<< Nerigean, France or London >> Next to Notts or London
Thursday 16th May - Saturday 29th May (14 Nights) from the South Coast to the Home Counties of England.
Summary: Back together and with wheels again, we set off for an epic tour of blighty, starting in the cute Sussex village of Alfriston, where we had the pleasure and privilege of meeting Vernon Reynolds and hearing his witty talk about Piltdown Man. Then we had the short drive to Brighton where we met up with some good old friends. Then it was along to the New Forest and through to spend a day in Bournemouth, where we witnessed the climax of the Premier League season. From there, we drove all the way to Cornwall to meet Leb's Uncle Barry and spent the night in Plymouth. After that we headed back east, stopping a couple of nights in Lyme Regis before staying with friends near Alton in Hampshire where we tried to find - and succeeded - the church where we got married 38 years ago. After that we headed towards Buckinghamshire, where we lived together for the first 17 years or so of our marriage. We met some old friends and then ended our adventure together in the gorgeous city of Oxford where we split up again. I met up with primatologist Simon Bearder and had a great pub crawl before heading off on my own again to Nottingham, whilst Leb spent some time with her special friends.
Driving South to Alfriston to see Vernon Reynolds' talk about Piltdown Man (Thursday, 16th May)
Day 69 - Having met up with Leb and picked up our hire car for the next seven weeks, we headed away from London, down the M23 towards Sussex by the sea, and our next destination - the cute little village of Alfriston.
Why Alfriston? It's the home of Vernon Reynolds, a quite famous primatologist (about on a par with Jane Goodall ) who had very kindly agreed to participate in some of the WHAT Talks series I ran for a couple of years about Waterside Hypotheses of Human Evolution.
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| Vernon Reynolds |
Vernon wasthe chief editor of the most balanced book ever published about the so-called Aquatic Ape Hypothesisis way back in 1987 and it was he that inspired my kind of middle-of-the-road approach to the subject with his very even handed and fair assessment of the relativel merits of the idea.
Rather than give a formal talk, like most guest speakers did, Vernon and I had a quite lengthy conversation on the subject and then in Melvyn Bragg "In Our Time" style we had a chat about what we missed and then I summarised the whole thing and published the video as a kind of topic in itself, after which the small audience who attended on line could then chat about it.
Here they are, if anyone is interested...
Anyway, it was lovely to be back on the road again, driving through the lovely green and pleasant lands of England.
Vernon had kindly arranged for one of his friends who runs a bed & breakfast to put us up for a couple of nights. It was a lovely little cottage, converted from a barn. It was a really tranquil spot and having arrived we quickly unpacked and set off to explore a few village pubs.
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| Our quirky new home for a couple of nights |
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| Vernon's House almost next door |
It didn't take us long to find The Star, where I had a nice pint of Harvey's Dark Ale.
I had a magnificent pint of Tommy Taylor's Landlord Bitter and a lovely grilled trout with sticky toffee pudding for pudding.
From there it was a short walk to St Andrew's Church Hall where Vernon and his many friends were getting ready to learn all about Piltdown Man.
Vernon is an active member of the local historical society and so the Piltdown Man Hoax had double interest as the controversial fraudulent "fossil" (an orang utan skull combined with a huamn) was found onbly about 17 miles away.
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| From Alfriston to Piltdown, just 16.6 miles away. |
The talk was really entertaining and informative, told in Vernon's lovely English wit.
Here are a few video clips of his talk. Apologies for the poor sound quality. We were sat at the back of the hall.
After the very well received talk, it was back to the George for a couple of pint and then a very convenient short walk back to our room. What a lovely day!
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| Dear Vernon with his wife Frankie in the George |
Full Day in Alfriston (Friday, 17th May)
Day 70 - We had two nights in the lovely, quiet village of Alfriston and so, after seeing Vernon give his talk we had a full day to plan and think about.
Vernon popped around, he lived literally across the jitty from us, early in the morning to check what our plans were for the day. We said we planned to go for a walk and explore the village. He offered to drive us down to the coast, not far away, to see the seven sisters and we gratefully accepted.
So, after a bit of breakfast made on our kitchen stove we set off.
We walked through gorgeous English countryside on a perfectly pleasant day, toward the cutest little church (The Curch of the Good Shepherd in Lullington).
Brighton & Hove (Saturday, 18th May)
Day 71. We were up and away from Alfriston and decided to drive to Brighton via the seaside town of Peacehaven, a town we'd only just found out about the night before in the George by one of Vernon's German friends who would be giving a future talk for their local historical society.
Peacehaven has a reputation for being a bit of a dump these days but it has an interesting and honourable history. We ended up staying there for a couple of hours to do a laundry wash.
First, it was the traditional "Goodbye Video"...
Peacehaven is a small place and once we found a street to park the car whlist we visited a laundry we had some time to kill, so we walked down to the coast and took in the view.
Peacehaven was the brainchild of Charles Neville, a London entrepreneur. In 1916, he bought a swathe of chalky cliff-top farmland between Brighton and Newhaven. After World War I, he marketed the land heavily—through national newspaper competitions offering free plots to working-class families. The name "Peacehaven" was chosen via one of these competitions, supposedly in reference to the hope for peace after the war, it was mocked in the press as a shanty town—“Plotland” was the pejorative term used for places like it. But over the decades it evolved into a respectable seaside suburb, if never exactly fashionable. Its cliff-top location offers spectacular views, and its grid layout is still visible today. Peacehaven marks the official point where the Greenwich Meridian meets the English Channel, commemorated with an obelisk. The meridian was slightly realigned since, but the monument remains.
We drove through Brighton straight to Hove, where we had booked a place to stay the night. The very trusting hosts had set it up so that we could get access to the key to the house and go in and unpack in our bedroom. They had a dog and at least one cat that were all very friendly.
We unpacked and then quickly set off to walk from Hove back into Brighton.
It's a fair old walk along the prom, prom, prom, almost 5 km, but it provided a very pleasant pastime for the afternoon.
The Grand Hotel, where we spent the night to celebrate my 10,000th way back in the UK days.
Of course, it was soon beer O'Clock and we naturally navigaeted to the oldest pubs in Brighton.
The Cricketer's looks lovely from the outside, but a bit like an old brotherl from within.
After that, we headed back to the sea front and took another walk down memory lane by going onto Brighton Pier.
Then, it was time to head up to our old friends Julia and David for a delicious meal. We timed it perfectly, so that we could visit a couple of pubs on the way.
We had a pint in Ye Old King and Queen, where I watched Oxford United suprisingly beat Bolton Wanderers 2-0 at Wembley to clinch promotion to the Championship.
After a lovely evening we then set off with the intention of catching a bus back to Hove. Murphy's Law intervened though and a combination of ignorance (not realising which routes ran on the promenade) and bad luck - we must have just missed three buses - we ended up walking the whole way back.
My feet were killing me when we finally turned in. I felt guilty that the hosts had shown us so much kindness and hospitality and we hadn't even seen them.
Premier League Finale in Bournemouth (Sunday, 19th May)
Day 72 ~ We set off from Hove, having at least spent some time chatting with our lovely hosts there before leaving.
We basically set off west, heading along the south coast of England. Quite soon, the spectacular site of Arundel Castle came into view but we decided against stopping as we had made arrangements to have lunch with an old Lithuanian friend of ours, Ingrid Brocklesby nee Petrauskaite.
As we hurtled along the M27 towards Southampton, I must admit a cheeky plan emerged in my mind - to drive into the city to pay a quick stop at StMary's Stadium, home of Southampton FC, a ground I have never been to. But as time was ticking, I thought better of it and continued to loop around the city onto the other side of it and then down towards the pub we'd arranged to meet Ingrid in - in the New Forest.
We soon found ourselves motoring through it. This wasn't the first time we'd been here and I must admit, it's always a bit disappointing to me. I remember seeing the vast area of it shaded in green it on a map of England back in Kirkby library when I was a kid. Having been regularly taken to Theives Wood in my father's little blue inva car, I had fallen in love with forests and fantasised about really big ones that you could easily get lost in. The New Forest sounds so wonderful and looks so big on paper, but when you actually arrive there, you're quickly confronted by the fact that most of the trees have long gone.
At least we did drive though some beautiful English countryside and the picturesque town of Beaulieu.
Soon we'd arrived at our next destination, The Turfcutter's Arms, where we had a great Sunday lunch and a lovely catch up with Ingrida.
From there, it wasn't too far to complete our 100 mile trip to Bournemouth and the Riviera Hotel. I was keen to get there asap so that we could get out and watch the final day of the Premier League season.
We quickly found a pub that was showing EPL climax, the Westbourne Hotel. Shame about Man City winning the title again (four times on the trot is getting so boring) but at least Forest were safe for another season.
Forest won at Burnley but they were already safe so it was of academic interest. The really big games concerned Arsenal and Manchester City. If City lost at home to West Ham and Arsenal beat Everton at the Emirates, then the title would have gone to the North London club. Of course, that didn't happen and City sealed their 4th consecutive title, something totally unprecidented in the English league.
After the matches we set off to the town center to the pier and then circled back to the hotel along the beach.
Down to Cornwall to see Uncle Barry. Night in Plymouth (Monday, 20th May)
Day 73 ~ This was yet another memorable day that started with a morning dip in the pool at the hotel we were staying at. I picked this place because of having a pool so we didn't want to miss out.
We stopped for a very nice fully English breakfast at the Grazing Cow cafe, on the way.
It was a long (3 and a half hour) drive to Looe in Cornwall, but it was worth it.
I'd never been to this cute little coastal town before. Such a picturesque spot.
It was a real pleasure spending the afternoon with sweet Auntie Val and Uncle Barry. It's so lovely sharing family memories and pouring over photo albums.
For the second time in three days I was shown a wonderful model railway set. It's one of Uncle Barry's great pastimes these days.
Auntie Val is also quite an artist and their house is decorated with many of her works of art.
The host of our little hotel was, bizarrely, also from Notts, and knew Kirkby-in-Ashfield very well. We set off for a walk around the Hoe finishing off with good Cod & Chips (very greedy, but only a small portion between two!) and a pint of Doombar.
A day and a night in Lyme Regis. (Tuesday, 21st May)
Day 74 ~ Having woken up in Plymouth, it was a case of driving back, past Dawlish and Exeter, back to Devon and the famous old coastal town of Lyme Regis and its amazingly fossil rich cliffs, home of Mary Anning.
Our Bed & Breakfast, Lyme Townhouse, was lovely except it has no parking so we parked oposite to make sure we had a room key and then drove away to find a parking place. Later we returned and then set off to explore.
First stop, of course, was Mary Anning's abode. It has been beautifully made up for the millions of tourists who must visit every year. Being on a budget, we didn't actually go in, but we did have a good look at her statue overlooking the spectacular coast.
Then it was time to go down to the beach itself and see if we could find some fossils of our own. No such luck, but there were a few groups of paleontologically orientated tourist groups with obviously the same goal in mind.
Next, we headed back to town via the old Normal Church where Mary Anning is buried.
Back into town, I soon got another hankering for FoisDay 75 ~ Lovely brekkie in Lyme Regis th
After that we had a walk along "The Cobb" (what we call a "groin" here in Australia - bizarre) and then a nice pint of ale in the appropriately named Cobb Arms before heading back to our B & B.
I left Leb to watch some tely whilst I ventured back into town to sample some more ale in an old English pub called the Volunteer Inn. I was sat at the bar having a pretty good pint (but not the best, it has to be said) of Timmy Taylor's Landlord whilst the tiny bar filled up with a few locals.
The conversation soon drifted onto immigration and the "news" that England was about to become totally run by muslims. Blokes in a pub are not the best source of news but they do give you a bit of a finger on the pulse of what people are saying. I wanted to but in with my usual... "I am the son of two immigrants who came to England without a penny and not speaking a word of English, but here I am, culturally as English as you can get, supin' Timmy Taylor's having just had a big plate of fish & chips. Honeslty... you have nothing to fear, chaps." But I was too much of a coward and let the oportunity slip.
Drive back to Alton, Hampshire and Judy & Paul's. (Wednesday, 22nd May)
Day 75 ~ We had a magnificnet breakfast at our B&B in Lyme Regis and then we set off for Salisbury to finally get new SIMs for our phones, see the Cathedral and where the Skripals got poisoned with novichok.
These were the benches in question...
After that we had a quick stroll through to see the Cathedral and its famous spire - the one that the Russian agents said they'd come to see as tourists.
After that it was onto our dear friends, Judy & Paul and their lovely son Rob who live near Alton, where Leb and I got married 38 years ago. It was good to finally catch up over a delicious meal and some great beers.
Day out in Winchester. (Thursday, 23rd May)
Day 76 ~ Judy's birthday. Lovely day out in Winchester. Finally sorted out the Birches booking! Paul made one of his superb dinners for a few friends. So good to listen to old favourite songs drinking cherry vodka and advocaat until the early hours with our lovely friends.
English Winery Tour - Hattingley Valley. (Friday, 24th May)
Day 77 ~ English Winery (Hattingley Valley) tour then a walk across lovely countryside to an old village pub for a delicious supper.
Nostalgic visit to Sodyna and F.A. Cup Final at Elly & Rob's. (Saturday, 25th May)
Day 78 ~ Sad goodbyes at Paul & Judy's, then a heartbraking trip to Sodyba the Lithuanian community's country retreat for about 50 years but now in a dilapidated state followed by a successful search for the church we got married in 37 years ago. Then off see our friends from Perth, now resettled in England, Rob, Elly and their lovely lad (oh... and the FA Cup final) before driving round the M25 to Beaconsfield where we had a nice walk into town for fish & chips and a pint in a good old pub with quite a few drunken Mancunians on their way back from Wembley.
Back in Beaconsfield and High Wycombe. (Sunday, 26th May)
Day 79 ~ Football and nostalgia day. Started at York Road, home of Maidenhead United, probably the oldest continuously used senior football ground in the world. Then met dear Anne Moore. Further nostalgia seeking out our three first homes in High Wycombe. Watched Southampton beat Leeds 1-0 to clinch their place in the Premier League next season and finally a visit to the lovely Hambleton Valley where a very kind couple of Americans gave us half of their lunch as the kitchen had just closed and we were starving.
Meeting Simon Bearder in the Turf Tavern, Oxford. (Monday, 27th May)
Day 80 ~ From Beaconsfield to Oxford via Caversham to catch up with Leb's brother Bill and Katy. Then we caught the Park & Ride bus to Oxford (but nearly London!) and then a nice pub lunch (shepherd's pie) and a walk by the river to the good old Turf tavern for a lovely evening with primatologist Simon Bearder.
Bye Bye Leb. Pub Crawl in Oxford. (Tuesday, 28th May)
Day 81 ~ Suddenly alone and missing my darling... I find solace in a pub crawl after visiting Blackwell's bookshop and the disappointing History of Science Museum.
