They call us mellow yellow, quite rightly!

Quinn was up first on Sunday morning. Kayce’s mother has banned her from seeing him this weekend and he really wants to get going so that he can ‘take his mind off things’ by being busy. After a quick break to pick up some supplies we head off up the A10 toward Cambridge. Although the weather forecaster has predicted rain, and the conditions around Turnford are overcast, we can see some clear sky in front of us and are hoping that the weather might improve. Nevertheless we are all wearing a little more clothing than we have been used to over the last few weeks.

Apparently Queen Elizabeth I stayed at the town of Buntingford (17 miles north of home) on a coach journey to Cambridge, but we turn off the Great Cambridge Road here and head across country instead. We travel through Little Hormead, Wyddial, Nuthampstead and Barkway, crossing over the River Quin (it really needs another ‘n’). Some things never fail to impress us about the towns and villages of England, particularly those which are off the main routes; the narrow streets, with hedges taller than Brock, that we drive along while hoping that there isn’t a car on the wrong side of the road as we come around the next bend; the closeness of buildings to the road in the villages themselves, betraying the fact that once it was only horses passing through; cottages with thatched roofs and walls that lean at bizarre angles and are uneven heights; pubs with glorious old-fashioned names that seem to form the centrepiece of every small village, no matter how small. All of these we saw, yet again, on our journey through the part of the world containing the border between Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Essex.

By this time we had crossed into Cambridgeshire, between the villages of Barking and Great Chishill, when we saw a large white windmill on the hill in front of us. The post windmill was the earliest (1191) type of mill built in England and is one of the most commonly found today. The post mill had a box-shaped wooden body with sails on a horizontal shaft. The body and the roof were supported by a horizontal oak beam that rested across a central vertical wooden post from which the mill's name derived. The whole structure could be turned into the wind by the tailpole which was attached to the back of the mill. The miller pushed the tailpole with his shoulder and slowly walked in a circle until he had faced the mill into the wind. We turned into the little park next to the mill and jumped out to have a look. If we had been there on the right day we might have been able to climb inside to get a closer view. The current windmill was built in 1819 using timber from a previous mill and continued operating up until 1951. It was amazing to be able to walk up and touch the sails and see the grindstones, but as it was a little cold we soon jumped back in the car again.

By this time we were near the town of Saffron Walden, where a community has existed since before the Roman occupation of Britain, when Bronze and Iron Age tribes settled in the area. After the Romans withdrew from the country, a flourishing Anglo-Saxon town was established. With the Norman invasion of 1066, a stone church was built and the castle was constructed around 1116. In 1141 the area’s market was transferred to the town from nearby Newport, further increasing the area’s influence. The town (called Chipping Walden at this time) gained its first charter in 1300. The town was at first largely confined to the castle's outer bailey on the crest of the hill, but in the 13th century the Battle or Repell Ditches were built or extended, to enclose a new larger area to the south. The focus of the town moved southwards to Market Square. In the medieval period the primary trade in Saffron Walden was in wool. However, in the 16th century and 17th century the saffron crocus (crocus sativus) became widely grown in the area. The flower was precious, as extract from the stigmas, the saffron, was used in medicines, as a condiment, as a perfume, as an aphrodisiac, and as an expensive yellow dye. This industry gave its name to the town and Chipping Walden became Saffron Walden.

One of the reasons that we had headed out here was the presence of a couple of mazes. Both boys had wanted to see a maze the whole time we had been here in England and today would give us the opportunity. The first one that we came to was what is known as a ‘turf maze’. A turf maze is a labyrinth made by cutting a convoluted path into a level area of short grass, turf or lawn. This is the type of maze referred to by William Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act 2, Scene 2) when Titania says
"The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud;
and the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
for lack of tread are undistinguishable."
The Saffron Walden Turf Maze is a series of circular excavations cut into the turf of the common and the chalk under the soil saw the path as a white line in the grass. It is the largest turf maze in England, the main part being about 36 metres in diameter. The earliest record of it was in 1699 when it was recut, implying that it had been in existence for a significant period before then, and it has been extensively restored several times. It was not quite what we expected (not having come across a turf maze before) but we wandered the path (1500 metres in length) and admired the fair which was setting up elsewhere on the common.

We knew the second maze was near, but we didn’t have a map, so we decided to head for the English Heritage property which was nearby. Following the signs proved to be difficult, so we pulled over to ask a gentleman who was marshalling a bicycle race through Saffron Walden. Meg was unable to understand his accent, so he came over to the car to give instructions directly to Wayne. Even then they were not particularly clear, so it took a slight detour into a pub carpark before we ended up on the right route to Audley End House. As we drove outside Saffron Walden we noticed a large stone wall on the right which seemed to go on for miles and miles. It turned out that this formed the border of the Audley End estate and should have been an indication that the house we were going to would be much grander than any of us had been expecting. A second indication might have been the fact that a ticket to the property cost £26.50 for a family however, as we are members of English Heritage (and gosh hasn’t that investment paid itself back now) we were admitted for free.

Audley End House was built on the site of what was once a Benedictine monastery known as Walden Abbey. When the monasteries of England were dissolved during the reign of Henry VIII he granted the land and buildings to the Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas Audley in 1538. It was converted to a domestic house for him, known as Audley Inn. This dwelling was later demolished by his grandson, Thomas Howard (the first Earl of Suffolk and Lord Treasurer), and a much grander mansion was built, primarily for entertaining King James I. By now it was a palace in all but name and renowned as one of the finest Jacobean houses in England. The layout reflects the processional route of the King and Queen, each having their own suite of rooms. It is reputed that Thomas Howard told King James he had spent some £200,000 on creating this grand house, and it may be that the King had unwittingly contributed. In 1619, Thomas and his wife were found guilty of embezzlement and sent to the Tower of London. A huge fine secured their release, but Howard died in disgrace at Audley End in 1626.

Charles II bought the house in 1668 for £50,000, for use as a home when attending the races at Newmarket but it was returned to the Suffolks in 1701 as part of the process around the Act of Succession which saw the question of who was to inherit the crown finally settled. Over the next century, the house was gradually demolished until it was reduced to its current size. However, the main structure has remained little altered since the main front court was demolished in 1708, and the east wing came down in 1753. That the house was only a third of its original size was astonishing to us, for when we first saw the house we were amazed at how big it was. After walking down from the carpark (part of the 100 acres of grounds now owned by the crown and managed by English Heritage) we walked into the Great Hall and were absolutely stunned. After taking a couple of photos we found out that photography was banned and then we managed to take a wrong turn and find ourselves in the wrong part of the building. In our defense, the building and its contents are so impressive that it was hard not to be overcome and miss some of the signs.

The Great Hall rises through two storeys and is lit by five large windows. The main architectural focus is a huge Jacobean oak screen. The whole thing has been hand carved in extraordinary detail with grotesque masks and pairs of herms (male and female half-figures) raised on richly ornamented pedestals. Along the walls are some enormous paintings by some of the ‘Old Masters’ of the seventeenth century and a collection of weaponry. The ceiling is a succession of plaster panels separated by large oak beams. On each panel is a coloured crest of the Howard family worked into the plaster. The interior of the hall, as with most of the remainder of the house, was largely created by the third Lord Braybrooke in the 1820’s. His son, the fourth Lord Braybrooke, the Hon Richard Neville, put together the other distinctive part of the house, the enormous natural history collection. This featured an incredible variety of stuffed animals and birds of all sorts of shapes and sizes. While Meg was vaguely repulsed by the tableaux created with these stuffed animals and birds we were all able to appreciate the care and artistry which had gone into putting together the collection. He was really attempting to preserve these animals in poses which were familiar to him from the surrounding countryside and further afield so that others could learn.

We wandered from room to room feeling more and more amazed at the wealth which must have been used in order to create such a dwelling. Multiple sitting rooms, drawing rooms, bedrooms, dressing rooms, followed one after the other, each decorated with more paintings, displays, artifacts, heirlooms, furniture and statuery. One room had walls covered with a wallpaper of richly patterned silk. Another (aptly named the Tapestry Room) was lined by a tapestry surrounding all four walls supplied in 1767 showing figures in a landscape with ruined classical buildings. The beds were enormous oak four posters, 3 metres high decorated in rich satins. Meg was enormously impressed by the artistic sense which had decorated the building so beautifully. Two libraries contained bookcases floor to ceiling, all filled with books dating back hundreds of years and dealing with all sorts of topics, but particularly history, geography and classical literature. Wayne had found a spot to sit and a book to start with and only wanted to remain uninterrupted for approximately 30 years before he was persuaded to move on.

Audley End House is just what we imagined a stately home (or a palace) would look like on the inside and is somewhere absolutely worth visiting just for this part of the house. Although there are three stories we only visited the first two (some of the rooms on the upper floor are not in such good repair, but included servants quarters and other rooms). There was more however, for at the back of the house were the working end of the building, the areas in which the servants did all the work which would have kept the house running. The kitchens, the scullery, the larders, the bakery, the dairy, the wet and dry laundry and coal shed were all set out as they would have been during the Victorian period. There was information about the actual servants who worked there as well as a combination of actors performing the roles and answering questions for the European school groups who were touring the house, and filmed images projected onto walls showing the conditions under which servants would have worked. On conversing with one of the attendants who worked there we were told that the next project is to do up the stables in a similar manner.

Having initially expressed some misgivings about visiting the house, both boys were obviously impressed by what they had experienced. We ate some of the snacks we had brought and wandered through a small part of the grounds commenting on just how many gardeners would be required to keep up even the small portion we were exploring. In the distance a cricket match began in another part of the grounds, elsewhere we spied the temples of Concord and Victory (at opposite ends of the estate), a column, a pill box, some remarkable gardens and we even read that there was a ‘ha ha’ in another part of the property. However, we had been there a significant time and the boys were still yearning for the hedge maze, so we packed up our things and jumped into the car, fortified by some instructions from a local that the Hedge Maze was in Bridge End Gardens in Saffron Walden.

We drove back into the town, driving past the ruins of Walden Castle (which were said to be unsafe to enter at this time) and found ourselves in the centre of town. Coming off Museum Street we found a street sign pointing up Castle Street towards Bridge End Gardens. As we drove up the street, completely surrounded by houses on each side, we reached the top to find another street sign, pointing back down the way we had come also labelled Bridge End Gardens. Having lived in the UK for 5 months we are now accustomed to such signposting anomalies and got out of the car and walk back down the street looking for a previously unnoticed laneway which would take us to our destination. Finding one on the southern side we wandered up, convinced that this would lead us to the maze.

Instead of finding the maze we found ourselves outside the St Mary the Virgin church, which is the largest church in Essex. It dates mainly from the end of the 15th century, when the previously existing and smaller church was extensively rebuilt in flint. In 1769 it was damaged by lightning and the repairs, carried out in the 1790s, removed many of the medieval features. The present spire was added in 1832 to replace an older ‘lantern’ tower. The church is 183 feet (56 m) long and the spire 193 feet (59 m) high, and is also the tallest in Essex. As has been a feature of many of the churches we have come across in England, there were numerous markings on the floor indicating that early parishioners had been buried inside the church itself, as well as brasses on the wall. The inside was surprisingly well lit by all of the windows which were also beautiful. However, it wasn’t where we were trying to go, so we went back outside and happened to run into a couple with twin babies who told us that we needed to cross the street and go down on the other side.

Following these directions we found ourselves headed to Bridge End Gardens. We paused on the way to watch a mole digging up the ground but although we saw the molehill shake and quake a number of times, the mole was clever enough not to appear himself. Walking up past the English American memorial garden, where a cricket match was in progress, we did find ourselves at the hedge maze, which turned out to be everything that we expected it to be. In the car on the way to the area Quinn had been very adamant that there should be some sort of challenge with a task being allocated to the last person to find their way to the centre of the maze. In order to overcome their natural disadvantage, Brock and Meg decided to work together. After much discussion, and much to Quinn’s disappointment as he wanted something much harsher, it was decided that the last person there would have to cook dinner when we got back home. We rushed around the maze with Wayne finishing first, Meg and Brock coming in next, and then finally Quinn, somewhat shamefacedly arrived.

It had been a great day, with fun and interest for everyone. The trip home saw both boys fall asleep in the car, although they woke up as we stopped to get some chicken for the dinner which Quinn was going to be cooking for us. In the end, Quinn begged off cooking that night and cooked the following night instead, but it still had been a lovely day.

We hope that you have all been having a lovely time as well. Thanks for all the messages and emails.

Three Blind Mice

A bit over a week ago we had our first visitor since arriving here in the UK. Julie Boyd, who had worked with Wayne at Southbank TAFE and who also, with her husband Jeff, used to have brunch with Wayne and Meg on the occasional Sunday mornings. For those of you who don’t know Julie, she is originally from Northern Ireland and works as a mortician, which means that conversations with her are regularly interesting and held in a wonderful accent. Even though she was born in Northern Ireland she lives in Queensland, so this left open lots of options for jokes about the Irish person who came to visit us in England via Australia.

Julie’s visit came at the end of an interesting week, particularly in relation to our car. On Wednesday evening, after Meg and Wayne had been up to Hertford, they were travelling back down the A10 toward home when they noticed a car stopped on the Motorway. This was an issue because it came to a halt in the middle of the lane we were travelling in and, because there was another car between them and us, we saw it quite late. There was lots of traffic in the other lane, so Wayne applied the brakes quite firmly and we went off the road into the gravel, leaving some tire marks behind us and narrowly missing some of the rabbits which regularly eat grass beside the road in the afternoon. At this point the car that had stopped decided to move the extra 20 metres or so into the slip road. We still don’t know what they were thinking but were very thankful that our brakes had worked.

On the Friday we journeyed down to Radlett in order to pick Julie up from the friend’s house where she had been staying. Because Kylie is only little, both the boys stayed at home in order to wait for the goods we had shipped over when we first left Australia back in January. Neither Meg nor Wayne had ever been to Radlett before so it was interesting to see yet another new place. There has been a settlement known as Radlett since at least as far back as 1453. However modern Radlett has been created almost entirely since the end of the 19th century and nowadays it exists in the middle of the Metropolitan Green Belt. As we drove around we were very impressed by the size and architecture of some of the beautiful houses in the area. It is not surprising then, given that it is also very close to London, that so many notable people live or have lived in Radlett. Some of these include; Brian Bennett and Hank Marvin from the musical group, The Shadows; George Michael, formerly of the 80’s group Wham!; Dennis Wise, Vinny Jones, Kolo Taure, Lauren, and Thierry Henry (all football players); former England cricket captain Douglas Jardine; and actresses, Pam St Clement and Lacey Turner (who played Pat Evans and Stacey Branning on Eastenders).

Sadly for Claire (Julie’s friend), it is not in one of these enormous houses that she lives, but we were able to find the place easily enough. Because there was still a little time before she needed to go to work, Claire suggested we go down to one of the local pubs for lunch. Because neither Wayne nor Meg had eaten a meal in a pub as yet, we readily accepted and went back down into the village to the Red Lion. Inside was just as we had expected from an old English pub, a man with a northern European accent behind the bar, lots and lots of different brews of beer, a few old gentlemen sitting at the bar, and some really lovely food. We sat and discussed a whole range of things, including some of the interesting things the net brings up about Radlett. These include that; on the 24th of May 1943, a missile from Germany hit Radlett killing seventeen people. In 1823 Radlett was the site of an infamous murder. Claire also mentioned that one of the more infamous ‘swingers clubs’ operates at Radlett once a month.

When we got home we found that our possessions had arrived while we were out, so the next few hours were spent opening boxes and trying to find places to store the things that we had been making do without since January. Because the brakes had been making a squeaking noise, Wayne ducked up to the garage to have them checked but we were told we would have to wait until Monday. What was good to find was our photos and photo frames; wedding photos of them standing next to Julie helped to convince the boys that they had, in fact, met her before. Indeed, we all got on like a house on fire, telling jokes, looking at photos of Julie’s children and grandchildren, and making decisions about where we might travel on the following day.

After a late night we all managed to wake fairly early in order to start the car and head off for the ‘other’ university town, Oxford. Not long after we arrived we borrowed a book from the library called The Top 50 Crap Towns in Britain, published by a magazine called ‘the Idler’, and Oxford was one of the places featured within. It is about 70 miles from home and Julie had never been there either. While it was a bit cramped in the back of Kylie, we had a great time singing, telling stories and looking at the amazingly green countryside as we travelled through Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and finally into Oxfordshire. Having learned our lesson from the earlier visit to Cambridge, this time we parked outside the city at the Park and Ride carpark and boarded a big red double decker bus heading for the centre of Oxford.

Oxford has been described in many way. George Santayana called it ‘the paradise of dead philosophies’ while Anthony Trollope said that it was ‘the most dangerous place to which a young man can be sent. What we found, much as with Cambridge, was a beautiful city centre, filled with amazing old buildings dating back hundreds of years. At the very centre of the town is Carfax tower. The Tower is all that remains of the 13th century St Martin's Church and is now owned by the Oxford City Council. It is 23 m (74 ft) tall and still contains a ring of six bells, recast from the original five by Richard Keene of Woodstock in 1676. On the outside, under the clock, is a pair of bellringers who move back and forward on the quarter hour, apparently chiming the bells. There are 99 stairs to the top of the tower and apparently a wonderful view of the spires of Oxford, but cost (as well as the objection of some to climbing stairs) kept us at ground level.

From there we headed off down Cornmarket Street, which is available only to pedestrians and runs from the centre of the city to the North. There were an amazing variety of shops housed in some buildings which also showcased a variety of ages and architectural styles. In particular, next door to Burger King, was a lovely old Tudor style wooden building which, over time, has gradually begun to lean. These days it houses a Pret A Manger (sandwiches) store and a Starbucks, which provides an interesting contrast. Next door is the tower of St Martin at the Northgate, so called because, when the town was walled, this was the site of the gate to the North. This building dates back to 1040 and is the oldest in Oxford. Like Carfax Tower you can actually climb to the top of this old Saxon building to look over the rest of the city but again we chose not to do this.

What Oxford is most famous for, however, is the University and as we turned up Ship Street we walked past the first of the Colleges that we had come across, Jesus College. Jesus was the only College founded during the reign of Elizabeth I, having been granted its charter on the 25th of June 1571. Graduates of Jesus include an enormous number of politicians, writers and bishops. However some of the most famous include; Pixley Ka Izaka Seme (1881- 1951) Founder of the African National Congress; (James) Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (1916 - 1995) MP and Prime Minister; and T.E. Lawrence also known as Lawrence of Arabia (1888 - 1935) Academic, historian and British liaison officer during WWI. What we were amazed by was the amazing architecture and, especially for the boys, the gargoyles and statues which we were to find was a feature of Oxford.

From the end of Ship we crossed Turl Street, glimpsing Exeter College as we passed and found ourselves on Broad Street outside the Museum of the History of Science. While the exhibitions and the museum itself looked fascinating, this was to become one of a multitude of places we would pass during the day which we will have to go back to see. Quite honestly, Oxford could easily fill a long weekend with the number of things there are to see and do, and that is without attending the theatre (of which there are several). Across the road from the Museum is Trinity College, founded during the reign of Elizabeth’s sister Mary, and hence much more steeped in Roman Catholicism. Famous students who attended here include John Henry Newman (1801-1890) Anglican Minister, Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and Founder of what was to be called the Oxford (or Tractarian) Movement; and William Pitt the Elder (1708-1778) MP and Prime Minister (featuring in an episode of the Simpsons where Barney Gumble and Wade Boggs argue about the best British Prime Ministers of all time). Also worth checking out is a former student who was expelled (or sent down) from Trinity, Richard Burton (not the actor).

Some of the most beautiful architecture in Oxford is to be found next to the Museum of the History of Science in the Bodleian Library. This is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe let alone England. It is one of only 6 legal deposit libraries in Britain, which means that any book published in Britain or Ireland must present a copy to the library. Because of this, it is the second largest library in the country, behind only the British Library at Westminster in London. Meg renewed her love affair with doors, as there were so many old, beautiful doors leading into different sections of the library. This is one of the reasons that the library features in ‘The Madness of King George’, ‘Brideshead Revisited’, ‘Another Country’ and the first two Harry Potter Movies (as the hospital ward and the library). It also features the Radcliffe Camera which is actually a round building (the word ‘camera’ coming from the Latin for ‘chamber’) that featured in the Inspector Morse television show, as well as the movies ‘Young Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘The Saint’. J.R.R. Tolkien (who was a Professor at Oxford) described Sauron’s temple to Morgoth on Numenor, in ‘The Lord of the Rings’, as being architecturally like Radcliffe Camera.

Once you pass through the Bodleian library you reach the church of St Mary the Virgin. This is the building where the University of Oxford was established, lectures used to be held in the church itself. There has been a church on this site, at the centre of the old walled city, since Anglo Saxon times. Congregation met there from at least 1252, and by the early 13th century it was the seat of university government and was used for lectures and the award of degrees. During the Marian repression of the Reformation in England it saw the trial of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (one of Wayne’s heros), Bishop Hugh Latimer and Bishop Nicholas Ridley, for their teachings and their support of Lady Jane Grey, before they were burned at the stake outside Balliol College on Broad Street. It is said that the nursery rhyme ‘Three Blind Mice’ originally referred to these events. Sermons by William Laud, John Wesley, John Henry Newman, John Keble and Rowan Williams (the current Archbishop of Canterbury) have all been preached here. We have seen many impressive churches so far in our journeys, but this would be right up there with them.

By now it was the early afternoon, so we walked past Lincoln College, Brasenose College, All Souls College, and Hertford College as we walked back up to Cornmarket to look for somewhere to have lunch. Although McDonalds, Burger King and KFC all had their attractions but we ended up at The Crown Inn in the Clarendon Centre for a pub lunch. The food was fabulous, and reasonably priced, so both Brock and Quinn want to go back there for another meal. Indeed, Brock was even talking about going back to The Crown for his birthday dinner (70 miles might be a bit of a distance to travel however). While on Cornmarket Street, Meg also took the opportunity to buy a birthday present or two and we discovered that there was an entire store devoted to things related to Alice in Wonderland (the author, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson also known as ‘Lewis Carroll’).

As we walked down St. Aldate’s Street to Alice’s Shop we passed the Oxford Museum, Pembroke College, Christ Church College and Christ Church Cathedral. After Meg and Julie (in particular) had had an opportunity to make purchases we looked at the beautiful Christ Church parklands across the road. As with Cambridge, the university town of Oxford sees lots of people on bicycles or walking and the city centre is beautifully set out for this. Having said this, we had a little trouble trying to find the exact place to catch the bus back to the Stop and Ride, but we had had such a wonderful time that no one seemed to mind too much.

On the way home we took a slight detour via Hemel Hempstead so that Julie could experience the joy that is the Magic Roundabout (see our blog from April 22nd, ‘Dougal, Zebedee, Ermintrude, Dylan and Brian’). This time we got to travel in both directions, including doing a complete loop around one of the smaller roundabouts (much to Meg’s dismay but everybody else’s delight). The trip back saw both boys fall asleep to the accompaniment of Julie, Wayne and Meg singing along to Meatloaf’s ‘Bat Out of Hell’ album. We can highly recommend Oxford, indeed Meg describes it as being close to her favourite place because it had a lovely atmosphere. The fact that we were also able to travel there with a friend accentuated the experience, it made a nice change to see something new with a different pair of eyes alongside us. Sadly, Julie headed off to Northern Ireland the next morning, but we have an invitation to head across there ourselves in July/August, which we are very much looking to.

Hope you are all well and happy. We look forward to hearing from you.