Bronhill House Stratford-upon-Avon

With time rapidly dwindling I went down to Banbury way this afternoon to visit my brother et famille before I leave, taking the opportunity to say goobye to two young nephews - one of whom was able to appreciate some of the implications of what I am doing, "But what if you get sick?" he asked. :-)

Back up to Stoke in the late evening. Last day of preparations tomorrow.

... Great Hall in Harry Potter!!! Since I love HP, it was awesome to see!! The Hall was very similar to what you see in the HP movies!!! Then we walked the school grounds, literally the town, and through the church!! It was pretty neat!! I was glad to go on the day trip and be able to see actual England outside of the city life!! Sorry I dont have much detail here, but I forgot to write down all of them at this point of the trip!!

... Before we met I decided to do a reccy and noticed that the pub I thought was the Dirty Duck was actually The Black Swan! I walked the rest of the street looking for it but nothing! I returned to my room despondent and wondering if I could contact Briony by telepathy. But just as I fell asleep I had a moment of clarity - Black Swan/Dirty Duck - same thing! So next morning I went back down to the pub, and to my relief and bemusement ...

... Earl of Leicester, transformed Kenilworth from a medieval fortress into one of the greatest Tudor palaces so he could entertain Queen Elizabeth I in style for 19 days in 1575, costing millions of pounds. The Keep was breeched during the Civil War in the 1600s. The Great Hall where they dined was huge. It was so cold ...

... church of St. Lawrence. We then crossed little streams and did a huge uphill walk in deep mud tracks. At the top of the hill we followed the road back to Chipping Campden for the next 2-3/4 miles. The wind howled at times and was freezing. We passed fields of black sheep and then ...

... crooked walls, stone floors and period furniture. Youngest children slept in a trundle (trunkle bed) until old enough to handle a candle in their parents room and then up to 4 of them share a largish single bed.





We then walked around the markets and then past Garrick’s Inn, Nash’s house, the Alms houses and Hall’s ...

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We had thought to bring spare shoes with us to change into but hadn’t thought about spare jeans. Nathan had mud up the inside of his legs past his knees and so we made him strip down to his undies to get into the car. My jeans were wet and muddy, at least the bottom 8 ...

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We then went out to the Front Arena Area and watched a man use and tell us about the longbow and crossbow. The longbow changed warfare in medieval England as it could shoot off 15 arrows a minute, but as it was difficult to use it was compulsory for all boys from the age of 7 to practise every Sunday after church in ...

... a jacket potato with tuna 3 pounds 95. While we were there it hailed, rained and then had big fluffy heavy snowflakes, but it melted. We finished lunch and went walking and did a nice circuit walk on public footpaths through fields, little lanes, through lots of mud and past some lovely homes.









Next we drove ...

... Castle is huge and imposing. We walked around cute little streets and went to a tearoom and had tea with scones and jam. Nathan had a hot chocolate with whipped cream. Took a photo of this really crooked shop. Drove the 1-1/2 hours to Stratford. Nathan fell asleep the last ½ hour. Stratford looks very cute in the dark. Stephen is walking distance to the river Avon and town centre and lives at 22 ...