Nice Monday 8th Sept

 St Austell to Salisbury and Salisbury to London 24th and 25th of June

Woke up to a little bit of sunshine, and a small slice of blue sky, After breakfast, before getting on the coach went out the back of the hotel to the Cliff top walk, and took a few photos in the different light

Was really stunning looking to the east, and the cloud lifting from the promontory, and what I think is a lighthouse, would have been good to have a telephoto lens at this point.

First stop we had was Buckfast Abbey, cool name, unfortunately the church was closed for the morning as there was an electrical fault. 

The history of the rebuilding of the Abbey is fascinating and worth looking up (googling) the original Abbey was founded under King Cnut in 1018, evolved over the years, and was dissolved under the reign of Henry VIII. But the most interesting part is the rebuilding by a group of Benedictine monks in the early 20th century. They were digging a garden and found the foundations, was built as funds allowed mostly by  a very small group of monks who were originally gardeners, and one stonemason. A lot of furnishings were donated. 

It was a very peaceful setting, so we enjoyed the gardens and facilities, including a cafe.

The next stop was Lyme Regis, Dorset named after the river Lyme and the Regis comes from Edward I when he visited. We passed the house where the author of the French Lieutenants Woman, John Fowles lived and wrote the book, also Jane Austin spent some time here, some of the novel Persuasion is based here. But what it is mostly renowned for is fossil hunting and finding. This is part of the Jurassic coast and there are shale cliffs here that often give up fossils. Mary Anning is well known for discovering many fossils in the early 19th century. There is a movie based pon her life called the Ammonites. 

Mary and her brother discovered many different fossils, although originally illiterate, learnt to read and write, and became a well known authority at the time, non other than Charles Darwin was interested in her works, there is a museum there and a few fossil shops worth looking at, a few claim to be where she lived. 

The harbour wall is called a Cobb, maybe from the cobbles it is composed of or from the Scandinavian Kobe meaning rounded island. I purchased a cheese and onion pasty (yes pastry, potatoes, cheese and onion) ate that before walking the wall.

The end of the Cobb

We came down some slightly precarious steps, luckily we didn’t choose these ones. Ours were like the bottom two steps but narrow. This wall and steps feature in the movie Persuasion but the sea is high asn crashing against the wall.

There are a range of beaches at Lyme Regis, pebble - or what we would call stone 4-5 cms. And sand, of course it is a beach for the English to spend their summer holidays at 

We then moved on to the Hardy Monument in Dorset  as in Kiss me hardy fame, He went on to become the first Admiral of the Fleet. There was a story that he used to go home and have lunch with his wife whilst working in London and around about 1870 (not sure of this) he told her he had the papers for the scraping of the HNS Victory, the ship they won the battle of Trafalgar on in 1805, apparently she whipped his lunch from in front of him and told him “if that happens, you will not eat here again” Good story, so it is still at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

It is in the shape of a spyglass, sitting on its end, apparently still used as a navigational aid. another great thin about it is it is on top of a hill that has fabulous views and it was a lovely fine day.

On to Salisbury for the night, walked into the town a little to go to Tescos, could Dee the last of the sun on the cathedral spire.

Salisbury Cathedral is by the river Avon, apparently there are 5 river Avons in England, the Romans when they invaded in 48 BC asked the Saxons the names of the rivers, apparently Saxons didn’t name rivers, they were just called Avon meaning river. So there are five river Rivers in England and one in Christchurch.

As in all these massive buildings, really hard to get all of them in the photo frame without too much distortion.

We had an amazing guide, wished we could have spent more time with him, msust have been an academic as very passionate about the building and its history. It is not the original cathedral that was built a couple of miles away in what is now known as Old Sarum. Originally finished in 1091, by 1217 the bishops and priests experienced a difficult relationship with castle and there were issues with water. So it was decided to move to present site and parts of existing church consecrated in 1258, built by both skilled and unskilled workers. 

Beautiful inside, one of only a couple of cathedrals that doesn’t have a quire screen so you can see right from east to west with no disruption. Built from limestone the columns two colours are derived from the light ones being natural and the darker being polished, and sometimes quite highly polished with animal fat. ?We were shown on a closeup view of blocks, where oyster shells and snails had been.

Has this really cool modern baptismal font, that also a bit of a fountain the water is so smooth it provides a beautiful reflection.

The current cathedral has foundations only 4 feet deep and sits on a bed of gravel and water, not a good thing to say to someone from Christchurch. Thee is a stone that can be lifted in the floor and they have a rod to test how high the water is underneath. Not sure if there is a purpose to this or maybe just for show.

Edward Heath was an organist at the cathedral before becoming prime minister,so is buried there.

Other famous people include William Longespee, and also in a big monument to Lady Katherine Grey and Edward Seymour, after a secret marriage they ran foul of Elizabeth I and were imprisoned in the Tower of London, gave birth to two sons there, so was separated from her husband and died aged 27.After Edward’s death her remains were moved to be with him in the cathedral. She’s a bit higher than him as she had royal blood. 

A copy of the Magna Carta from 1215 signed by king John, can’t photograph but there was a photo copy, unfortunately we ran out of time to spend too long there. King John’s seal also on display in the Chapter house which was a beautiful room, I loved the ceiling.

And the floor. Then it was all aboard for our final trip together back to London, and then a scattering to the  four winds, although one couple originally from Northern Ireland and now living in Sydney, just happened to be staying around the corner from me by Paddington station, and I bumped into them there that evening on a sortie to get some food for tea, and the next morning when meeting Ronda there.