Wanderings in the English Countryside

Enjoying the Countryside

Watchfield, England, April 30 - We had a great time in England. The weather was warm and sunny. After arriving in Heathrow we took a bus trip towards the small town of Watchfield to visit my brother Andrew and his family for a few days. Watchfield is conveniently located to a number of classic English sites. It is about a 45 minute ride west of Oxford, a 45 minute ride east of Bath, and few hours drive down the M4 gets you to Wales. Watchfield would become our base as we spent the next 10 days wandering around the English countryside by foot, bike, bus, and car.

Safari in Legoland

Our first excursion was off to Windsor with Andrew's family but not to see the castle. We had a much more important part of the realm to see, Legoland! The visit was a birthday celebration as Aaron was turning 10 the next day, Niall would be 13 two days after that and two of Andrew and Sandy's children also have birthdays in early May. We all had a good day there enjoying the rides and seeing some very life like African animals built with Lego.

Unfortunately 3 days after arriving, my brother and his family had to return to Canada for a week. Left on our own we began our wanderings starting with the village of Watchfield. Andrew had already given us a tour of the Defence Academy he was attending, complete with its antique furniture, silverware, and original art depicting famous British battles. A series of geocaches gave us a tour of the town leading us through “kissing gates”, to a 200 year old pub, a 500 year old church, and a former RAF airfield from World War II.

Stone circle at Avebury

The next day an hour bus ride brought us to the small village of Avebury, site of the largest stone circle or henge, much larger and older but perhaps less famous than Stonehenge. Unlike Stonehenge, here we could wander through the henge, touch the stones, chase sheep, and watch a group of pagans practice their rituals. The site was so large that a stone lined avenue stretched into the surrounding farm fields. A series of footpaths took us through the fields and to even more stone age sites. Then it was back to the village of Avebury to catch a double-decker bus back to Watchfield.

Tintern Abbey

Over the next few days we would visit lots more ruins. These included the iron age Uffington Castle, an ancient barrow or burial chamber, the supposed grave site of King Arthur's father, the Tintern Abbey abandoned in the 12^th century, and ruins of Castle Raglan which played a role in the English civil war in the 1600's. The boys enjoyed exploring these places and no doubt were imagining life as an ancient warrior or knight. Susan and I particularly enjoyed the ruined cathedral at Tintern. Here the walls were still intact but with no roof the sun poured in highlighting the soaring beauty of the cathedral. This was a feature that had been lost to us during our visits to the intact but dimly lit cathedrals of Notre Dame and Bourges.

City of Bath

Visits were also made to both the city of Oxford and Bath. In Oxford we took time to visit a market and roam through some of the many colleges of Oxford University. As we strolled along the River Thames we watched the famous rowing crews of Oxford practice. At Bath we treated ourselves to a visit to the Roman baths but perhaps more spectacular was walking through the city's neighbourhoods of Georgian style buildings. Both cities seemed to have kept their historic character while capturing a modern vibrancy. Both Susan and I felt it would be a real treat to live in one of these cities for awhile.

Willow Cottage

Our longest sojourn was to visit our friends Ian and Claire near Dartmoor. It was a short visit but it was great to catch up with them and get a taste of their English lifestyle, complete with a stay in their 400 year old thatched roof cottage with its slanted floors and cozy fireplace. A short drive, through some very narrow hedge lined roads, took us to the moor, a large elevated plateau topped with rocky outcrops called tors. This was a vastly different landscape from what we had been seeing. Exposed to the winds and with cooler temperatures the lush farmers fields of below were replaced with low shrubs of the moor that was more a kin to the barrens of Newfoundland than the lush farmer fields below.

Castle Raglan

It had been a great 10 days in rural England. We left feeling refreshed and wanting to see more. There was just so much history here that you can hardly go outside without tripping over some historical feature. In England, it seems historical features are not preserved but simply kept as part of the infrastructure. Ancient pathways continued to be used, ruined castles and ancient earthworks are left to age gracefully in the landscape, while old buildings and churches just continued to be used. And connecting them all are 100's of kilometres of footpaths. You never know what you will discover around the bend but I guess that will have to be another trip.

For more pictures of our wanderings of England, check out our web album.