Saturday July 26 - Sunday July 27

Saturday, July 26th – All Day Family Gathering in Launton
Today was the long-planned gathering at Rosemarie & Ian’s home. Initially Rosemarie had wanted this to be a surprise party for us, but just before we left for England, she decided that in practicality, a surprise would not work, and so we knew all about what was planned, and who to expect to be there. She and Ian had spent most of Friday buying all kinds of food for the party, and sorting out plates, dishes, etc., and on Saturday morning we all were busy with final preparations. First to arrive was Rosemarie’s daughter, Vera, and her 17 and 14 yr. old daughters, Hollie & Leah, and they also helped with the final set-up. Earlier in the morning it had looked like it might rain, but the sun came out and stayed out all day—in fact it was hot! This was great because R&I’s little home would not easily have accommodated everybody inside (including ourselves and R&I, we ended up with 22 at the gathering), and we had two tables and lots of chairs on the back patio.
Everyone who came had driven from the “Black Country” area of the English Midlands, where Bob and Rosemarie had lived as children, and where Rosemarie lived until she married Ian in 2002. Two couples who came, Doreen & Gwyn, and Carol & Malcolm, are old friends of Rosemarie’s, and over the years they have become pretty much part of “the family”. Additionally, another "local" friend, Julia, came. More about Julia tomorrow, but she and her husband Roger are members of the TR Club (Chiltern TRs) that R&I belong to. (This is a club for owners of vintage Triumph sports cars, and Ian owns a pale yellow TR6, that is appropriately named "Primrose". ) All the other people who came for the gathering are cousins (and their spouses) of Bob & Rosemarie, all sharing the same (long deceased) grandparents, Granny & Granddad Harrington, who had eight daughters (Anna, Rose, Kate, Margaret, Mary Ellen, Winnie, May, Lily) and one son, Billy. Mary Ellen was Bob and Rosemarie’s mother. Winnie was the mother of Cousin Colin Gould, who came with wife Pauline. C&P were married soon after us, and back in the mid-60’s we often went out in the evenings as a foursome. Colin & Pauline brought with them Cousin Margaret Burns, the oldest living cousin, now 87, and her mother was Kate. May was the mother of Cousin Michael Dutton, who came with his wife Maureen. M&M have been married longer than us, and if my memory serves me correctly, it was Maureen’s “tiara” that I wore on top of my veil at our wedding, as the “something borrowed”! Billy was the father of the two cousins who came who still bear the Harrington surname: Derek, and Martin with his wife Tessa. M&T live the farthest away from R&I, in Lancashire, and they also brought their little grandson Adam with them. Bob could write a whole blog about his life as a child in Wednesbury and about all his “cousins and his aunts” (on the Brookes side of the family, his father was one of at least 7 brothers and sisters who survived childhood, so that added plenty to the number of his cousins!). For those of you still reading all this family stuff here in our blog, especially friends in USA, just for interest’s sake, one other of the Harrington sisters, Margaret (Ramsdale) was the mother of Cousin Bernard, who lives in Myrtle Beach on the same street as us, and who instigated our going on the Alaska cruise in June with him and wife Arline.
Back to the party—much chatting, eating (heaps of good old English party cold food, and a pot of chili for good measure) and drinking (hot English tea, as well as beer, wine and soft drinks) went on from noontime through the afternoon. Then Rosemarie’s son-in-law, the revving Reverend Garry Ward, husband of Vera and father of Hollie & Leah, arrived on his Harley. He’d been officiating at a wedding so could only come later to the party. On his arrival the BBQ was lit, and that was a near disaster, but fortunately ended only with very charred hamburgers, and a scorched hand for Malcolm. I’ll say no more about the BBQ fire, only that Bob had nothing to do with it, and that by the time the party was ending, the coals were then perfect for cooking over! It was a lovely day and summer evening, and all too soon the folks were bidding their farewells and leaving for home. Martin, Tessa and little Adam went off to stay overnight at a nearby B&B, and Derek, who was going to stay with them there too, was the only one left with R&I and us to watch Garry roar away on his Harley with Leah as his pillion passenger, and Vera & Hollie drive off sedately in the family van. We were soon doing a quick clear up and putting away left-overs, and then off to bed for a good sleep before another long day ahead on Sunday.

Sunday July 27th, Waddesdon Manor and another “Get Together”

On Sunday, after a hearty breakfast, we drove to Waddesdon (pronounced “Wodsdon”) Manor in Buckinghamshire, which was built by Ferdinand de Rothschild in 1874, after he had purchased the land from the Duke of Marlborough. http://www.waddesdon.org.uk/
The house is built in the French Renaissance Chateau style and has a similar look to Biltmore in Ashville North Carolina, although Waddesdon is smaller in size (Biltmore was the largest private residence in America when it was opened in 1895). http://www.biltmore.com/
The history of the Rothschilds is quite fascinating, but too detailed to go into here. Ferdinand de Rothschild married his cousin Evelina who died in childbirth (as well as the child) in 1866 and he never re-married. He also never worked! By the way, Ferdinand was one of six cousin to cousin marriages in the Rothschild family tree as depicted in the Guide. I’m not sure if that is legal anymore? Ferdinand died in 1898 and the Manor was left to his unmarried sister Alice, who looked after the house until she died in 1922, when she left the house to James Rothschild who was married, but childless. During World War II, the Manor became home to a hundred children under five who had been evacuated from London and James and his wife moved into the Bachelors Wing and never returned to the main house. When James died in 1957, the house was left to the National Trust. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waddesdon_Manor

We toured the main house with the personal audio tapes and thoroughly enjoyed it. We are so lucky that these beautiful stately homes are still available for the current and future generations to enjoy. The grounds of the Manor are also beautiful and we spent a fair amount of time at the aviary, where they maintain endangered species such as the Rothschild Mynah (named after Ferdinand’s nephew Walter (Lord Rothschild II)), an ornithologist, a species that became extinct in the wild in 2004. We then had a picnic lunch (left-overs from Saturday’s party) under the trees near the aviary, and enjoyed the shade from the hot sun. (Yes, two days in a row of sunshine and high temperatures!) It was a lovely visit.

Now we had to rush back to Launton to prepare for our evening visitors. Rosemarie had “bumped into” a couple of South Africans during the months leading up to our visit and had asked them to come and visit us on this Sunday evening. They had met a young couple at the local village church - Jakob (pronounced Yakob), an Afrikaans speaking South African and his wife Melanie who is German. Then there was Wicus (pronounced Vickus – also an Afrikaans speaking South African) and his wife Velda whom Rosemarie had met on a bus trip and she thought they would be delighted to meet someone who had also lived in SA. Rosemarie had also spoken with her TR club friend, Julia, who thought an army colonel she had worked for might have gone to the Duke of York’s Royal Military School, Dover (see Thursday 07/03- Friday 07/04 post), so Rosemarie wrote to him and invited him to come. He called and said that he hadn’t gone to the school but had lived in Dover and had knowledge of the school, so she told him to come anyway. When Rosemarie was telling us about this and told us his name was Brian Mobley, Alison said she had a feeling the name rang a bell and a little later said: “I think there was a Brian Mobley in my class at primary school.” (That was when she was 8-10 years old). In addition, Rosemarie & Ian had also invited Julia & Roger and some other personal friends from the village to meet us: David & Diane Carpen, and Rob & Gaye Cornford. Gaye is SA born but has lived in UK for many years. Rob works for Oxfam and has been to Botswana many times and also to SA. That evening, we were once more out on the back patio as the people began to arrive. A tall, slim gentleman came through the glass door from the conservatory onto the patio and Alison turned to me and said “That’s him!”, meaning it was the Brian Mobley she was at school with. As he was introduced, Alison said “Broadlees Primary School, Dover, 1957” and he said “How do you know that” and she said “Because I was there”. How about that for recall and coincidence from more than 50 years ago! Alison later explained that she had lain in bed the previous night and “developed” in her mind an image of the Brian Mobley she had known as a 9-10 year old, so when she saw the 61 year old guy, she immediately knew he was the same person. Obviously there quickly was a “Do you remember when (or who)” conversation going on between Alison and Brian. Meanwhile I was talking to Jakob and Wicus and their respective wives. Jakob had been a game ranger in SA, working at one of the game parks outside of Port Elizabeth, very close to Shamwari, which we know well. http://www.shamwari.com/properties/default.asp Jakob met his wife Melanie in South Africa while she was there as part of her studies in the hospitality business. We had a nice conversation about Port Elizabeth and its environs. Wicus was from Cape Town and he met Velda while she was on vacation in SA visiting family (she was living in England at the time), so I assume it was a “whirlwind romance”. He is divorced from his wife in SA, and has three adult children who still live there, so I expect it was difficult for him to leave SA to marry his new love. We talked about Knysna and the Garden Route and all things South African. At one point I went to fetch more drinks and by the time I got back, Jakob had exchanged seats with his wife Melanie and was now seated next to Wicus and they were both chatting away to each other in Afrikaans. Altogether it was a great evening and we must thank Rosemarie for putting the event together. We know that some of the South Africans exchanged addresses and phone numbers and left with promises of staying in touch with each other. We look forward to any updates that Rosemarie & Ian can give us in the future. It was late when we got to bed.

July 24th-25th – The Thames Path Walk

As planned, we were up early the next morning and left the house at 7:00 to make our rendezvous with Jerry Hodgins at Wolvercote, just northwest of Oxford. Jerry (see blog July 6th) had left West Wickham at 5:30 in order to get around the M25 London Orbital motorway before the serious traffic of the morning started. We contacted Jerry by 7:15 and he confirmed that he was having coffee on the M40 on his way and would be on time at the meeting spot, a parking lot in Wolvercote. We left the parking lot at 8:00 and walked 200 or so yards down the road, past the famous Trout Inn and on to the Thames River (Quote: “The Trout Inn and the picturesque riverbanks on which it sits upon has provided inspiration to Lewis Carroll for the magical Alice in Wonderland, and was according to some, the meeting place for Rosamund The Fair and King Henry II. The Trout Inn is also featured in Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse which is written and filmed within Oxford”.
It was a beautiful day and the section we were walking is one of the remotest sections of the river and does not pass through any towns until our final destination of Lechlade which was our final stop planned for Friday. Rosemarie, Ian & Alison of course were our support team and we had planned for them to meet us after about five miles, the first time a road gave access to the river. When we phoned them to let them know we were 20 minutes from the bridge, they were a number of miles away, near the old town of Burford, which they had visited, and were then in a very up-market garden center “exploring”. We told them we were doing well, and they should enjoy themselves and just make the next scheduled meeting at Newbridge. Quote: “Beautiful Newbridge, rather wrongly named since it is in fact one of the oldest bridges over the Thames as it dates from 1250! Here, despite being a remote spot, you'll find a choice of two pubs where you can stop for a well-deserved drink, The Rose Revived and The Maybush”. We found our support group at a table on the river bank at “The Rose Revived” but resisted all temptations to “imbibe” ourselves. Both Jerry and I were in great shape at this point, showing no ill effects at all, having already walked about 10 miles and were aware that once we left Newbridge we were committed to another 5-6 miles to the next road crossing of Tadpole Bridge. A couple of miles after Newbridge I started to feel soreness in my left knee which gradually worsened. I knew it was not muscular or tiredness, but rather a piece of debris in the knee (I have lots) that had obviously found its way into a critical joint. It was a similar situation to the problem I had with my right knee some years ago and ended up having to have arthroscopic surgery on it. There was no choice but to keep walking and by the time we reached Tadpole Bridge (and another “Trout Inn”), I was limping badly. Rosemarie, Ian and Alison had arrived at Tadpole Bridge well in advance of when they needed to be there, and while R&I had an afternoon snooze in the car, Alison started walking alone on the Thames Path in the direction we were coming from. She expected to meet us after about half a mile, but because of my slowness, she had walked well over a mile before she came upon us, and it was great to have her encourage me along to Tadpole Bridge. On arrival there, Rosemarie and Ian were watching out for us from the garden of another Trout Inn, and this time there was no question about “having a pint”! I should mention that on our walk we saw many, many “pill boxes” along the banks/fields of the Thames and have found the following information. “As late as 1940 further defensive measures were taken by the building of a chain of some 5,000 Pill-boxes along the River, from the Kent coast at Chatham to the west coast at Bristol, as a defense against a possible German invasion.”.
Jerry estimated that we had walked 16 miles. After our “pints” and Alison meeting a couple of lovely Spanish Water Dogs in the garden of The Trout, we drove back to Wolvercote, picked up Jerry’s car, drove back to Launton in the two cars, showered and walked to “The Bull” (the “top Bull”—closest to R&I’s home) for dinner. They walked, I limped! By this time, there was a lot of fluid around my knee and I knew my chances of walking the next morning were limited.
Here are two websites that include the section we walked, but where we started at Wolvercote was about four miles further upstream from the start in Oxford, just north of the remains of Godstow Abbey, built in 1133.

http://thames.joncombe.org/thames_oxford_northmoor.html
http://thames.joncombe.org/thames_northmoor_tadpole.html


Friday July 25th – Thames Path Walk: Day 2.

As I expected, the next morning my knee was “ballooned” and I had to inform Jerry that I would not be able to walk that day. His comment was “So you’ve finally matured!” After checking the map, we could see that the next road crossing after the restart at Tadpole Bridge would be about a four mile walk and Alison said she would walk with Jerry for that section. As Rosemarie & Ian had a lot of preparation (shopping) for the Saturday function to come, I said I would drive and there was no need for them to come. Once again we left by 7:00 AM, but of course had to drive a lot further to Tadpole Bridge to our start. Jerry also drove as he was leaving for West Wickham on completion of the day’s walk (10.5 miles): http://www.thames-path.org.uk/thames_tadpole_lechlade.html
We parked at Tadpole and took photographs and then they were on their way and I drove to Radcot Bridge via the ancient town of Bampton where I picked up a newspaper http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfordshirechurches/2685180020)/ so that I could while away an hour or so waiting for the hikers. At Radcot Bridge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Radcot_Bridge there is The Swan Hotel, which only opened at 10:00 AM. I spoke nicely to a lady who I found in the kitchen and asked if I could sit on their riverside patio until they opened. “Absolutely, and would you like a cup of coffee?” was the reply. Shortly I was sitting in the sun, sipping coffee and reading my newspaper! Alison & Jerry arrived all too soon (before I finished the newspaper) and Jerry continued on his way alone. After a brief meeting at Kelmscot (I stayed with the car, and Alison walked back along the river path to give Jerry a surprise), we moved on to the final meeting place at Lechlade, where we surprisingly found another pub (Riverside Inn) on the river at “Ha’penny Bridge”, where the toll house still stands! Jerry duly arrived and we had lunch in the pub before we drove back to Tadpole Bridge and Jerry said farewell and returned to West Wickham. We drove back to Launton where Rosemarie had prepared a lovely evening meal and we relaxed before retiring early. It was a lovely two days.

Coventry and on to Launton : July 21-23

We were welcomed with some sunshine in Coventry, and a little warm wind, so Alison quickly used the opportunity to do a load of laundry and hang clothes out on the line to dry. Angela was doing a shift at one of the local libraries where she works “substitute”, and we enjoyed a nice cold lunch at home with Ivor. We then took a walk to the local shops and got some cash from the ATM to keep us going for a few more days, and after that we spent some time preparing another “posting” for this blog. Soon after Angela was home we all drove to another part of Coventry, Earlsdon, where Angela’s daughter, our niece Ridanne, lives. She was waiting and we picked her up and drove to a village outside of Coventry, to the White Lion pub, which is a favorite of Ridanne’s, and the five of us enjoyed a very nice dinner and drinks there. (Bob was the designated driver, so he only had one beer, but Angela and Ridanne especially enjoyed being able to relax and have more than one drink!) Back at A&I’s home, Bob and Ivor spent time working on some Sudokus, and the three “girls” sat chatting until tiredness overcame the older two, and Ridanne took a taxi home. It was lovely to have been able to spend time with Ridanne again, because she was out of town when we stayed with A&I before we had the timeshare week with Dianne and Peter.
The next day Bob took the opportunity of using the gym facility at Angela’s fitness club one last time, and then in the afternoon we drove to visit another cousin of Bob’s (his dad’s sister’s son), Peter Houghton, and his wife Janet. They live near Hinckley in Leicestershire, about 40 minutes drive from Coventry. We’d never before been to their home, and hadn’t seen Peter & Janet for very many years (we think not since the wedding of Bob’s sister Rosemarie’s daughter some 18-19 years ago). However, we’ve kept in touch every Christmas, and more recently via email as well. P&J love their garden and it was a lovely sight to see with so many flowers in bloom, and loads of fish in their fish pond. They also love travelling the world, and we enjoyed sharing lots of our travel experiences with each other. We ate an early dinner with them in their home (many thanks, Janet, for preparing such a delicious meal) and then were off and back to A&I’s before dark, and spent a quiet last evening relaxing with them. Wednesday, 23rd was our final “move” before our return to the USA. While were packing, Angela took Ivor to a doctor appointment, and Ridanne stopped by to give us a gift to take back to the USA with us for Indigo. That was another enjoyable short visit. On A&I's return, we loaded up the car, bade them our fond farewells and then we were on the road south to Rosemarie and Ian’s home for our final week. (See our post for July 7th-8th regarding our first stopover with R&I.) The drive was less than an hour, and we arrived at R&I’s in good time to walk with them to the village church, through the churchyard to fields behind, and through the fields for lunch at one of the two pubs in the village.This pub is named The Black Bull, the other pub is merely TheBull, and folks can get confused sometimes as to which pub is being referred to, so locally they talk about the “bottom” Bull and the “top” Bull, referring to the pubs’ location in the village! They are both very old and very popular pubs. We walked through a couple more fields and some woods after lunch, and were (apart from Bob) quite weary when we got back to R&I’s home. We relaxed for the remainder of the day, had a simple evening meal, and were quite early to bed, as we had to be up bright and early the next day for our rendezvous with Jerry Hodgins and the start of his and Bob’s walk on the Thames Path.

Tixall area and Crewe area - July 19-21

Again: sorry to all readers for another long delay in posting. We've been back in the USA since July 30th and are now away again (in Pittsburgh), but will perservere at getting this blog travel journal up to date!

Saturday morning we checked out of the timeshare after breakfast and all headed to “Hilranton”, the lovely canal-side home of Bob’s cousin Michael Brookes, his wife Penny and stepson Albert, on the edge of the little village of Tixall, near Stafford, less than 25 miles from where we were staying at the Wychnor timeshare. Dianne & Peter accompanied us as they have visited Michael before and wanted to say Hello again. A few miles from Tixall we drove through the village of Little Haywood where we lived from Sept. 1966 when we were first married, until we emigrated to South Africa in May 1968. We sat outside on the patio with Mike and Penny to drink coffee and chat, and watch a few narrow boats pass by on the canal, before all going to The Moat House in the village of Acton Trussell, for lunch. Acton Trussell is another place where Bob used to go fishing with his dad when he was a boy. The Moat House has had lots of additions over the years, and is a well known up-market wedding and conference venue, but the original “pub” part remains with olde worlde charm and atmosphere. We said our Goodbyes to Dianne and Peter after lunch, and they headed home to Cheshire, while we returned to Tixall. Although it was sunny, it was still quite cold, but encouraged by Penny, Alison joined her for a swim in the heated pool in the garden—this was the first time Alison’s swimsuit had been out of the suitcase since we left home over a month previously! In the evening the five of us drove into Stafford to a very nice Indian restaurant, Panache, and met up with friends of Mike & Penny, Ervin & Dorothy. We all had a great dinner and fun evening together, returning to M&P’s home for coffee and after dinner drinks.

On Sunday we woke quite early to the sounds of birdsong from the trees all around M&P’s lovely big garden, and then after a quick breakfast we bade our farewells until “next time”, whether it will be at Hilranton again, or at our home in Myrtle Beach. We then hit the road again, and picked up the M6 motorway just north of Stafford and continued north towards the Crewe exit, and then on to the home of old friends Trevor & Philippa Gomersall, between Crewe and Nantwich. Like Bob, Trevor was recruited in 1968 by Ford Motor Co. in England to go to work at their plant in Port Elizabeth South Africa as a computer systems analyst/programmer. He and Philippa arrived there soon after us, we had our first babies within a few months of each other, and we’ve remained friends ever since, even though they moved to Durban from PE after only a few years, and then on to Johannesburg. They returned to England 4-5 years ago and Trevor is now retired, but Philippa is still working as a medical doctor, under more favorable conditions than in Johannesburg, and she is also able to keep an eye on her elderly mother who lives not very far from Crewe. Soon after our arrival at T&P’s we were off with them driving through country lanes to yet another canalside pub for lunch! This one was “The Olde Barbridge Inn” (see http://www.the-olde-barbridge-inn.co.uk/index.html and click on their photos menu to see some great pictures of this lovely old pub). After lunch we went from the pub on a canal towpath walk along the Shropshire Union Canal to its junction with the Llangollen Canal, over the canal bridge and along the Llangollen and past the series of locks known as Hurleston Locks (where T&P and their visiting son and family from South Africa had a slight mishap due to lack of experience when navigating a rented narrow boat a year or so ago!), and then back to the car at Barbridge. We were so much enjoying our walk, we neglected to take a picture of the Locks, but here’s a link to someone else’s picture: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4117 . Back at T&P’s home, Philippa got busy with some planting she wanted to finish in the garden, and we and Trevor settled down to watch the end of the final round of the British Open Golf on TV. Although we’d have loved “old” Greg Norman to have won after his splendid first 3 days of the tournament, we were happy to see Padraig Harrington win it a second time in a row. (We often refer to Padraig as Bob’s distant “cousin” because Bob’s late mother’s maiden name was Harrington; and Granddad Harrington’s parents moved to England from Ireland at the time of the potato famine!). We had a lovely typical home-cooked British “Sunday roast” dinner in the evening, sat chatting around the table afterwards, and it was just like old times back in South Africa. Next morning we just got out of bed in time to bid farewell to Philippa as she was leaving for work, and then after breakfast with Trevor, we were on the road again, heading to Coventry and a couple more nights with Alison’s sister Angela and husband Ivor.