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.

Beckham, Zeppelin, 007 and Evita

Having not been away for a couple of weeks, let alone the last few days where it was difficult because of the weather to even get out (it has been flooding in some parts of the country), we needed to go somewhere, anywhere. However, because payday is still a couple of days away it was also important to consider petrol costs, so somewhere close by was imperative. Given that we had to email some scanned documents to Ipswich (in order to have our belongings, which had travelled here by sea, delivered this week) we first went to the library in Hoddesdon. Once our tasks had been completed we set course for the county of Buckinghamshire, heading down to the M25 before planning to head to the west.

As we moved on to the roundabout, which provides the link to the motorway, we looked down and saw that the M25 was fulfilling the common local description as the ‘world’s biggest carpark’. In a mild state of panic we continued around the roundabout and headed back toward home. Before getting back, however, we turned left and headed cross country through some lovely little villages; Goff’s Oak, Cuffley, Northaw and Potters Bar. These days Goff’s Oak is largely famous for being home to the Adams’ family (unfortunately not the Addams family of Uncle Fester, Lurch, Cousin It, Thing, Wednesday, Pugsley, Morticia and Gomez; but the parents of Victoria Beckham nee Adams). However, there is more to the village than that. As the name implies, it was owned by the Goff family and featured an enormous, century’s old, oak tree. Sadly, the prophecy of ‘My Fair Lady’ that ‘in Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen’ came true in 1987 when a hurricane hit the area and brought down the famous old oak. The village is still quite beautiful and features some lovely homes which we admired as we drove through.

Cuffley (only a couple of miles further away) has a totally different claim to fame, dating back to the Great War. One Sunday morning, in September 1916, the locals woke to find a Zeppelin crashed into their village. 14 Zeppelins had been used in the largest attack of its kind during the First World War and this one was shot down by Lieutenant Leefe Robinson, for which exploit he was awarded the Victoria Cross. Lieut. Robinson lived through the rest of the war only to die of influenza on December 31, 1918, only a few weeks after the Armistice. Like Goff’s Oak, Cuffley is a very attractive village with some glorious looking homes that, due to the presence of a Learner Driver, we were able to appreciate. It also has some glorious large parks and huge farms which seem out of place in this country where the residents constantly complain about overcrowding.

Northaw is smaller still, but it does boast the oldest Women’s Institute in Hertfordshire, established in 1917. Northaw also still possesses a village green, bounded on one side by the church. We all noticed the church as we were driving through the village, because architecturally it is very different from others in Hertfordshire. It has a rock facing and four pinnacles on the tower which draw the eye as you drive toward it. Apparently there is a fifth pinnacle next to the tower in the church grounds with a plaque stating that it belonged to the previous church which burned down in 1881, however we did not stop to confirm that this was true. Much of the rest of Northaw is the Northaw Great Wood, which is a country park open to everyone, and which hosts markets on some days of the week (although this week they had been cancelled because of the wet weather). King James I used to come hunting here when staying at his holiday home at Cheshunt (then called Theobalds) and as you drive through the woodlands you can imagine people charging around on horseback chasing deer or foxes.

Potters Bar has some uncertainty over the history of the name. Some maintain that it is the consequence of Roman aged pottery which was found there (certainly it is one of the local areas with evidence of the Roman occupation of Britain). Other people claim that the name comes from the Pottere family who were part of the nearby South Mimms parish. Sadly, the name became known more recently as the site of two significant train crashes. On the night of 10 February 1946, a local train hit buffers at the station, became derailed, and two express trains travelling in opposite directions struck the wreckage. On 10 May 2002 a northbound train derailed at high speed, killing seven and seriously injuring another eleven. On a happier note, those of our readers who are older might remember the clarinetist Acker Bilk who owns a home at Potters Bar (as well as one in Pensford, Somerset). The golfer Tony Jacklin, who won both the British and US Opens and captained the English Ryder cup team played his golf at Potters Bar Golf Club. As we drove through, on our way back to try the M25 again, we saw a town that was much more industrial in feel than any of the villages around. This is unsurprising, given that the town is part of the London Commuter belt.

Back on to the M25 we ventured for what was to be a frustrating next part of the journey. It is not really that far from Junction 24 (where we reentered the M25) to Junction 18 (where we wanted to exit), a little over 12 miles, or 20 kilometres, but the traffic was stop start the entire way. There were no accidents or road works, not even a picket line (which there was elsewhere in London, as the radio kept reminding us), just average everyday drivers who had absolutely no idea how to merge when new traffic joined the motorway. Those of you who have driven on the Gateway Motorway in Queensland will know how frustrating this can be, and anyone who has been in a car with Wayne for any length of time will know that this (along with traffic lights: ‘the spawn of Satan’) is one of his pet hates. Meg and the boys managed to keep the mood light, although with some difficulty as first Brock and then Quinn realised that they needed to find a toilet. We eventually made it to Junction 18 and turned off toward Little Chalfont and Chorleywood looking for a services for the boys. Sadly, service stations seemed to be in short supply, unlike temporary traffic lights for road works which appeared on a regular basis. To add insult to injury we were stopped by the police (along with hundreds of others) at a road block and questioned as to why Wayne’s identity did not match the recorded owner of the car. Given that Meg had spent a few days, after we returned from Cornwall, sorting out this issue we were perplexed by this. However, PC Webb of the Thames Valley Police (badge number 5795) was very understanding. He offered to let Brock get out and walk the 200 metres down to the nearest public toilet and, when Brock declined, hurried the paperwork through for us so that we could drive the short distance required to find the boys some relief. He also demonstrated how to use an extendable baton, much to the boy’s delight.

At last we made it to the Chilterns, which was declared an official Area of Natural Beauty in 1965. The official blurb says that ‘the Chilterns lie only a few miles north-west of London and yet they are an unspoilt area of rolling chalk hills, magnificent beechwoods, quiet valleys and charming brick and flint villages. A wonderful mosaic of woods, fields, hedges, sunken lanes and clear streams’. This was certainly true of our experience in the region. In particular we were aiming for the town of Amersham, largely because Meg’s mother lives in a house on Amersham Street in Kippa Ring, Queensland, and we wanted to see what the place looked like for which the street was named.

As you would expect from a place in the Chilterns, Amersham has a long history, dating back to pre-Saxon times when it was known as Egmondesham. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 it was called Elmodesham and is described thus:
Geoffrey de Mandeville holds Amersham. It answers for 7 1/2 hides. Land for 16 ploughs; in lordship 2 hides; 3 ploughs there. 14 villagers with 4 smallholders have 9 ploughs; a further 4 possible. 7 slaves; meadow for 16 ploughs; woodland 400 pigs. The total value is and was £9; before 1066 £16. Queen Edith held this manor.
Queen Edith was the wife of Edward the Confessor and sister of King Harold (who fought the battle of Hastings in 1066). Get rid of Geoffrey de Mandeville and substitute Loretta for Edith and so far the similarities between Amersham, UK and Amersham Street, Kippa Ring, Queensland are quite apparent.

As we approached the town we drove past a large building dedicated to GE Healthcare which, Wayne recalled, had originally been a scientific research establishment called the Radiochemical Centre during World War II set up to make luminous paint, based on radium. Amersham was also one of the very few places north of London to be attacked by V1 and V2 rockets (otherwise known as ‘flying bombs’ or ‘doodlebugs’) near the end of the war. This was unfortunate as many of the children of London were evacuated to houses in the area when their homes were destroyed or under threat of destruction, partly because of the excellent schools available in the area. These included Dr Challoner’s Grammar School the alma mater of, among others, Sir Roger Moore (aka Meg’s favourite James Bond), which has hugely impressive grounds now on the hills north of the town but which originally was housed in a building on the main street which dates the school back to 1624. GE Healthcare, meanwhile, is now one of the largest employers in the area.

When we first arrived in Amersham, we dropped Meg off at the Post Office, while Wayne and the boys headed toward the market square looking for a place to park the car. As you no doubt know, one of the things which distinguishes a ‘town’ from a ‘village’ is the granting of the right to hold a market, and this was done for Amersham by King John in 1200, stipulating that the market was to be held on Fridays and a fair on September 7th and 8th. In 1613 this ‘charter’ was updated so that market day became Tuesday and the fair was moved to September 19th and 20th. Despite the fact that this was a Tuesday, when the boys drove up there was no market in evidence, however there were some buildings with impressively low roofs and The Crown Hotel, which was used for a number of indoor scenes in the movie ‘Four Weddings and A Funeral’ including the scene with the Four Poster Bed. We later discovered the market (as we were driving out) was being held in ‘Amersham-on-the-Hill’ (another part of the village separate but linked to ‘Old Amersham’ where we were) and a number of the roads were closed as a consequence. The other thing that wasn’t in the market square was any parking, so we drove back to park at Tescos and walked up to meet Meg outside the grounds of the Grade 1 Listed St Mary’s Church of England.

The parks, grounds and cemetery connected to the church were beautiful, so we decided to walk down along the River Misbourne back to Tescos (which had been built on a former Bowyer's / Brazil's meat factory and bus garage) to buy some lunch which we then carried back to eat in the park. Fans of British television crime shows might have recognised where we were, as 7 episodes of the series ‘Midsomer Murders’ were filmed in Amersham and made extensive use of the grounds, cemetery and fields around St Mary’s and Old Amersham. On our walk beside the river we had noted a sign which pointed toward a ‘Martyr’s Memorial’ so, after lunch was finished, we decided to find it.

Trying to follow the directions proved to be difficult, as there was no evidence of any memorial between the two signs which pointed towards one another. Instead we looked around the cemetery, noting the amazing restoration work which had been done to many of the graves and gravestones. Just as we were planning to leave we met a lovely weimaraner (that had been in a fight with a maltese terrier and had a bloodied ear as a consequence) whose owner pointed us up the hill along a path ‘which would not be slippery’ where, she said, the walk to the martyr’s memorial would take `4 or 5 minutes` and the view back to the rest of the town would be very good. Very quickly we discovered that we would have been better listening to the weimaraner even if his instructions had mostly been to do with scratching behind his ears and patting him.

We set off up the hill on a path between two wheat fields, alongside a hedge. The path was simply a dirt (read ‘mud’) track, about 15cm wide, with stones scattered through it and Meg soon discovered that she was wearing the wrong footwear to cope with such a trek. We laboured onward and upward with Wayne in front holding Meg’s hand and the boys walking behind in case she slipped. After a while Brock grew frustrated and attempted to pass by jumping across into the field, he rapidly found out that this was a mistake as he sank into the ground and was stung by various nettles and plants as he scrambled back on to the path. 20 minutes in and we made it to the top of the path where there was no sign of a memorial, just a path heading north toward the Rectory Wood which looked dark and foreboding and continuing to the south towards a group of houses. The one thing which the lady had got correct was that the view back over Amersham was glorious, so we took a number of photos before walking up toward the woods. Wayne was full of admiration for the cast and crew of the movie ‘Carve Her Name With Pride’ (a 1958 movie about the Battle of Britain) which was largely filmed in these fields.

Meg sang ‘Teddy Bears Picnic’ happily as we walked up to the woods which reminded her of ‘The Secret Garden’. Quinn had already run off ahead while Brock complained that it looked scary and was worried about monsters. When we finally entered the woods it was cool, green and lovely, just as you might have imagined woodlands in England to be. All of the stories that we read in childhood which featured English woodlands seemed to be encapsulated in this place. There were large ear shaped fungi growing on some of the tree trunks and, while it was dark, there was enough filtered light coming through to make it easy to see. Posts had signs which indicated that this was a public walking path through the wood and there was even a tyre swing from a tree at one end of the wood. During World War II the woods had been used by troops as shelter and trenches had been dug there, but there was no sign of this today, in fact the boys felt that even camping in the woods would not be a pleasant experience. Not to our complete surprise by now, however, there was still no sign of the memorial so we decided to head back down the path by which we had come.

By the time we reached the main path we had come up, Quinn and Wayne decided to take a quick look down the southern path toward the houses. It didn’t take long before they couldn’t see Meg and Brock at all because of a dip in the field, but by the time they got to the fence there was still no sign of the memorial, only houses and a couple of large trees, so they went back. While they had been waiting, Brock and Meg were able to look across the town to the beautiful mansion of Shardeloes. Shardeloes was the ancestral home of the Tyrwhitt Drake family, the Lord of the Manor. The Tyrwhitt Drake family had a great influence on Amersham. By marrying well their fortunes grew through the 16th to 19th centuries. This enabled them to have a large say in the appointment of Amersham's Rector, who often was a member of the family. They also acquired many properties in Amersham, letting them to sympathetic supporters enabling the MPs representing Amersham to either be Tyrwhitt Drakes or their supporters. The Tyrwhitt Drakes were also benefactors and built Alms Houses (1657) and the Market Hall (1682). During the 19th and 20th Centuries their fortune declined, particularly because of the need to pay high death duties, and as a result of the Reform Act of 1832 which removed the ‘rotten borough’ of Amersham. In 1928 much of their property in Amersham was auctioned off in what became known as "the auction of a town". The Tyrwhitt Drake family are still Lord of the Manor of Amersham, but no longer live there.

Going down the hill proved to be almost as difficult as going up, at least for Brock who managed to do the splits at the bottom as one of his feet slipped in the mud. Sadly, the rest of us missed this because we were overtaken on the path by another lady out walking her dog. The advantage of this was that the parents of the lady passing us had ‘lived at the memorial’, although as she sheepishly explained, ‘not AT the memorial, obviously, but backing on to it’. As it turned out, it had been on the other side of the trees the Wayne and Quinn had come to previously, so they scooted around the bottom of the field and up the far side which was a much easier path. As you can see by the photograph, the monument itself was large but otherwise not hugely impressive. What was amazing was what it was there to commemorate. Back in 1521, in the dip in the field only a hundred yards from where the memorial stood, a group of men were burned at the stake. This was part of a movement happening across Europe, which came to be known as the Reformation, where people resisted the Catholic Church’s attempt to impose their understanding on people. In particular, people wanted to be able to read the Bible in their own language, rather than the Latin stipulated by the Catholic Church. As the monument made clear, there had been people executed for similar reasons before then, and within 40 years men and women on both side of the argument would be killed. It was hard for the boys to comprehend that people took reading the bible so seriously that they would be willing to die or that it would be the government who would be punishing them. Meg and Wayne were able to answer their questions on the way home.

Fortunately, the trip was a lot less eventful than the drive over. Had we had the soundtrack with us, we might have listened to the music of ‘Evita’ or any of the other musicals that Tim Rice put together with Andrew Lloyd Webber. This would have been appropriate, because Tim Rice was born in Amersham. We did, however, pass under the railway line that ends at Amersham which was labelled as ‘Underground’. Despite being above the ground at this point, it is part of the London Underground Railway system which demonstrates Amersham’s place as a commuter town, which is has been since 1892 when the line was first constructed. Indeed, it might have been so earlier had not local landowners objected so strongly to the building of the line. While lacking the notoriety of some of the other places that we have visited, Amersham was a good place to visit and all of us had a great day.

Thanks again to everyone who has been keeping in contact with us. We are looking forward to having our first visitor from Australia this Friday. Julie Boyd, one of Wayne’s former workmates from Southbank TAFE, is coming over to visit. It will be nice to talk to someone about what is happening back in Australia. We hope you are all well and look forward to hearing from you.

A ¼ Teaspoon of Bicarbonate Soda and a dash of Kayce

We have had another quiet week in the big city of Broxbourne this week, but that is largely due to the bank and Quinn having plans for the weekend

We are also very pleased and excited that Wayne has had his contract extended till July 2009 so that we can continue our grand adventure

Friday was an interesting day as I have now got a job and can’t start until a background check has been done on me as I am working with children. I am feeling somewhat frustrated .. so was pleased… thrilled even to get a call from Wayne asking me to come to Hailey Hall for the day. At Hailey Hall the last day of school means fun and games for both staff and students, and I was there to capture these moments on camera for them.

It was a great day with Wayne’s photography club very excited about the competition for the most interesting photo, and these young men were inspirational. They saw beauty and design in places I would never have thought to look. They also had to share resources as some of the cameras were not operational, but honestly they were great about the whole experience.

The teachers worked so hard to give the boys a great day with golf, basketball, football Wii, Xbox and the day ended in a Teachers V Students Football (soccer) match. This was a fiercely fought battle with some casualties…. my husband included (Wayne dove for the ball and when he realised he might miss it, he chose to make the ultimate sacrifice and head the ball, which was a great idea … until he landed…. one torn muscle over his rib cage and a nasty headache later… he is on the mend)

Saturday dawned as a beautiful day with the temp around 22 and the sun was glorious. We had some nasty business to attend to, as the bank we opened an account with when we arrived has been a royal pain in the behind and we went shopping for a new bank. One that will take money out of our account as we spend it .. not wait three weeks … and when we transfer money don’t keep it in a account for a week to earn interest for themselves before sending it on the account we want to pay…. sorry needed to vent there…

We had planned to, maybe, go to Ipswich for the day but Quinn had planned to spend the day in Hoddesdon with some friends (read Kayce here). While we are thrilled that he has settled so well it can make planning a little difficult, because we don’t want to go without the boys as they want to see the sights as much as we do. So we thought we would find out what the boys had planned and decide from there …. Our week read below

Monday: Brock to Ryan’s_ Quinn to Kayce Wayne and Meg to drive
Tuesday: Brock Movies with friends (this has now been postponed till Wednesday) Wayne and Meg to drive
Wednesday: Brock to Movie with friends Wayne and Meg to drive
Thursday: Quinn is spending the day with Kayce Wayne and Meg to drive
Friday: Meg and Wayne picking friend up from friends to spend day with us
Saturday: Meg and Wayne to take friend to Heathrow
Sunday: Unpacking our personal effects from Australia that are hopefully to be dropped off this week, getting ready for school tomorrow

So as you can see we are going to find it difficult to go anywhere this week …… but please if you can see a slot we missed let us know ..

We have been having what they call typical bank holiday weather today, very wet windy and cold, so Brock decided to make jam drops without any help. Off he went.. he did a great job and apart from a nasty jam burn all was peaceful in the kitchen. I had the honour of tasting the first, shall we say, ‘interesting’ looking biscuit and while somewhat concerned as to why the jam looked liked it had forcefully been asked to leave the biscuit I bravely pressed on….. I took an unlady-like large bite as Brock looked proudly on and I smiled and told him they were good. As I walked from the kitchen to the lounge a strange fizzy sour bitter taste filled my mouth…… Brock had mistakenly put 2 tablespoons of Bicarb soda in the mixture instead of ½ a teaspoon of baking powder … Quinn and Brock both sampled the biscuits and the decision was made that perhaps the biscuits were better landfill than food and the second tray of biscuits were forcefully removed from the oven… but it got me thinking about recipes and how they are a comfort to me… I have used this recipe since I started cooking as a teenager. It’s one my mama cooked for me when I was little and over the years I have learnt what works and what doesn’t and I have not needed to write these changes down because until now it was always me that did the cooking. Now my babies are nearly grown and I am in the position where I am not only teaching them to cook, I am passing down comfort and tradition and I am grateful to my mama to be able to do that for them.