A trip away

This weekend John and I have travelled away from London to spend time in Somerset, staying at our favourite hotel, The Holcombe. We tend to stay have two or three times a year to recharge our batteries and prepare for the next busy season of work or family activities. This visit is two weeks before the start of the next academic year and in 2 weeks time I will have 3 new groups of students. I still have a lot of preparation to get everything set up and ready for them but also I needed to get a good rest and have some space. We travelled down yesterday and we stopped off to visit Lacock.

Lacock is a village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England. The village is owned almost in its entirety by the National Trust and is a firm favourite for film and TV producers, notably for its picturesque streets and historic cottages, untouched by modern alterations. It played the part of Meriton in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. We visited Lacock last year and had planned to visit again to do one of the walks in the area. The weather yesterday was sunny and warm, absolutely perfect for a walk. The walk started in the car park and would take us across fields to circle the village. We started walking along the road and were able to get a good view of Lacock Abbey.

Lacock Abbey is a country house with monastic roots, and was once home to William Henry Fox Talbot, inventor of the photographic negative. When we last visited we spent time in the Fox Talbot museum which was very interesting. We soon turned off the road , crossing a stile into a field. I wanted to see the river so headed towards the bridge that we had just walked over. I was very taken with the shape of the arches.

We got ourselves back to the path we needed to follow and found we were walking between fields of corn (maize). It's a common crop in this area.

The clouds were white and fluffy and there were martins and swallows perching on the electric wires. I couldn't get a good photo of them as I didn't have the right lens on the camera but we stood and watched them through our binoculars for a while.

There was a lot of Himalayan Balsam along the route, it looks very pretty but is a very invasive plant.

For much of the walk we were walking alongside the river Avon. There are 5 rivers named Avon in England and two of them are in Wiltshire, one of which we were walking alongside. We saw some teenage boys playing and swimming in the river and a little further on we saw this weir, where another river joined the Avon.

For a while we moved away from the river and walked through fields with horses and cows in them. All the livestock were far too busy doing their own thing to be bothered with us.

By now we were circling back towards the village and as we came down a hill we found a ford across the road. Fortunately there was a path (on the right of the photo) so we didn't have to go paddling.

Looking back down the road.

When we visited Lacock last time we didn't have time to take a look in the church. so this was our first stop. I was interested to read this information board.

I took photos of four of the kneelers 

By this time we needed a nice cup of tea before heading back to the car to continue our journey. Later in the evening, from the hotel window I took a photo of the sunset.

Today we visited Stourhead and again we took a walk around the area. I'll tell you more tomorrow. Now, it is almost time to go down for dinner.

Take care

Lyndsey