Day 33: Asfordby to Bourton on the Water

Day 33:  Asfordby to Bourton-on-the-Water,  Wednesday  January 12^th

Today as we drove through the misty rain all day, we were very mindful of the floods in Brisbane.  Several people have emailed accounts to us and we have seen or heard several news updates, so we are keeping posted on it.  The scenes of the water rushing at tremendous speed are certainly unbelievable.

After photographing the ducks and swans on the brook that runs past Amberleigh, last night’s B&B at Asfordby, we visited the church which is right next door.  In no time at all, hey presto, we came across Heazlewood (or rather Hazelwood) graves:  James Heaselwood, died 1742 aged 65;  James Hazelwood Snr, died 1795 aged 80 and his wife Mary, died 1795 aged 81   and also Elizabeth, wife of James  Hazelwood, died  1797, aged 52.  I have been doing so much research into Roger’s Peck and Nunn families that I have forgotten the chain of names for the Heazlewood line.  Stupidly, I did not commit them to the computer befor e I left home, so have to scratch around in the dark.  However, I think that one of these James’ is the father of ‘Old Henry’, my great-great-great grandfather whom I had not yet located but who I knew to be buried there at All Saints Asfordby.   After photographing and transcribing these gravestones, we kept looking, finding dozens of Marriotts, dozens of Houghtons and quite a few Harts.

Going to a different corner of the churchyard, I went toward  two gravestones over by themselves in a far corner.   They both turned out to be Hazelwoods – one of them ‘Old Henry’.  More photographs, taken under difficulty  as it was very wet underfoot and Henry’s stone was right infront of a tree, so Roger had to sit on the wet shoots coming off it to take a photo of me next to the stone.  A we walked back towards the church, there were another two Hazelwood stones, so certainly no lack of success today.

Of the three churches we have visited:  Hadleigh, Blunham and Asfordby, this was by far the smallest.  Again the door was open and in fact, a group of mothers were holding playgroup in the church while we were there.  I noted and photographed the timber fretwork which I think ‘Old Henry’ had carved -am I right?

From there it was down to Brook Lane where the family lived.  Again I was cross with myself for not noting the actual house, however as there were only two houses, I photographed them both.  The houses of Asfordby are not as charming as those in Hadleigh or the old ones in Blunham.  Although obviously old, they are fairly non-descript.

We headed to Coventry for lunch and spent an hour or so at the famous bombed-out cathedral which has been rebuilt into a magnificent modern cathedral.  As most will know, the skeletal remains of the bombed out  cathedral are still there,  as a testament to peace and reconciliation.

Our attention was turned to the fact that in exactly the same block of the city, only about a hundred metres away from the cathedral is another huge church with a spire- obviously Anglican as its name is Holy Trinity.  Roger went to investigate and found it is, unbelievably another functioning Anglican church!  While I was wondering what on earth had happened to him, he was chatting with some men he found in the church and they told him that there actually used to be not two but three Anglican churches on this block!  This one is actually older than the cathedral, having been consecrated in 1043 (yes, that’s right- before William the Conqueror) and established by Lady Godiva!  Of course it was a Catholic church then and in the years of Catholic/Protestant turbulence from Henry V111 on, it had a very chequered history.  Anyway, both cathedrals remain – two whopping churches to maintain, two congregations, two lots of clergy, two organists.  You’ll be glad to know that they do combine for 8am mass each Sunday.

We had hoped that some daylight would be left for our drive through the Cotswolds, but by the time we got lost a couple of times, that became a vain hope.  Until thisafternoon we had been singing the praises of the road system with its brilliant numbering system.   We have a very good map and have had no trouble at all getting around.  Cathy Dale had advised us to most certainly get a GPS because of the ring roads around the cities and we can now see what she was talking about.  However, I really think we are better off without one because I can just imagine Roger abusing it at every turn and me screaming at him in reaction.  So for us,  good old-fashioned map reading  is better, even if we have had to ask for directions a couple of times.  One of these was as we were leaving Coventry.  We realised we were heading the wrong way so Roger did a U-tu rn, only to find ourselves heading into oncoming traffic!!  Another speedy  U-turn to correct our legality and save our lives and we sought somewhere to pull over to ask directions.

As I write this, we are sitting in the bar area of the Mousetrap Inn in Bourton-on-the-Water, where we have booked in for the night.  It is warm and cosy with a large open fire – a typical English pub.  We have had a delicious lamb chop and roast potato dinner.  There seems to be a meeting happening  at the table next to us and we are half expecting the Vicar of Dibly to arrive!

For the benefit of those who have not travelled in the UK, it might be interesting to write a few things we have noticed:

-          Relatively  few detached houses.  Almost everyone seems to live in a double-storeyed house which is attached to at least one other, if not part of a whole terrace.

-          Most of the quaint old villages that we drive through seem to have a newer part on the outskirts.  The houses in the new part are always architecturally similar to the predominant style of houses in the older part of the village. 

-          All the roofs have a much steeper pitch than ours – most are 45 degrees whereas the Aust standard is 23 degrees.

-          Even small towns (apart from Blunham – see yesterday’s blog) seem to have shops selling high quality interior design goods, kitchens etc.

-          England just seems to be a cobweb of freeways and narrow, windy roads

-          We have no sooner left one city than we are on the outskirts of another.   Birmingham for example, is separated from Coventry by only 30km or so.

Tomorrow, which will be our last day in England, we plan to poke around the Cotswolds in the morning and then head to Bath.  Hopefully there will still be a bit of daylight left for Bath.