North Wraxall

A big traveling day, but a complete contrast from yesterday as it was so bright and sunny and the only snow was on the roadside and fields of Kent, to the south east of London. We had our second Jeakes House breakfast and then got on the road, first detouring to Camber Sands Beach, Rye as we realised we had not seen the more popular beach spot which people come out from London for the day to swim at. It was a lovely long sandy beach and even though the sun was shining it was still very cool. We then drove on to Ticehurst, a village with a very quirky pub where we stopped for a lovely coffee in front of the open fire. We also viewed several oast houses on properties along the way. An oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning (drying) hops as part of the brewing process. We then battled the traffic again as we were on the outskirts of London ( Heathrow and Ascot and Legoland turn offs) and as usual there were multi lanes of cars and trucks and so many round abouts. Must admit we are totally over them! Our stop at 3pm was at a very interesting spot, Avebury. Its claim to fame is the huge stone rocks that are seen in the paddocks surrounding the Red Lion Hotel and village there. Stonehenge and Avebury are among the most famous groups of megaliths in the world. Avebury dates from between 4000 and 2400BC, and is actually made up of three stone circles. As it was late afternoon and there was ice and frost still in the paddocks we did not wander far to view the stones and take some photos of them and the sunset behind them. The hotel was also very interesting with its well from 1600 and the ghost stories of Florrie who was murdered there. The next part of our journey was not quite so much fun as we were both very tired and dying to be in Castle Combe. The 40 minute drive in heavy traffic turned into about an hour and a half as we did finally find Castle Combe, but with no street lights or road signs (it is renowned for being in its original state) we were unable to find the White Hart Hotel. After three trips of about 5 kms each on a very narrow farm road with no turning, we finally located it in the dark about 15 minutes past the turn off for Castle Combe and seemingly not in the village at all. Our accomodation is across the road from the hotel in a little upstairs room -we are thinking about the ghosts that haunt some of these old places! Our dinner was at the hotel and nicer than expected, but lacked atmosphere as half empty and not that warm. It appears to have been built over a deep stream. We look forward to returning to Castle Combe in the daylight to see if it really is the prettiest village in England!Read more