Newport

It was nice to have 2 nights in a row, being able to unpack a little and have a little time to do some intermediate washing and get it dry. However there were things to do and places to go, so we left Portishead.

Our first stop was at the Avon Valley Railway. The trains only run on Wednesdays and Sundays outside the school holidays, but it was still worthwhile. One of the volunteers came and talked to us, then took us into the non public area and showed us the locos and carriages that were working and used. He then took us into the workshop and yard where they rebuild the engines and carriages. When the “official” service stopped, the rails were pulled up quickly, before the Avon Valley Railway group had time to come to any arrangement to move in. The last train over the Somerset and Dorset Railway prior to cessation of passenger services over that line and the Mangotsfield to Bath Branch was on 6th March 1966, Twenty-five years later to the day, 6th March 1991, the Avon Valley Railway's new line extension from Bitton Station to Oldland Common was opened. Very good coffee at the station cafe.

We headed off to Bath. Fortunately, the volunteer we were with at the railway suggested that we use the park & ride outside Bath. Park there for free and then £5.50 for 2 people return to the centre of Bath. Made life so much easier for all of us – Rick for driving and the other 3 putting up with Rick’s driving through narrow congested streets. Timing was perfect and we went on a Bath Abbey tower tour. 212 very narrow spiral steps to the top of the tower. On the way, we stopped in the bell ringer’s room. There are a number of ways the bells are rung. The loudest is the traditional way with the bell ropes swinging the bells (there are 10 bells). There are also hammers that strike the bells, with the bells stationary. there is a rack with 10 ropes close together so one person can operate the hammers alone, there is also a machine with a barrel that works like toys that have pins on the barrel and flicks little leaf springs to sound musical notes and a programmable box that can play lots of arrangements.

We went down a small passage from the bell ringer’s room and sat right behind the clock face. The hands were operated via gears driven by a long rod from the clock mechanism, about 5 metres away. (I can tell you anything and you won’t necessarily know if it is correct or not). We also went through another door and saw the other side of the abbey ceiling, with the domes, cornerstone etc. The ceiling  has no load on it apart from gravity and is only about 100 mm thick. Apparently, when the builders finished installing the ceiling, they had to stand under it when the scaffolding was taken away. This ensured that it was constructed properly and this led to the phrase “on your own head be it”.

We reached the top of the tower and had the most magnificent views over Bath.

   

We went for a walk along the river for a different perspective on the city. Stunning scenery.

Back to the Park & Ride bus and to the car and we headed to Newport, Wales. We couldn’t work out which Newport to set in the car’s GPS, so it was back to the tablet and manual intervention to guide us out. We had a few circuits in Newport to find the hotel we were looking for, passing the same places more than once. We passed an unusual modern bridge on the way in that hopefully the passengers will allow the driver to stop at tomorrow, if we can find it again. Tomorrow we will visit the historic transporter bridge.

Off now to try and find G&J’s room here in the rabbit warren hotel for a pre dinner drink. We had to go up a few stairs, down a few and up again, through a number of fire doors to our room, don’t know yet just where G&J’s room is, only that it is a long way from R&G’s.

Portishead again

On the way to Portishead yesterday afternoon, we passed through a village called Wedmore. Seems that it is more than just a name, people obviously take the name literally.

 

Yummy pastries for breakfast this morning. The Travelodge here doesn’t offer cooked breakfast, so we bought pastries from the Lidl supermarket under the hotel. Same again tomorrow.

This morning we visited a stunning little hamlet, Blaise hamlet, built in 1811. It was built by the estate owner for some of his current (at the time) staff and retired staff.  It’s the most peaceful place with 9 rustic cottages around a central green. We can’t decide which house we want, any would be OK.

We then went on to the Blaise Castle estate, which has been owned by the Bristol council for the last 100 or so years, and had a look at the Blaise estate museum, which had a great display of toys, kitchen appliances etc spanning from the 1800s to around 1950. There was also a history of the estate, including the castle and Blaise hamlet. Great coffee at the cafe in the estate (park) grounds. We asked the cafe worker about their coffee before we ordered and were told that a double shot is standard.

After Blaise, we drove to the Clifton Suspension bridge, designed by one of the world’s best bridge designers (Rick’s opinion) Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Building began in 1831, abandoned due to lack of funds and finally opened in 1864. We drove under the bridge and looked for a place to stop. With the traffic and not being too sure where we were going (the GPS was useless to us at this stage), we ended up heading uphill, passing through some very attractive streets until we some how found ourselves almost next to the bridge abutment. We managed to squeeze between 2 cars, parked and walked up to the bridge. We thought 1/2 hour would be all we needed, but over 2 hours later, after finding a number of great vantage points, walking across the bridge and looking in the visitor info centre, we returned to the car. Of course we had to help pay for the maintenance to the bridge, so we paid the £1 and drove over.

 

Back to the hotel and writing the post before we have a drink. Gary collates all the photos and renames them while Rick writes the blog and picks the photos to include.

Footnote: Drinks started before today's blog finished.

Portishead, Bristol

Being tired and a few glasses of wine doesn’t make it easy to start this. It’s been a busy day.

Our first stop was Coleridge Cottage, the home, for a few years, of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poet, preacher, writer and many other things. He left the cottage in 1799. The National Trust now owns the property and has restored much of it.

We then set off to find Stembridge Tower Mill, built in 1822, and is the last surviving thatched windmill in England. What started as a short drive turned into a long drive as we followed the road closed diversions. There are not many through roads, not even very narrow ones. We eventually got there to realise we hadn’t read the info telling us that, while the grounds were open, the mill itself was not.

On the way to the mill, we came across Burrow Mump, both words meaning hill, so it is hill hill. The remains of a medieval church sits at the top.

After the Stembridge Tower Mill, we drove through the Cheddar Gorge. It’s about 400 feet deep and 3 miles long with some impressive views.

 

 

This sign seems to be beware of Stags. What about MGs, Jags etc? Or are Stags allowed to do 50, and what can other cars do?

 

 

 

Back on to some very narrow roads again to Portishead, just outside Bristol, for 2 nights in the basic Travelodge. We went for a walk around the marina, visible from Gary & Jan’s room and watched the very deep lock in action, letting boats out to the sea from the mooring basin and vice versa.

We bought a selection of nice bits & pieces to eat and went back to the hotel and ate in Rick & Gill’s room, which was a large one for 3 people. We were going to meet Laura, R&G’s daughter, here but things changed and we didn’t.

R&G brought their Samsung tablet with them and it is turning out to be even more useful than expected. There is no data plan attached to the tablet and  the National Trust app works with the GPS (which we didn’t realise was built into the tablet), to let us search the area we are in for NT properties and links to the mapping system to guide us.

There are a number of things we want to see in and around Bristol, especially the Clifton suspension bridge.

Minehead

Meant to include this photo in yesterdays post, looking out the bedroom window at Paignton. Both rooms were at the front of the B&B hotel.

We found a place called Chudleigh where one of Gary’s work colleague’s family came from in about the 1100s and stopped for a look. Again we had a look at the local church, parts of which date back to the early 1100s.

One of the small issues we have is that the National Trust properties usually don’t open ‘til 11am, which means that we aren’t able to visit any for the first couple of hours of our day. We did call into Castle Drogo, near Drewsteignton, Devon, England. It was built from 1911 and was finished in 1930 for Julius Drewe (businessman and founder of the Home and Colonial Stores) to designs by architect Edwin Lutyens, and is a Grade I listed building. It is currently undergoing a 5-year conservation project (2013-2017) to finally make it watertight. Castle Drogo was the last castle to be built in England. A scaffold tower has been built there to allow visitors to see part of the conservation works. It took about 15 weeks to erect the scaffolding and cover it.

 

From there we headed to the north coast/Bristol channel, via Dunster to Minehead. With a combination of the inbuilt GPS and human intervention, we travelled along a number of very narrow, 1 car width roads. Many times we experienced the extreme politeness of the British motorist, stopping to let us past, reversing to a passing bay and always a thank you wave. Pity Australian drivers are not more like this.

We are now in a very comfortable B&B and with a co-incidence that couldn’t happen again, in the same B&B that R&G stayed in about 2 years ago. We had parked the car and G&R went looking for somewhere for the night and this place started to look familiar, the entrance door, the combination lock on the door, a table in the entrance hall and even an upstairs door on an unusual angle. Sure enough Gill found our entry in the visitor’s book dated 8 June 2013.

On to Bristol tomorrow.