The problem is - too many pictures. It takes a long time to collect them all and size them for this blog. But here's day 5 - it was, again, amazing.
Matt wasn't too excited to drive again, but he did a great job and I think he got more comfortable as he went along. We started out driving, not too far, to Castle Coombe. Here we're driving through the gorgeous countryside.
It's a little village that could not be more charming. We got there first thing in the morning, when not too much was open, but we really liked walking around.
The old church was especially big and beautiful for a village (usually smaller villages have smaller chapels).
We went in and talked to a very nice lady who told us some interesting things. The church has this faceless clock which is very old. It doesn't have a face because in the olden days the workers in the field didn't need to see the time, they just needed to listen for the bells, which still ring today.
She also told us some interesting things, like the thatch on the roofs in town has to match a certain sort of thatch when you do repairs, and a one bedroom cottage costs 500,000 pounds, very expensive.
This the manor, which is now an inn. The grounds are gorgeous.
There's a stream running by,
and Matt and Pierce played a game of giant lawn chess.
There's a beautiful terraced English garden going up the hill.
We wandered around the town for awhile and then came across a tea shop which was open. Finally we got to eat scones with clotted cream and jam! Delicious.
Around some more charming corners, and we got back to the car and drove to our next stop.
The village of Lacock is owned by the National Trust and the whole city is sort of a museum, though people also live there and have shops. There is a lovely sheep meadow on the way to the abbey, which is where we went first.
The abbey was founded in 1232. It started as an abbey and a nunnery.
The grounds have all sorts of beautiful details.
The original cloister burned down and was rebuilt in the 1400's. So - still just a little old, ha.
These rooms and halls have been used for Harry Potter movies - do they look familiar? Also, the cauldron is something like 500 years old and was used in the abbey long ago.
I tried to get the kids to stride down the hall like Harry Potter and his friends, but they thought that was silly.
In the 1500's when the Catholic church was abolished, the manor was sold to a Tudor courtier, Sir William Sharington. He and his descendants built on and transformed the abbey and its grounds. This is part of the kitchen.
I especially like this checklist for household wants that needed to be replenished!
William Henry Fox Talbot ended up with the house in the 1800's. He was actually the guy who invented photography here in this manor. He had quite a library.
This was his counting room, for real. He had land deeds and gold and locked it up and could come in this room and count it. How fancy is that, a counting room?
The rest of the house was lovely. It was really interesting to see the combination of the old abbey and the 1800's manor house.
There was also a greenhouse and gardens (of course).
After we looked around the abbey for quite awhile, we went out into the village. It's beautiful like Castle Coombe, but it was later in the day so there were more cars and people around.
This house was in I think the first Harry Potter movie - it was the house that Harry lived in with his parents.
The church was lovely (as usual). Pierce got tired of looking in old churches, but I really didn't.
It seems like the monuments and signs in England have a little extra something to them - they go into more detail than I'm used to. This guy, James the late Lord Bishop of Worcester, died at Bath... in consequence of a most unfortunate fall from his Horse.
Pierce noticed a shop with weapons in it, so we went in. Sure enough there were swords and daggers and armor, and... we came home with two daggers and Pierce got a short sword (modeled after "Sting" from the hobbit). They might have been a little tricky to get home, but we wrapped them up in one bag that was going to be checked, and they arrived safe and sound.
This house was Horace Slughorn's house in I think the second Harry Potter movie. It looked more foreboding in the movie.
We stopped for lunch on the way south to our next site at Bradford-on-Avon, where we sat on a terrace overlooking the Avon River and ate delicious Italian food.
Originally I'd planned to see the Roman Baths today, so that tomorrow we could go on a bicycle tour of the Cotswolds. But the tour location was kind of far away, and Matt doesn't like driving on English country roads, and it was getting late already and I didn't want to leave Bath before seeing the actual baths. So we decided to see something else tonight and forget the far-away bicycle tour. Probably that was the right decision, because our vacation was proceeding at a rapid pace and we didn't need to add another long drive to a slightly differently beautiful place. (But I still want to go another time.) Anyway, I'd bought a pass to some national historic sites, and the closest one was Farleigh Hungerford Castle - so off we went.
The castle is a ruin but it's a beautiful site! We got an audio guide which was quite good and enjoyed a tour with some very interesting commentary.
Well, Matt and I enjoyed the audio guide - the kids declined and instead amused themselves climbing around (which didn't seem to be prohibited).
If you're very interested, the history is found here: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/farleigh-hungerford-castle/
It used to have a moat and walls all the way around, and lots more towers.
This cottage is just below the castle grounds. Can you imagine having this as your neighbor?
This tower was the last one to go - I guess it was held together mainly by vines, and those caught on fire at some point not too many years ago, then down came the tower.
The Hungerford that did the big expansion project incorporated the village chapel into his castle. It's especially beautiful. (Then he built the village another chapel a little ways away.)
The chapel is very old and the artwork survived the dissolution of the Catholic church because (I think) they plastered over all their paintings, then later got the plaster safely off.
These are the actual Hungerfords - I think these were the first couple, and his feet are on a lion which means he fought in the crusades. Cool, right?
Some medieval paintings decorate the walls.
And this is a really old medieval painting of St. George slaying a dragon. We saw lots of St. George's in Europe! But I bet this is the oldest one we saw.
I feel like this is the first Hungerford's son and his wife (I should just look it up) - in any case it's a younger generation and I think this is the guy who expanded the manor into a castle with a curtain wall etc.
Then down to the crypt. Who wouldn't go see a crypt if they could? Not me. The coffins were lead and they sunk down over time, ooooooooooh.
I had to rush the audio tour a bit, but it did tell me that before they gated the coffins in, people used to come put sticks into a hole in one of them and poke the remains. Yuck.
Crypt aside, the castle and park were very fun for all of us to explore and learn about! What a fun day in England. We went back to our hotel in Bath for one more night there.
Mattie's fitbit says 18,828 steps, and we drove quite a bit too today. Busy!
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