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England 2012We had some time off during Easter so decided to have a look at the Cotswalds as Lorraine was always telling me how beautiful they are. Due to the possibilty of a tanker driver's strike we could not venture too far afield. I must admit it is a very pretty and characterful area. Following are a few photos from the trip. The Riverside Campsite at Stratford upon Avon was quite a large one with a cafe and a clubhouse set in beautiful surroundings about 20 minutes from the city centre by watertaxi. The cafe did a lovely breakfast fo 99p of which I indulged in on 2 occassions.
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The river Avon that runs through the campsite. |  |
The watertaxi that runs roughly every half hour to the marina at Stratford upon Avon, costs £1.50 per person each way and well worth it. |
| A lovely old medieval town well worth spending a couple of days roaming around. It's full of character and off course the birthplace of Shakespeare. |  |
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Another place we thought was very pretty was Castle Coombe, the town where they filmed Warhorse.
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Very quaint with beautiful coloured stone. |  |
You can just imagine horses and carts trundling up the road here. |
| A view from the bottom of the town looking up to the centre. |  |
Burford town which has a lovely adults only campsite only 10 minutes walk from the town centre. It's full of shops and has an interesting church. |  |
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Bourton on the Water, an old town with many bridges crossing the small river that runs through it's centre but rather touristic. |  |
Slimbridge, not far from the River Severn. This campsite was just behind the canal. There was a good pub at the entrance and some enjoyable towpath walks. It was fairly close to the Wetland Centre. |
| The village of Laycock. |  |
Lots of medieval buildings to explore including a "haunted" pub (the white building on the left of the picture). |  |
| Laycock Abbey where Harry Potter was filmed. |  |
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At the end of April we decided to visit the Barge Inn at Pewsey in Wiltshire and to sample some "Alien Abduction" (a locally brewed green beer). Well the weather couldn't have been much worse. We arrived in rain and left in very heavy rain. The campsite was basic but the pub was lovely serving very good food and superb beers including "1810", "Croppie" and off course "Alien Abduction". The pub is within metres of The Kennet & Avon Canal and has many interesting canalboats tied up beside it. The area is famous for it's Crop Circles and the chalk white horse on the hill opposite. It has live music on a Saturday evening and lots of characters to chat to. |
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Life just slowly glides by. |  |
The front view of the pub seen from the towpath that leads into the village. |
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There
were barges tied up on both sides of the canal which gave us an inkling
what it must have been like in yester year.
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And what a tasty tipple it is!! Named after the Crop Circles that abound in the area. |  |
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During the Jubilee weekend we travelled up through Essex and into Suffolk to meet up with Lorraine's family and to introduce them into the joys of camping.
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Lorraine wanted to have a look at Finchingfield, supposedly one of the prettiest towns in England and one of the most photographed. |  |
All I can say really it was an absolute nightmare to try and find a parking spot there. It was a busy little place with lots of tourists there to admire it's quaintness. |
.We then moved on to have a look at Flatford on the River Stour on the Suffolk/Essex border which is famous for Constable's paintings.
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We
were lucky with the weather as you can see and the area had been very
well preserved by the National Trust. This was the 16th century Bridge
Cottage.
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I believe it;s the same bridge seen from further down the river |  |
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Willy Lott's cottage in idyllic surroundings. This is what it looks like now. |  |
This is what it looked like in Constable's day. |
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Flatford
Mill itself.
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Now a Bed & Breadfast |  |
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They used to this area to haul the barges and work on them after the water had been pumped out. |
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After Flatford we moved onto the Heathside campsite in Wenhaston, highly recommended. We managed to help them get the tent up before it rained and had a meal together. I must admit I did feel sorry for them as it rained heavily the first night and the second night the temperature hit Zero. Not the best conditions for their first time camping. Hopefully it hasn't put them off. |
The following morning we set off for Southwold.
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Southwold with it's lighthouse in the centre of the town on a rather stormy day. |  |
An old water clock on the pier. |
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The
terrible trio recovering after their first night camping in the pouring
rain.
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Aprt from the Pier and Lighthouse the most inspiring building in the town |  |
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Southwold have their own unique species of tree lobster! This particular tree had 2 lobsters and a crab, very versatile shellfish around these parts!! |
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