ruins – Page 3 – Where is Phil now?

York, lovely York, part three.

Sunday 07 February 2015 – York.

A quick update as to where the last post left us… We had had a very enjoyable morning and had just finished a pizza lunch and a nice glass of wine after visiting all the parts of central York that we were going to be able to do with the time we had. This after we planned to spend some time walking around the museum gardens before returning to the hotel for a rest before dinner.

I had been looking forward to visiting the gardens as they contain some really interesting ruins and I am all about the ruins!

The gardens were orginally created in 1828 when ten acres of the grounds of the former St Mary’s Abbey were gifted by the royal family to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society for the creation of a museum and the development of botanical gardens.

Our first stop was St Leonard’s Hospital. At its peak in the middle ages it was the biggest hospital in England, holding up to 240 patients. I did not realise that hospitals had been going for such a long time ! Construction started in the 1220’s and it was closed during the dissolution of the monasteries under King Henry VIII in the late 1530s.

We followed some of the remaining sections of the old city walls around to the Multangular Tower, the best known of the remaining Roman towers in the city. It was built in the late 4^th century to hold a large catapult and it has ten sides, hence its name. You can quite clearly see all the different materials used to construct and maintain the walls over the years.

Inside the tower there are five stone coffins from the Roman period that were found in other locations in the city.

This picture, sadly the light was poor, shows the different levels of wall built over the centuries, form the original Roman wall started in 70 AD, through the dark ages up to the 10^th century, past the Norman period and finally Medieval times in 13^th.

This led us over to St Mary’s Abbey – which I have seen loads of photos of and particularly love as a set of ruins. A church was first built here back in Norman times in 1055, though the ruins here are from a modifications starting in the late 13^th century. Like the hospital the abbey was pulled down during the reformation in 1539 and a lot of the stone was used elsewhere. I loved them…

As the afternoon started to fade we headed back to the hotel, walking up the road outside of those ancient abbey walls.

We bought a glass of wine in the bar and took them back to our room for a rest after quite a long day of walking. Later on we noticed a wonderful sunset out the window, so I grabbed my camera and took a very fast walk back to St Mary’s Abbey. I just made it in time to grab a few images – and left the tripod in our room.

We had booked dinner at El Piano a highly recommended vegetarian restaurant and it was really full, it is a casual cafe style restaurant with really nice food and wine. We left very full.

I took the camera as I wanted to get a final photo of the Minster.

On Sunday morning, we didn’t really rush out of bed, but we were still up early enough that we had to wander around again trying find somewhere to get breakfast. Even though we had a great breakfast the day before we wanted to try a different place. It took a while but we did found an open cafe and they did do a really good full English – I over ate yet again. On the way we passed through the Shambles again, and so much quieter than yesterday!

Hello

And then that was it, back to York station and its famous old clock.

And back to London, looking out on the loveliest weather of the whole weekend, via another dirty window… It was another good train ride back, fast and on time, and I didn’t eat as much as I did on the way up!

We loved York, it is a really nice town, there was a good vibe and so many things to look at. if you live in England or are planning to come here on holiday I highly recommend a visit.

Donnington Castle.

Saturday 05 July 2014, Donnington Castle, Newbury.

All of a sudden July has become a very busy month, with me not being home for more than a couple of days. With a full on fourteen day trip to New Zealand starting on Monday it was nice to have a bit of a relaxing weekend away before I went.

With school exams now over El decided to take her sons away for a weekend to celebrate the end of another school year, so she booked us to go to a golf based hotel near Newbury in West Berkshire. Neither El or I are golfers but one of the boys is keen so as it was their holiday this was where we went. We all had a good time, though I must admit I did eat way too much – good food!

Once the holiday was booked I had a look around for things interests to check out in the area and found Donnington Castle was within walking distance. A castle – YES !!

Like so many castles, Donnington has had a complex history and a broad range of owners and residents. In 1386 the lord of the manor of Donnington, Sir Richard Abberbury was granted permission by King Richard II to build the castle, and the tower that remains is from that period. In 1398 the castle was sold to Thomas Chaucer, the son of the famous poet, who gifted it to his daughter. It was later taken from the family by the Tudors after the family fell out of favour. It was returned years later and swapped owners from then until its destruction after the English Civil War as the owner at the time, Sir John Boys was on the losing side. The gate house and tower that are standing now are as it was left in 1646 – over 350 years ago, that is so cool. The castle has been under the governance of English Heritage since 1946 and what remains is in great condition.

It was only a ten minute walk from the hotel, so even though there were some clouds looming on the horizon we decided to take a risk and head out there soon after we arrived.

As with most castles it was built on the top of a hill, albeit a rather small one. I am always bubbling with anticipation when I approach a new castle or other ancient ruin. In this case I was really hoping that we would be able to go inside and walk up to the top of the tower, but alas it was gated off and access was not allowed. There were some great wild flowers on the road up the hill.

The towers were in excellent condition and it was interesting walking around them, I am constantly amazed at how these castles were constructed so long ago, from such a diverse range of stone and other material. It was obvious from the boarded up windows and the mast on the top that the roof was accessible, I guess it was just not considered overly safe.

The clouds started to come over as we were rounding the castle so we decided to beat a hasty retreat back to the hotel before the rain set in for the afternoon.

The following day this balloon drifted over the hotel, it was great timing as I had been looking for an excuse to take a photo of the fields over the road from our room, and it just was enough to make the shot more interesting.

It was a good weekend away, nice to spend some time out of the house before I left for New Zealand the following day.

Hadleigh Castle

Monday 02 June 2014 – Hadleigh Castle, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.

Way back at the beginning of April I took a walk along the Thames Estuary from Leigh-on-Sea to Southend, and just before we entered Leigh-on-Sea on the train I noticed a small ruined castle on a hill and decided that I should make a visit there soon. Once home I discovered the castle was Hadleigh Castle and when a quite day and a dry spell arrived at the same time I took a trip out there.

Hadleigh Castle is on a small farm gifted to English Heritage by the Salvation Army in 1948 and is in turn surrounded by the Hadleigh Country Park, which is owned by the Essex Council and was the venue for the mountain bike event at the 2012 London Olympics.

The building of the castle started sometime in the early 13th century when the land was gifted to Hubert de Burgh by King John I for favours rendered. A few years later the de Burgh family fell out of favour with King Henry III and they were stripped of the castle and land and it became a royal palace for a while before falling into disrepair in the middle of the century.

There was a revival of its fortunes under Edward II and III in the 14th century but after that there was little interest in the castle by the royal family and it was finally sold to Lord Richard Rich in 1551 and it was dismantled so the stone could be sold.

The castle is built on a low clay hill over marshes and farmland over-looking on the banks of the Thames Estuary and has been subject to much subsidence over the years. I saw a piece of the castle lying in a ditch as I was walking across from the coastal path.

After a few nice days, with me getting all excited that summer was on the way and I could get out and about again, we then settled into almost two weeks of off and on rainy weather. When the forecast suggested a few hours of sun and high cloud before a late afternoon of rain I thought sod it, grabbed a ticket and jumped on a train from Fenchurch St to Benfleet. I decided to walk from Benfleet up to Hadleigh Castle and on to Leigh-on-Sea where I would have a coffee before heading back to London. In theory I would miss the rain.

The train journey took about forty minutes and then it was another ten minutes of “thinking I know where I am going” walking until I reached the gate of Hadleigh Country Park.

The path took me along the bank between the estuary and the flat lands of the park,

And away in the distance the gentle hill of the Olympic mountain bike course, which I think is open for the public to ride. As a side note I have now bought another bike, a year after my last one was stolen, it is a mountain bike and once I get my fitness up I will see if I can ride here, once I have a couple of test rides under my belt. I am soooooooooooooooooooo not ready to do any decent bike rides right now.

I crossed the railway lines that I would travel on later in the day when I return to London on the train.

A glimpse of the only remaining tower of the castle in the distance.

The path up to castle from this side is surprisingly steep!

There is not a huge amount left of the castle, some of the outer wall is passed through on approach.

I was surprised with the number of visitors there, at least a dozen other people were visiting or relaxing in the grounds – I fully expected to be the only person there. The view to the south and over the Thames is quite impressive – as were the clouds moving in from the west…

The remains of the kitchen.

The last remains of one of the towers built under Edward III.

This tower, also from Edward III is the most preserved piece of the castle.

With the rain pending, I took a last look around and then started down the much gentler path towards Leigh-on-Sea, turning back for a couple of last shots.

I was walking fairly fast down the path back towards town, and once there decided to flag the extra walk from the station to the cafe area about a kilometre away. I jumped on the next train and headed home.

It was a good few hours out, I explored another old castle and got to see a bit more of the area close to London – an area that most Londoners will never see themselves!

Of course it never did rain at all 🙂