Greensted Church and Home

Greensted Church and Home

In theory we are not far from home at Thaxted – maybe two hours drive. However the plan for today is to visit Greensted Church near Ongar which is about 20 miles in the wrong direction so it will be a rather roundabout route home today. What we are looking for is the gravestone for Eileen’s great, great grandfather’s brother. Eileen is getting really involved in digging out these relatives from the dim and distant past and she is certainly turning up

Audley End and Thaxted

Audley End and Thaxted

Another driving day today as we want to get to Thaxted car park for tonight so that we can spend some time visiting some family history locations that Eileen is interested in. We also need to top up with LPG as the indicator is down to 1 green light. This indication turned out to be complete bunkum as it suggested the 50litre tank is almost empty when in fact it is still 75% full. We tracked down a good priced

Chasleston House and Ayno Wharf

Chasleston House and Ayno Wharf

The sun shone as we pulled away from Willow Farm and headed north around Bath and Bristol heading for the main road across the Cotswolds. The plan was to cover ground today so we have a good drive to our lunch stop at Chastleton House near Chipping Norton. This route takes us along the top of the Cotswolds through some lovely little towns such as Tetbury, Stow on The Wold and Chipping Norton. Chastleton House was a revelation. I must

Tyntesfield House and Cider with Sausages

Tyntesfield House and Cider with Sausages

Much less driving today! The plan is to spend most of the day at Tyntesfield House. We had booked our house tickets online last night to save time on arrival and give us a better choice of time. Several of the more popular houses operate a system like this to manage the volume of people in the house at any one time. It was quite an easy drive to to Tyntesfield with just a short stretch of M5 and then

Exmoor and the Atlantic Highway

Exmoor and the Atlantic Highway

We got away from Tintagel in good time. The car park at the Ship Inn was good value and close to all the attractions of Tintagel and I would happily use it again. We left Tintagel heading north to join up with the excitingly named  “Atlantic Highway”, actually the A39 between Barnstaple and the junction with the A30 near Launceston and Newquay and not  to be confused with the “Atlantic Road” in Norway! Highway is a bit of an exaggeration

Carlyon Beach

Carlyon Beach

The Britstop at the Britannia Inn was so good that we thought we would take it easy today and stay put. The weather has turned and is grey and gloomy with the threat of rain. It actually did rain quite a bit in the night but had stopped by the time we got up. We ambled over for yet another cooked breakfast at the hotel about 9am – just as good as yesterday’s one and slightly cheaper! By the time

Lanhydrock and a Deluxe Britstop.

Lanhydrock and a Deluxe Britstop.

  What a difference a night makes. It was so quiet last night – no wind, no traffic no worries! We woke at 7:30 to bright sunshine and could look down on the mist in the valley below us. We treated ourselves to a cooked breakfast at the tea room before we set off which was lovely and well worth it. So far this has to be our top Britstop and we will be back! Just half an hour’s drive