Near the Ancient City of Bath in Sommerset

At the moment we're staying in Bathford, just a few miles from Bath itself. Here we have a distant relative whom we stayed with last time. She attends the village church, St. Swithuns, and is fully involved there so we are being invited to several parish happenings including a coffee morning and a film afternoon; saw The Student Prince. Afterwards we drove along to Warleigh Manor Farm where Joyce was in service as a young woman as the Under Parlour Maid earning sixteen pound a year. We also went to see the cottage where she grew up and were invited to tea and a look over the now renovated house. The garden where we sat to drink the cup of tea has roses and hollyhocks, just as you would imagine, and the sun was streaming down and the dog was chasing a frisbee. At night the foxes come up to the house to be fed, this stops them taking the lambs.

Bath is exactly as you see it in the movies and is quite extensive with sandstone buildings for miles, all the same soft natural tones, none painted. The Cathedral is huge and is right down by the River Avon. There is a bridge which you don't notice at first because it has a row of shops on each side. The next bridge has a stairwell in it so you can quickly climb up onto the bridge. I saw the Assembly Rooms where they still hold balls under the huge chandelliers and watched by faces in the paintings on the surrounding walls. Yes and the walls are lined with chairs for those still awaitng partners. The Pump Room is still there and so are the Roman Baths, all fully restored now.


Yesterday we took in a tour of the environs and visited the famous village of Lacock where Emma, Pride and Prejudice 1995 and Cranford were filmed. And yes it really looks like it. Many of the cottages are used as shops and it's so interesting wandering about there. Biddeston and Castle Combe are near Chippenham and are also examples of delightful villages with half timbered houses, small pubs an beautiful churches. As you drive the roads are exceedingly narrow and often are covered with a canopy of pretty green branches.

Bradford-on-Avon is a closer village and here we found the Old Baptist Chapel mainly hidden from view behind the shops, this was to hide it during the unrest after the Civil War years. Here we sat and ate our lunch and chatted to various teams on barges who had to operate the locks to allow their holiday home barges to pass on down the Canal to Bristol Harbour where they have a regatta planned for Saturday.

As we drove into Trowbridge we were surprised to see a Surf shop called 'Piha' so far inland.