A day in ruins

More from this summer. It was so different in many ways, but the main one was that Mr Famapa worked away for most of it, leaving me and Oomoo to our own devices for weeks on end. To break it up me and O drove up to York to go and stay with friends for a few nights. The weather was all over the place (mainly on the wet side) but I had a few places I wanted to go visit.

The Kilburn White Horse was one of them, and this is the best picture I got of it. Not only can you not see the horse, it’s also not white. There’s quite a story about it; a wealthy Victorian business man had been to see the chalk hill Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire, and wanted to create something similar near the village he grew up in. The local schoolmaster, together with his pupils and volunteers, set about to cut the horse out of the hill, but as it wasn’t made out of chalk, the horse did not end up having the desired white colour. Tons of limestone was instead poured over it to have the same effect, something that has been done regularly ever since. Well, it had obviously not been done for a long time when we were there, so if anything it could probably be re-branded to a more accurate name like “The Greige Horse”.

Walking up the steps up to it (and down like here) was quite an experience. They went on forever and were ridiculously steep. Quite a workout!

From there we continued to Helmsley for a spot of lunch, and walked past this ruin of Helmsley Castle.

Twice.

We didn’t stop as we had a bigger ruin on our itinerary: Rievaulx Abbey. In the depths of the third lockdown I savoured watching Winter Walks, where you got to follow various people in the public eye go for a solo walk in Yorkshire and Cumbria, accompanied only by a 360 degree camera they were filming with themselves with, and a drone. This blogpost describes exactly what it felt like for me to watch these beautiful, soulful programmes in the bleakest of winters (let’s hope this coming one won’t be as bad, because the last one was ROUGH here), and the programmes proved handy with lots of suggestions of what to explore in Yorkshire.

Rievaulx Abbey did not disappoint.

A Cistercian monastery since 1132 (!), this extension of the cloisters was completed in the 1220’s. At its most populous point around 650 people lived there, with the minority being monks, and the majority lay brothers.

Shut down by Henry the VIII in 1538, it was quickly dismantled, with the roof lead and church bells saved for the king.

It didn’t occur to me that maybe it was a bit unsafe to walk around like we did, but the upper walls were reinforced with hidden concrete beams in 1918, to preserve the ruins for the future.

Dotted around in the grass were signs showing where different areas used to be.

Must be quite something to live so close, in these houses, right next to it.

After the dissolution of the abbey, it continued on as an iron forge, which already existed, as the lay brothers at Rievaulx forged their own tools, nails and cutlery. Eventually it too got closed down, and the land was handed down generations of landed gentry, and finally given to the state as a historical monument in the 1900’s.

Lastly, in the grounds café afterwards, in a really well designed seating area. Those windows!

I’m so glad we’re finally exploring England more (and I hope we get to travel round the rest of the UK soon too), as in the ‘Before’ we usually went abroad for our holidays. I always knew that there are so many amazing places to visit here, and it’s crazy that it took a pandemic to make us appreciate what’s closer to home. But I guess sometimes you have to learn the hard way.

An Oxford wander

Seems like hardly any of my posts are from London recently... You can't blame me though, can you, as I’ve seen enough of London to last me quite a while in the past 18 months. My friend H, who used to live around the corner from me, moved out of London earlier this year, and I’m so proud of us for managing to see each other about once a month since then. Oxford is a half hour train ride from her house, so on we the train we hopped, to go for an architecture walk in the Jericho neighbourhood. I’m always up for a visit there (still haven’t managed to go to Cambridge - which is crazy)! In fact H was scheming that we should retire there together, listing good healthcare, a smaller city, but still close to London and the countryside as good reasons, to which I added ‘a bikeable city!’. She did get me thinking. Just like in London the architecture is a varied mix - Georgian, Victorian, Brutalist and new. Check out this 60’s student accommodation block out next to, I’m guessing, an Edwardian building, now a very classy wine bar.

And here, a Victorian terrace. I always think streets without trees look so strange.

Maybe that’s compensated by these ornate window frames just yards away.

And this Georgian terrace looks very different from London ones, as they’ve been built in what looks like Bath stone, rather than brick.

We all like Georgian houses, don’t we? They really knew how to build proportionally back then. Although if you look closely you can see that this house isn’t perfectly symmetrical.

Had to snap this as I liked the colours and the pattern.

Just around the corner sits another modern student accommodation building. I like how they’ve matched the exterior stone with the older houses.

Look at that cool dining area to the right. Very stylish student digs I must say.

I wanted to get a picture of the Palladian exterior of this building, and cursed loudly about the white van blocking the view. The guy in the picture, who’s van it was, apologised profusely, and I immediately apologised about my outburst. We all had a good laugh about it. The building, St Paul’s, used to be a church and is now a bar called Freud. Funnily enough, I used to frequent the original London branch a lot in the mid 90’s. Oh boy, writing that previous sentence makes me feel old.

A bit further down the road this house caught our eye. Why did the front look like that, and didn't it look great? Turns out it started out life as a greengrocers.

Hence this old painted ad on the side of the house for Hovis bread.

We stood looking at this house for quite a while. We also really liked the planting. So jealous of people who have the energy to look after their plants that well.

Same road, different style. I love these arched entryways. Something about them is so cosy.

At one point we walked onto a little bridge over the Oxford Canal. I had to take one of my waving at each others reflection pictures there. Here’s another one from Venice.

Face!

In-ter-esting… I wonder if anyone ever does. I didn’t, but maybe I should’ve.

H, looking down a street.

An Oxford alternative to a window box. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one like it before.

Ooooooff. The brick colour and windows on this house. Niiiiiiice.

Before catching the train back to H’s house we walked along Oxford Canal. At one section the houses backed on to it, with the gardens going all the way down to the canal.

Nice, huh?

Talk about lifestyle goals.

Sadly the canal isn’t clean enough to swim in. And also, you’d feel pretty exposed with the opposite side of the canal being a public footpath. Still, really nice to see how some people live (university professors maybe?), and if you wanted to be more private, the gardens were deep enough to shelter you form people like us.

And finally, an eye catching ziggurat tower atop the Saïd Business School right next to the train station. It was so cool to go to Oxford and only walk around one residential neighbourhood and skip everything else. A bit like going to London, only to walk around Islington or something. Lucky us.

Day trippers

Right at the beginning of the summer holidays Oomoo suggested that we went to back to Hever Castle, bringing our friends C and A with us, and a bloody good idea it was too. Last time we went, three years ago, it was a scorching hot day, but no such luck this year. Heavy rain was forecast for midday, so we headed inside the castle straight after lunch. What’s the back story on this place then? Well, I’ll tell you (hahaha). The oldest part of the castle dates from 1270 (!), but has been added to for centuries, and is most famous as the childhood and family home of Anne Boleyn, King Henry the VIII’s second wife in the early 1500’s. Henry the VIII is probably the UK’s most famous king, what with his six marriages and the initiating the English Reformation. In the end he had Anne Boleyn executed on account of adultery (although it was never proven), and eventually gave Hever Castle to his fourth wife Anne of Cleves, who got away with a bog standard divorce (there’s a rhyme that most English school kids get taught so they remember the fate of the different wives that goes: "Divorced, Beheaded, Died: Divorced, Beheaded, Survived” - nice guy, eh?). Centuries later the wealthy American William Waldorf Astor (the richest man in America at the time) bought the castle and set about to restore it as it had fallen into decline. It’s now owned by a Yorkshire businessman who buys old historical houses and opens them up to the public.

So, let’s head in. Voila, the portcullis. Does it remind you of the Jaws film poster? It does me.

We had to queue for a bit in the courtyard before entering which gave us a chance to have a closer look at the Tudor style exterior of this section.

There’s quite a mish mash of styles in the house, some being more historical and other how the Astors had it. This pictures doesn’t do the room justice (it’s actually sectioned off, so you can’t enter it, and muggins here never has a zoom lens on the camera). It’s a lovely room, with beautiful intarsia wood panelling.

My lovely friend C, taking a pic.

A portrait of Anne Boleyn. I had to take a picture, because as a Swede her surname here made me laugh. Bullen = Bun. Trust me, it’s funnier in Swedish. If you’re 5. Or 46.

You know I have a window addiction, right? I can’t help it.

A view across to the Astor Wing, or Tudor Village as it’s also called (now a hotel), which was built by Astor and not the Tudors, in 1903, in the Tudor style. Confused yet? Tudor architecture was the architecture du jour during Henry the VII’s reign, that also had a revival in the late 1800’s when it was called Tudor Style or Mock Tudor. If you’ve been to London and to the department store Liberty’s you’ve seen Mock Tudor.

It got a bit busy in this room so I waited a bit so I could get this picture without any 21st century people in it. There was a moment earlier when a kid (8 or 9 years old) freaked out as the guided audio tour had just told him that this room was haunted. The sheer terror in his voice! Poor guy.

As I result of hanging back I missed going into this room with Oomoo, who has a fear of dummies like these. He’s never liked them, so I assume he walked past these guys quickly. This is Henry and Anne innit. And a monstrous hand (there was some sort of trail for younger kids to spot through out the house). Can you spot it?

Some nice light and colours in one of the corridors.

I think my taste is changing as I get older. I never liked this style of painting before, but I like the flatness of them now. I think being forced to look at different styles of art in the past 18 months has broaden my view.

This was once Astor’s daughter’s room, or maybe it was a guest bedroom - I can’t remember.. There was another room next door with flowery wallpaper on the walls, as well as the ceiling, and me and C ohh and ahhed over how much we liked it. C said “It’s happened. We’ve gotten so old we now like chintz”. Yep.

And here we are - the chintz liking ladies.

This room had horrible medieval weapons and torture contraptions in it. This iron mask was worn by women for months or years as punishment for adultery amongst other things, to humiliate and punish them in public. There were loads of different masks, specifically for women, and I asked the guide in the room (male) that it seemed a bit unfair that only the women got punished like this, and the men weren’t. He didn’t like the implication of my comment at all, and proceeded to proudly show us an implement that was used to slice women breasts off. It made me think he had issues with women, and would probably have really enjoyed being a man back then.

And then, the sun came out and so did we. Ciao castle!

Mazes are so a-mazeing. I want them to be larger than the ones I’ve been to - I want to get properly lost. Mr Famapa says there’s an order to how many lefts and rights you should take to make your way out without hitting a dead end, so walking them with him is always a quick experience. And here there was, once we got to the middle of it, a straight line out to the exit - which was a cheat.

Edgy hedge.

Piggy hedge.

I like the wildflower meadow planting that we’re all realising is good to have now.

At Hever there is also a water maze, which you walk through trying not to get wet if you’re an adult, and the opposite if you’re not. The maze is a circular stone tile walkway that sprays water if you step on the 'wrong’ tile. For some reason I didn't bring spare clothes for Oomoo (even though we’d been before), so he had to sit in the car for the two hour drive home afterwards completely drenched.

More nice planting.

Best mates statue alert. I love how they’re just hanging out, having a chat.

Let’s see it from the front. It looks like the eagle is telling his pal about the time he accidentally ate a grumpy male guide in the castle 😉.

This is what a lot of summer in the UK 2021 looked like - April in other words. I’m so glad we ignored the weather forecast and just went anyway. If you’re looking for a day out outside London I say GO; I thought I wouldn’t enjoy it as much the second time, but I was pleasantly surprised. And if we hadn’t gone on a rainy day I wouldn’t have got this shot, and that would’ve been a shame.

A walk in Ramsgate

Like I said in the earlier post; at one point in our Ramsgate stay I went out for a walk on my own to have a look around. These stairs led the way from the marina walk up to the top of the cliff above.

I had no real idea of where I was going, apart from that I wanted to find the house that Vincent Van Gogh stayed in when he worked as a teacher at an all boys school here in 1876, in the years when he was trying to find his way, before he devoted himself completely to painting. It’s really interesting to walk around somewhere unfamiliar on your own, it feels slightly surreal, but also adventurous? Maybe one day I should go on a trip on my own, just for a different experience. I remember decades ago, when I used to work on a magazine, and I had to go to Folkestone for the day to take pictures. It was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. Not for any reason in particular; just the strangeness of being somewhere new, with no one else to share it with.

Even as seed heads poppies are so beautiful - aren’t they?

A Victorian wind shelter being used.

I had no idea where I was going at this point. I just followed my nose. This flint stone church looked really impressive.

The Granville, a huge Victorian Gothic style hotel that was converted into flats in 1947. Apparently the tower used to be even higher, but got truncated at some point. So quirky!

This sign above the entrance to the Ramsgate Tunnels caught my eye. I mean, how could it not? The Ramsgate Tunnels used to be part of the Victorian railway, that went straight out of London to the Granville Hotel. In WW2, on today’s date in 1940, 500 bombs were dropped over Ramsgate, destroying over 1,200 houses, and as a result about 300 families moved into the tunnels, that had already been added to so it could function as an air raid shelter. People lived there for the next five years, turning it into a subterranean town with shops, barbers, an underground hospital, and it even held concerts. You can see old footage of what it was like here.

The Pulhamite rock garden on Madeira Walk, built to entice holiday makers to spend more time in the town. Pulhamite rocks are in fact not rocks, but rubble and cement put together to look like natural rock.

And to our 21st century eyes it’s obvious that they’re fake.

How’s this for a mishmash of styles? And why is the brown and pink house turned on an angle like that?

Getting closer to the Van Gogh house now. I thought this Art Deco (I’m assuming) block of flats looked cool.

And this former deli, now a house, looked interesting too. Look at all them vintage pendant lights innit.

Knitted ice cream bunting. Well I never.

Saw a few of these flint houses. This one was the cutest.

And, the colour of this pub got my approval.

Tadaa! And here it is - Vincent’s old digs. I don’t know if you can see them though the curtains on the ground floor, but there was a vase full on sunflowers there. Like an homage.

And from sunflowers to weeds. I was out for a lot longer than I though I would be, so I started on my way back to the house via the marina. You have to admire weeds for being able to grow pretty much anywhere, like through the cracks of the marina wall.

Time for reflection.

And finally, these strangers, having some fish and chips, with a seagull eyeing them up.