Monday September 18, 2006

Restoration winner

The 2006 final of the BBC's Restoration program was on last night. The winner surprisingly for me was Chedham's Yard. This year the emphasis has been on villages and buildings were picked that were at the heart of these small communities. There were others especially in poorer parts of the country that seemed more appealing from the community and ensuring normal village life continues but that does not take anything away from the folks who have worked hard to make Chedham's yard a winner. If things follow their usual pattern the other finalists might end up getting funding from other means but with an average of two million being needed for each this is going to be tough. The other interesting this about winning this program is that they just do not get given the cash after winning - they have to show that the restoration will result in something that is sustainable after the work is completed and in the future - so the Chedham's yard folks will be even busier before they get their cash.

A wedding, a visit to Rutland and a truncated walk in the Chilterns

We were kindly invited to our friends daughters wedding that was held in the Peak District last Friday. The wedding, meal and party afterwards were all in one place and we had a room there for the night. The place was an old country estate Hassop Hall near Bakewell. It was a great day with wall to wall sunshine all day. The only problem I had to deal with was having to make myself look presentable in a suit not somethng I have to wear normally and also do a John Travolta impression after the bidding of my wife to make an appearance on the dance floor. It was great to meet our friends daughters again and share their happy day with their friends and family. It was a late night or early morning as we got to bed just before 2am.

After waking up at 11.30am the following day we got up quickly and headed down the M1 to the smallest county in the UK Rutland. My father was evacuated here in the Second World War. The county is in fact only twenty miles across, has two towns and forty pretty villages that remind one of the Cotswolds with their yellow stone walls. The area has Europe's largest man made lake ( for supplying water ) which covers over three thousand acres and has twenty five miles of shoreline is in the county too. We stayed in a small village pub in Harringworth where there is large railway viaduct. It has eighty two arches each of forty feet span. On average each is fifty seven feet high. They used twenty million bricks, and twenty thousand cubic yards of concrete and ninteen thousand cubic feet of stone. It took just over two years to build starting March 1876 and completed in July 1878. The railway line is now closed to passengers but is used for transporting industrial items. After arriving at the pub we set of to visit a National Trust property called Lyvden New Bield and its garden.

As can be seen the place us a ruin but it was in fact never completed. It was built between 1595 and 1605 by Sir Thomas Tresham to represent his Catholic faith but work on it finished after he died in 1605. His son's involvement in the Gunpowder plot meant it was left as it now stands for four hundred years. Frieze work around the exterior tells the story of Christ's crucifixion. Religious sculptures in special numbers of three, five and seven surround the top of the building. We went inside and the rooms are described and are all in good condition but no floors, ceilings or roof. In the gardens are two snail spirals which were designed so ladies could walk up them and be admired by gentlemen. The orchard which was planted in 1597 but the trees were lifted and sold in 1609 for a new house in Hatfield. During World War Two the field when looked at from above still showed the holes left when the trees were removed. The trees have all been replaced using original old types that would have been planted there originally.

Afterwards we drove to the nearby pretty town of Oundle with its very attractive school . This is a lovely town with lots of original real shops. It has a pretty church with the date of its build on its spire.

On the Sunday we drove further down to Aldbury a place we have visited before. We had lunch at the excellent The Valient Trooper and started a walk that took us past the old pond and Stocks.

However very soon we got lost and only partly completed the walk. Still a very nice long weekend.