Tuesday March 29, 2005

An Easter Break

Had a great weekend in Marlborough which is just inside the Wiltshire border. Less than one hour away but so much quieter with less people and traffic on the roads. Did a three night stop over in the hotel called the Castle and Ball which is in the centre. The first day we did a walk that started by the pub above. The pub called The Ibex has in the past been in the hands of the jockey Colin Brown who partnered Desert Orchid for many years. Further around the walk we went through the village of Leckhampstead where the war memorial below is situated.

This is no ordinary memorial. As can be seen it has a clock on it, with the hands being made of bayonets, the minutes on the face are machine gun ammunition and the Roman numerals are of rifle ammunition. Very poignant. The second day we did two other walks, the first was a disaster due to terrible instructions in the book and clearly some kind of unofficial diversion undertaken by the owner of the land we were walking on. I have to say in the south of England stiles are in a terrible state and often not repaired properly. In the afternoon we did a walk by the river Lambourn and passed this unusual church on the return leg.

The final day we threw caution to the wind and did a longer walk around Pewsey downs. It is a pity the weather was overcast else the views would have been awsome. We passed two little villages and saw this ancient church below and then had lunch at the Barge Inn where pictures in the pub proclaimed part of Inspector Morse ( The Wench is dead) was filmed there. The pub is by the Kennet and Avon canal which we followed for a bit before returning to the downs.

Back on the downs we saw in the distance the White Horse of Alton Barnes which dates back to 1812. There are a lot of these White Horses cut into the Hills where chalk is near the surface. My favourite is not a horse but the Cern Abbass Giant . It is not recommended to visit him after dark as the site is known as an ancient fertility haunt. ( reach your own conclusions !) We then had a steep climb to reach the summit of Milk hill the highest in Wiltshire. Finally we straddled "Wansdyke" which is thought to have been contructed in the 6/7th centuries by the Britons to act as a defence against invading Anglo Saxons.

We had some nice meals in the town. We found a nice pub which I will suggest is a good lucky dip entry in the Good pub guide . The pub is in the centre and is called the Wellington Arms. After the meal we joined in a pub quiz and despite there only being two of us we managed to scrape together a score better than a larger group nearby. We also had a great meal in a Brasserie called "Godots" which I would recommend if you are in the area.