There and Back

This holiday was a family holiday to an area, most of which I had already visited in previous times. However, our family had not, and were rather attracted to one or two places in the area. So, here we are! We stayed at Rowden Manor,   in a converted building on the site. The converted building in the grounds, part of which we stayed in. We had full access to all the gardens and grounds of the Manor. The first place we took the family to, was Lacock Abbey, in the National Trust village of Lacock. If you are in this area of the Cotswolds, this is well worth a visit. The village itself is a beautiful place to wander and the Abbey too. In its 800 years of history, Lacock Abbey has been many things. It started as a nunnery in the 1200s before becoming a Tudor family home. Since then it has evolved with every owner and in 1835, the first photographic negative was captured in the Abbey. Today Lacock is a well-known location for a host of film and TV productions including Harry Potte...

Despite having worked in the area for a number of years, I had never been inside All Saints Church in Hitcham. So I was looking forward to this, my first time. My first observation was that the church has a massive tower, built around the 15C, with a rather good looking South side entrance. The south porch entrance. And so into a lovely light and airy interior.  Unusually, the church has not a single piece of stained glass. The nave is seperated from the two outer aisles by the simple octagonal pillars of the five bay arcades that probably date from the 14C. Hitcham Church features a significant "Adoration of the Magi" painting, a copy of a work by Rubens, which is located in the south aisle. This painting, a reverse copy of the original at King's College Chapel in Cambridge, is a notable feature of the church. The painting is said to have come from the palace of the Bishop of Bath & Wells and was described as a copy of an old master. The fine double hammerbeam roof T...

To quote the web site of    Colchester & Ipswich Hospitals Charity :  We are proud to be the official NHS charity of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which provides hospital and community health services to around one million people and in 2022/23 was the second largest NHS organisation in the region. When you make a donation to the Colchester & Ipswich Hospitals Charity , you help take care of patients and staff at your local hospitals and healthcare centres – providing those extras that go above and beyond what the NHS can provide, and which make such a difference to happiness and healing. You’ll help improve patients’ lives by bringing some good into a difficult time, such as making sure there’s tea and coffee in the waiting room for patients receiving chemotherapy or providing the slippers that keep older patients safe from falls. Your kindness can also help provide the hospitals with the life-saving equipment, cutting-edge technology, resea...

Having walked past the woods some days earlier, I realised that the bluebells were really showing. A few days later and a visit to the Grove with camera was the day`s mission.  From the road, these are the first two images I took - this was before we even entered the woods!   Walking down the side of the wood to reach the only pathway through, we disturbed a deer! Once in the wood, these images were taken from the pathway. Absulutely beautiful! Every year I think the same - I never tire of nature`s beauty. Besides bluebells there was other forms of life of course. This being, so my wife informs me, a Cleopatra Beetle. Then a couple of images of a Small White. Not forgetting the image at the top of this post of the deer we disturbed as we arrived on scene! Overall,  a beautiful area to spend time in.    Index of posts