and have a look in  couple of the shops along the way. It's nearly lunch time by now so I call Rick and we meet up at Leicester Sq, which hasn't changed a bit. Off to Trafaflgar Square

Together: We spent the rest of the day walking and walking and walking. After lunch, we took in the portraits in the National Portraits Gallery, then strolled down Whitehall past The House Guard and

 Downing Street and The Cenotaph to the park opposite the House of Parliament. Big Ben has scaffolding all around it.

Big Ben (behind the scaffolding).

I'm starting to think that scaffolding is the business to be in.
St James's Park is packed with tourists as we head down to Buckingham Palace. A few obligatory photo's out the front and a visit to the shop later, and we're off to catch the tube back up to Euston station, and home for the night.

Friday, today is our last day in London and it's time to find something of Dad's family in the UK.
So, hi ho hi ho it's off to Sussex we go. It's an hour on the train from Victoria Station to a little town apparently frequented by Aussie soldiers in WW1 as they have a pub called The Dinkum. We are not far from the south coast here and I think there was a convalescent hospital in the area.
Willmington, where we are headed is 2 miles along the A27, thankfully there is a footpath all the way as it's a really busy road this morning. There are a couple of manor houses back from the road along the way, but not much of anything else.

One of  two thatched cottages in Wilmington (41 cottages altogether)

Wilmington is a village of some historic significance. It is Saxon in origin and was mentioned in the Doomsday Book. More recently and up to mid 1900's it was a self sufficient farming community.
The Crowhurst family and many of their relatives lived in this village for many years. Our ancestor, William left here in about 1850 to come to South Australia.
(Family tree notes :I know that his Father, Mother brother and 2 sisters also lived here until 1851 census as by the 1861 census all the children have moved (or married) and here are only William's father (also William), mother (Mercy) and an Uncle Samuel,who I believe had been a sailor and was now 'retired')
Anyway, back to the village. IT"S GORGEOUS! As it's Heritage listed all the old homes and cottages have been restored and have to be kept to a certain standard.
At the end of The Street (That is its name and its the only street) looking out across the farmland is a chalk likeness of a man carved into the hillside.

Long Man of Wilmington, (origin unsure)

This alone makes Wilmington a significant historical landmark.
We spent time here taking photos, looking at headstones at the church and enjoying our sandwiches looking out toward the Long Man.

This tree is in front of the church and is said to be 1600 years old.

Instead of taking the highway back to Polegate we took a gamble and set out along a Byway ( that's what the sign said) My god how much nicer it was walking through woodland and farmland to the next 'village' Folkington'.

Walking to Folkington along the byway.

Off the path is a Fairies garden.

Like Wilmington, it has no services or shops and in fact even less houses.
Both have ancient churches and Folkington has a large manor house that's still a private home.



We had a drink at the Dinkum (as you do) while waiting for the train, then it's home for tea and re-packing as tomorrow we go to France.

Saturday 5/5/19 cold and drizzly
Yesterday Rick twisted his ankle walking along a muddy road so our walking has been curtailed for a few days, although he bravely managed to stick with me.
We've been to York before and were thrilled to be able to see our favourite tourist exhibition again.
Yorvik is a recreation of a viking village found when excavating for the foundations of a new build in the center of York.

Yorvik

 It's nearly 30 years since we were here and although it's been moved and modernised  the experience is just as amazing.
After Yorvik we took to the path around the walls along the way visiting the displays of the War of the Roses, The House of York (Richard 111 The White Rose) and the House of Lancaster ( Henry V11 The Red Rose)
It's an easier walk along the wall than through the crowds on cobblestones, with some lovely views both sides.

                                                 

Karen preparing for Rick's driving

Richard III crown replica

York Minster from wall

 After lunch we wandered in to the oldest part of town and a little lane called The Shambles which used to be  butchers shops, but now it has a very Potterish feel about if. I vaguely remember reading that this street was used for Diagon Alley.

The Shambles

York Minster was such an amazing place, I don't think we entered the minster last time, WOW it's quite outstanding. The mausoleums and graves are wonderful works of art, The windows stunning, all this quite apart from the beautiful architecture.
We had a great Italian meal for tea.

Memorial Statuary York Minster

Sunday 6/5/19

Another day another ruin.

Rivelaulx Abbey: is a ruined Cistercian abbey well hidden deep in the Rye river valley of the north Yorkshire moors, near the village of Helmsley, not as big as Fountains and much more remote even now, it's quite lovely.


We had decided to search for the villages we couldn't find last week,
Finding lost villages: Bland Hill, Clint, Haverah Park and Snape. All within Nidderdale along the Nidd river

Clint Cum Hamlets /Burnt Yates: Turns out we hadn't found Clint yet, its not on our sat nav,but still appears on some maps.

Bland Hill: This we did find in a way as there is no village, and a bland hill it is now. There is a house with the house name of Blandhill Farm (Family Tree notes: Richard and many earlier Iles born in this area of Fewston /Bland Hill) All we could find were about three houses at the corner of a road that goes across Stainburn Moor.

Bland Hill Farmhouse

Haverah Park 2: Driving along past the Bland Hill area we see a sign that says Haverah Park reservoir so I think we are perhaps on the other side of the Holstein Cattle farm we saw last week
(Family Tree Notes: Lucy Long gives this as her address when she marries Richard Iles of Bland Hill



Snape: I am so pleased we found this pretty little village, which not surprisingly has a castle within the village*( Family Tree Notes: Where Anne Hardy was at 1841 census age 14, with her brother and his family and their father George.. Isabel Hardy (her daughter) was born here some years later.)
* There are so....so many castles of various levels of repair and disrepair around these parts.

Snape Castle

Monday  7/5/19 still cold and wet
Mostly driving and sitting today. The walking tour we'd planned has gone out the window but there's still plenty to do without that.  Rick has bravely 😉 managed to tour the Theakston Brewery today.
Masham has two breweries; Theakstons, home of the 'world famous' Theakston's Old Peculiar, where we had a tour and tried a tasting paddle of six real ales, well I sipped and Rick tasted. (Someone has to drive.)

While waiting for the Theakton's tour, we a wander around a pub and shop at Black Sheep Brewery at the other end of town.
So the beer hasn't cured Rick's ankle and we decided to go to the local minor injuries unit at the hospital to make sure it's 'only' a sprain. It is, we're to continue what we've been doing

.

Rick's note: We've spent a lot of time and effort to get here, so this stupid sprained ankle just means we revise what we see and how we do it. As I won't be doing too many trails, we can certainly have a look at some sites, like breweries and pubs and inns, where I can sit and have the history poured in front of me.



Tuesday Weather's getting a bit better, it's not raining all day.
Rick's resting his ankle so I have taken myself off to the local Ripon library for a couple of hours this morning to do a bit of research. By lunch time I'd had enough and as it was cold in there too so I picked up some lunch and came back to the pub we are staying at. Rather than stay in all day we decided to have another go at finding Clint before we leave the area.
My research has paid off, what we thought was Clint the other day wasn't but we just hadn't gone far enough. Today we did. While there isn't a village here there are about twenty houses along Clint Bank Lane also there is a very old set of  stocks (used to punish miscreants by locking their ankles into the Stocks so that others in the village can throw rotten fruit and veges at them for however long the judge has decided the punishment should last.) These stocks are quite substantial.

View from Clint Bank Lane

Stocks and remains of Clint Market Cross

Thrilled to have found Clint, we head back to town to pack up ready for tomorrow. We have dinner tonight at what is now a very modern pub (well inside anyway). It is the same pub we had lunch at last time we were in Ripon about 27 years ago.
 Lastly, doing one last check on the tree I noticed that John Iles and Ann Hardy were married at Ripon Cathedral, luckily I'd had a wander around it and taken some photos.

Ripon Cathedral

Over all, the time we've spent here in Ripon has been fabulous and it's been really wonderful walking along the same streets and at times looking at the same buildings our ancestors lived around most of their lives.


Wednesday 8/5/19  Hunting Rick's ghosts now.
High Ho High Ho off we go.
Our next home is Avelin Cottage, Barnard Castle Co Durham.

On the way we stop at the lovely little village of Bainbridge (of course) for a cup of tea, from here we are heading to Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria, where Rick's grandfather Thomas (Tony) Bainbridge, was born. But first a stop at the Ribbleshead Viaduct. To get there we travelled along 16kms of winding fairly empty road, until the last bend. There it sits in the landscape in front of us. As luck would have it... a train went over the top while we were there too.

Locals at Ribbleshead

Sally, our sat nav earned her place in the car today as, after leaving Ribleshead, she took us through the most outstanding scenery I have ever seen. Across the top of the Pennines, the scenery here is stark, heather covered above the tree line, and way down deep in the valleys alongside rushing rivers and babbling brooks, round blind corners and over single lane bridges.
Rick's note about the Bainbridge lineage: It's been hard to trace the ancestors owing to there propensity to have very large families, then call their children all the same names. Mary, Margaret, Elizabeth, Thomas, Henry, William and George all figure throughout the generations. Each subsequent generation then rename their children with the same first names again, and so on and so on... I could definitely say that every living Bainbridge in this area is a relation, some closer than others. Predominately they worked in the local lead mines, as farmers or with the railways. It was this last job that meant the direct ascendants travelled about the country.
We arrived at Kirkby Stephen in time for lunch, and had a chat with a guy who is spending the week cycling around the area. Man there are some hills around here! He wasn't too keen to get back out in the cold and rain to finish the last 15 miles to his BnB for the night. It's a middling sized town and we are coming back here in a couple of days to have a good look around.
Barnard Castle is quite close and we arrive at about 2pm to find our gorgeous little cottage, which rates in the top two of all the accommodation we've had so far.

So after a quick jaunt to the shops to get a few bits and pieces, it's a night in doing washing and oh joy, cooking dinner. We don't have to go and find something for tea.

It's still raining and we have chosen inside activities today as a result. Bowes Museum is the first stop and as we're quite early we have most of the exhibitions to ourselves. It is a relatively private collection and fills a three story grand mansion! The pride of place is an automaton silver swan which does it's dance at 2.00pm every day.

Overall the museum is interesting but not, to me, outstanding, perhaps after all the castles we've seen it's just another in a sense.
We were then on our way to the nearby town of Bishop Auckland. On the way we spotted yet another castle. This time it's Raby Castle.
While I say, yet another castle, there are castles and ruined castles around every corner. Certainly a part of most of the larger northern towns, they were there to protect the populace (read the King's hoards) from the northern invaders.
This one has been lived in by the Barnard family for about 6 centuries at least and long before, it was the home of Cecily Nevil, the mother of 2 kings, Edward VI and Richard III. The current Lord Barnard has recently taken over responsibility and what a job that must be.
We really like this one as it feels quite lived in (as it is) although the family keep to a private apartment above the public rooms. One of the room The Octagonal Room was recently restored and it is simply glorious.

The Lords Barnard have owned most of everything we will be seeing this week for over 600 years.
We did eventually get to Bishop Auckland, sadly it is no longer the thriving town it once was. this has quite surprised us as it's the first sign of the downward spiral everyone is talking about that we have seen.,we just went to the ATM and headed home.

Rick was speaking to our landlord tonight as he was setting up a camera to film the local hedgehog in the garden at night. Rick mentioned Bp Auckland to him and it turns out this down fall is a very recent event. About 3 years ago all the big supermarkets ( about 5 of them) set up shop just outside of town and in that short time the High Street has virtually died. I hope the town figures out what they can do with the high street before it's too long. (Reminds me of Manjimup when we first arrived there.)

Friday May 10 SUNNY all day. First for ages.
We didn't have as much luck today as we'd hoped. Though, the touring was pleasant. The first two towns Stanhope and Esh Winning were a bust as we couldn't find the addresses we were looking for. The towns themselves were interesting.

Our driving, though, once again has taken us up and over the Pennines today. This photo doesn't show just how high we were at times as the photographer was hanging on tight!

Going up, toward the top of the moors

Next stop Lanchester, a pretty village where, while we were snooping around the grave yard, we discovered a funeral was in progress inside the church. The cortege was led out of town to the new cemetery by about a dozen tractor of varying vintages.
Rick's note: Stanhope is where my g-g-g-g-mother Marg (or Peggy) was born. The records don't detail where in town. It was in Esh Winning that my g-g-father (Henry) and his family lived in 1901. Henry died in Lanchester.
We hung around a bit and had lunch so that we weren't caught up behind the tractors then off to the 20th century and Gateshead/Sunderland. It's here Rick's grandmother Mary Charlton lived with her parents, Miles and Hannah, and where, she and Thomas(Tony) lived when they married in 1914 just before he went off to war in France.

Building new council housing on same ground Charlton/Bainbridge Homes

Seymour St

The address was Seymour St Dunston. Our first foray into suburban living.Unfortunately, we are about a year too late as the old council housing is being replaced by new housing currently being built at the location of the address. ( Good news for the people who will live there though).

On the way home we decided to take a chance and try one more village, Romaldkirk, tucked down in a wooded valley.
The church here has Saxon origins and among the grave stones we did find some family names worth later research. The village had a lovely feel to it and appeared to have been unchanged for many years. After earlier disappointment it was a better way to end the day.

Romaldkirk Church

Rick's note: The church in Romaldkirk is where g-g-g-father William Joseph married Mary Hutchinson on 19 June 1859.

Saturday, sunny early some light rain later.

Today we are really looking for ghosts as some of the addresses we have may be farms rather than villages. Oh well nothing ventured..
Off west on the A66 our first stop is meant to be Eden Tce, Kirkby Stephen. However a slight detour, (abt 15 miles) to the Tan Hill Inn takes us to the highest Inn in the UK. At 1730 ft it is pretty high and at times the road seems to disappear right under the front wheels. As usual there were some crazies on bikes pedaling their way to a beer or a cuppa at the top.

The views from the top were expansive and breathtaking.
Anyway back on the ghost trail we quickly found Eden Tce, a short row of 2 up, 2 down terrace houses, and as there's lot of road to cover today, we're off again.

Eden Terrace (Now Hartley Road)

Rick's note: Eden Terrace is where g-g-father Henry and family lived at the time of the 1891 census.
(nb The Bainbridges were far more spread out than the Iles')
We have a postcode for the village of Long Marton, where we do find the church where (g-g-parents) Henry and Elizabeth were married in 1863 and possibly the farm.

Church at Long Marton

Our next adventure is a bit of knowledge and a bit of speculation. It's long been known that the Bainbridges mainly originated in Middleton -in- Teesdale (abt 20 kms from where we are staying) and that's true, however that's really the registration district and now Rick has narrowed down the actual villages/farms where they were, and by all accounts, even now there are plenty of Bainbridges in this area. Nearly everyone we talk to knows someone of that name.
First stop, is an area known as Forest and Frith. It contains several Bainbridge related communities. Part of the 'problem' when searching is that some records detail a specific area, some a specific town, and others mention farm names as if they were towns. We are now in a part of Forest and Frith (F&F), known as Langdon Beck where we find an old church ( are there any new ones?), St James the Less ( (poor James). Here we find quite a few Bainbridge graves though mostly quite recent ( in the last 20 yrs or so) This is high in the Pennines and quite isolated, with small farmhouse dotted around the vicinity.
Back down the hill to High Force (still in F&F), which has a famous waterfall, the largest in Britain, while it's not high, the force of the water is quite impressive. Walking along the path to the falls put me in mind of walking through a Tolkein forrest. In to Rivendell perhaps.
While we are here we take a walk across the fields on the public walking paths and find, so well hidden you'd never know it was there the farm called by the ignominious name of Dirt Pit. Rick has a chat to the farmer who's bringing in some sheep. Really just to let him know why there are strangers hanging about.
Farmer: 'Oh aye, m'fether talked about t' Bainbridges living 'ere...'
He was a bit busy to carry on much of a conversation. This was a very exciting discovery.

The Dirt Pitt farmhouses the Bainbridges lived in 1861.

Rick's note: Dirt Pit(t) doesn't appear on many 'newer' maps. Thanks to the wonder of the internet, I uncovered the location, now just a farm name, previously a community mainly made up of Bainbridge's from prior to 1861 census's(?). That and solving the puzzle of  the various locations in Forest and Frith meant I had some definite places to visit. My g-g-father Henry and his predecessors all lived in this general area working in the 19 local lead mines. 
The only other place to find is Summery Hill farm which we didn't actually find but we know we were on the right road, just couldn't quite place the farm now.
Rick's note: Summery hill farm is where my g-g-g-mother Mary was born on 10 Sep 1837. The farm is still there (in name), but you can't see it from the road.
We come home through the village of Middleton-in-Teesdale.

Sunday Mother's Day. Sunshine

Today we head to the east coast and Whitby and Scarborough.
We've been to Whitby before but didn't climb the hill above to the Abby ruins. This time we did. The town has changed quite a lot from that I remember. It's now such a tourist destination I think it's lost some of it's fishing harbour feel. After a walk through the old and some of the newer part of town ( and getting a footy score from Colleen) we head south to Scarborough.
This is a whole other world. Scarborough is where the English in the north east go to the seaside. I doubt much has changed here, apart form the names of the amusement arcades, since Victorian times. It's a great example of Victorian holiday making with no pretensions to be anything else.
Grand hotels ring the bay, black and grey sand, donkey rides, beach chairs to hire, it's all here and so are the people. On this the first sunny day for a couple of weeks there are heaps of families on the beach enjoying the sun. (in a funny way it reminded me of Bondi, a wide bay, the road along the coast between the beach and the shops/ amusements and big headlands at each end of the bay, with a coulpe of big hotels thrown in for the punters. Bondi doesn't have a funicular railway though.

All through our travels we've seem some wonderful sights but this tickled us. The horses are really clever....

Such a life-like drawing.