Bradford-on-Avon is only 30 minutes away and came across as a rather amusing attraction when the SatNav* sent us through its winding streets as an alternative route. It goes: countryside - windy windy lanes - countryside in that very attractive Professor Laytonesque way.
I did not walk too far up and down the twisting hills in case of getting too tired, but there were many places to eat - mainly Pubs and Tea Shops. I did not stay for long, and favoured going home for pasta bake anyway, but it was nice to know places are immediately available.
I did not walk too far up and down the twisting hills in case of getting too tired, but there were many places to eat - mainly Pubs and Tea Shops. I did not stay for long, and favoured going home for pasta bake anyway, but it was nice to know places are immediately available.
I also spotted the compass and ruler symbol of the Masons which led us to the Masonic Hall from around 500 years ago. I believe there are a few references to Freemasonry in Sherlock Holmes, actually, but I cannot recall them now. I hope to visit the Three Gables and eat there, and then construct a sort of check list to do with "visiting" the titles of Holmes adventures. There were also two churches nearby, one of which I looked around the outside and the other, Saxon, I did not. They may have also been nice to see on the inside but being as polite (and tired) as I am, it is often rather difficult to get away from the kindly grasp of a Vicar.
* I remember my kindly Novelist Teacher Paul Meyer saying he felt there was something odd about the phrase "SatNav" sitting amidst prose; as if it was somehow too modern and strange a contraction that breaks the flow - in the same way that, I thought, a row of telegraph poles might stand out in a photograph of a natural landscape. This is an interesting thing to consider because Bradford-on-Avon is made up of greatly old architecture in varying parts of Saxon, Medieval, Tudor and Georgian, and yet my first encounter with it was purely by the accident of some wayward modern equipment. I find that to be rather the opposite of the telegraph-poles-in-a-field scenario.