Wolverhampton and the Border lands

Wednesday 14 August

A late start today. Eventually we seem to have worked out the phone alarm with John's help and it now seems to be off. It certainly did not wake us up at midnight. Perhaps our exhaustion helped us sleep through it.

 

We left home with Jane around 9:30am and headed south to the Black Country Living Museum. This is an outdoor museum of a huge variety of houses, shops and more industrial use buildings that have been donated and painstakingly rebuilt on the museum site. Each has been fitted and furnished in their correct era and there are volunteers who live-in at times. Jane and the girls have done this in the past so Jane was able to give us some extra little insights.

There are mines and working pumps, chainmakers, nailmakers and lots more. There were old buses, horse drawn coaches, trolley buses and trams as well as a canal with boats and a canal tunnel. The houses all had vegie and flower gardens and were well kept. We chose not to join the queue for the canal boat ride but really enjoyed watching people playing various games on the street corner and having fun in the old amusement park with a real helterskelter.

 

After we'd become quite exhausted at the museum Jane took us to the Bilston Craft Gallery for a quick look then home to get the washing in as the rain was just starting.

Our dinner date with Brenda and Pete had been cancelled as Brenda is unwell but Jane had prepared a lasagne for Elaine so we went around to her flat and enjoyed dinner together talking patchwork and looking at a few photo albums.

 

Thursday 15 August

Unfortunately I was awake at 6am even though I had plenty of time to sleep in. Elaine and I spent the morning blogging and sorting ready for Jane to pick us up just after 10am then drive around to collect Kiran and Kate. After a bit of car sorting we all drove to the mediaeval town of Ludlow where we eventually met Bron and Denis for our Ludlow tour.

 

Our first walk was the Bread Walk along the Teme River to the bridge under Ludlow Castle. There we had a picnic lunch in the park. Then a walk around the 11th century castle walls on the outside. The walls were incredibly high and we could even see where the garderobes emptied out. It was market day in Ludlow so the market square was full of market stalls. This took a little time for seven people to browse through so eventually we split into two groups.

 

Bron, Elaine, Denis and I walked through the church, another very ornate parish church with a Norman font and lots of mediaeval carvings in stone and timber. We followed this tour with a drink at the Church Inn. I actually had a Guinness for Surrey and really enjoyed it. On then to The Feathers pub (c. 1616) and a little walk inside.

I then saw some strawberries and raspberries in the butcher shop opposite so went in and bought some for our dinner. Bron found some fish for dinner a little further along then we slowly strolled back down to the car in and out of rain showers, all meeting up at the bridge.

 

Ludlow is a fabulously old town with some very beautiful photo opportunities.

 

We then said our farewells to Jane and the girls who were driving back to Wolverhampton while Elaine and I went with Bron and Denis to their “caravan” (actually a rather well-appointed mobile home in the Orleton Rise holiday park). We spent the evening making and eating our scrumptious dinner and going for a few short walks in and around the holiday park. It is lovely to be out in the countryside watching blue tits and robins on the bird feeders and listening to the sheep and doves.

 

 

Friday 16 August

The rain really set in during the night but I had a good sleep and eventually got up at 7:30am. We watched the birds visiting the feeders at the back window - blue tits, chaffinch, robin, nuthatch, sparrow, great tit.

 

At about 10am we left for Hereford. Our destination today was to see the Mappa Mundi but in doing that we visited Hereford Cathedral where it is housed.

I've lost count of cathedrals and churches now but this one, although still a magnificent structure, had a lovely cafe for lunch in the cloister and a jazz concert in the grounds during the afternoon. As I was sitting with blue sky and umbrella up for the sun in the small chapel garden I couldn't help smiling and thinking I was playing an extra in Midsomer Murders. It was so picturesque.

One of the more interesting flowers in the cathedral garden was globe artichoke allowed to flower then go to seed.

 

A bonus in the Mappa Mundi exhibition that none of us were aware of was the chained library. I was surprised by the unimposed silence in the chained library and mappa mundi exhibition. I think everyone who came in was in awe of such an old map on vellum and ancient texts on heavy paper.

 

After about three hours at the cathedral we walked through some narrow lanes, one with a fiddle playing busker.We bought some supplies in the Butter Market then found that the Old House (1621) was open and free. This was so old and had some great pieces of furniture and other fittings. These black and white buildings are wonderful in their free-form structure with bent timbers and crazy angles. 

Back to the car and a drive home to the caravan where we spent the evening relaxing together. Our dinner was actually a full english breakfast and it was delicious - eggs, bacon (Gloucester Old Spot), sausages (Gloucester Old Spot), tomato, mushrooms, baked beans and fried left over potato, peas and mango salza from last night. Dessert was fresh local strawberries and left over rice pudding. An amazing meal.