Gainsboro Market

Market - flower stall where I found wreath

Every Tuesday the town of Gainsboro has a market. A bus stops at all the villages near Haxey using back roads and then heads to the market for three hours.  It’s the typical English double decker which is nice because it gives you a great view into all of the gardens as we pass.
 

Bus to Gainsboro

It’s amazing how sea sick you can feel on the top of the bus as it weaves down narrow bumpy roads.  I took the bus last Tuesday to shop at the market for a Christmas wreath.  The town and the big shopping area, , had all of their Christmas decorations up.  It was a nice trip and I joined several neighbors, who had also taken the bus, for lunch.

Christmas tree in Marshall's yard

Deer in Marshall's Yard shopping center.  It lights up at night.

 

Santa Arriving and Tree Lighting

Our village of Haxey doesn’t do any special ceremony at Christmas, but the neighboring village of Westwoodside, about ¼ of a mile away, does.  The village has a duck pond with a willow tree on an island. 

Local band on right, school choir on left in a portable stage that is an open semi-truck trailer.

 

The villagers gather to a band and grade school choir playing and singing carols, and tents selling minced pies, mulled wine, hot chocolate.

Santa arriving in his sleigh

Santa arrives, the tree is lighted, and Santa gives out chocolate lollies to the kids.

 

 

Stonehenge

Morning sunrise through the sarsen stones with lintel

 Stonehenge is a world heritage site that includes 6,500 acres.  The stone circle that is Stonehenge is in the middle of an area of the most dense Neolithic and Bronze age monuments in the world. We went on a private tour of 30 people with English Heritage that allowed us to walk between the stones in the early morning, a remarkable sight.  In addition we were taken to Woodhenge,  Durrington Walls, Kings Barrow Ridge, the Curcus, saw innumerable burial mounds (there are over 500 in the area), and we walked the Avenue to Stonehenge from the Kings Barrow.

Us between the sarsen stones

Stonehenge was built about 3000 BC as were Woodhenge, Durrington Walls, and the Cursus.  No one knows why or what was the original use, but we do know it marks the summer and winter solstices.  There are cremated remains at Stonehenge in its outer barrow that date from a much newer period than its construction.  There are over 300 stone circles in Britain that also mark the movements of the sun and stars, but Stonehenge is the only one with lintels and stones that have been sculpted to a smooth finish and similar size.

View from center of the circle looking North to the Heal stone that marks the Summer Solstice.
The Larger Sarsen stones with their lintels and the smaller  Blue stones in front.

 Stonehenge was originally 2 circles with 2 inner U’s.  The outer circle and outer U have lintels and are made of sandstone blocks.  These outer blocks are called the sarsen stones and weigh between 45 and 25 tons, and the lintels weigh about 7 tons. These sandstone blocks are local from about 20 miles away.  The inner circle and inner U are made of blue stones that are shorter about 6 ft. and only weigh 6 tons. These are from the south coast of Wales about 240 miles away. 

The "Lego" nipple on the sarsen that matches an indentation on the lintel and holds it in place

View from the outer circle toward the inner circle.

Stonehenge is built on the site where 6 Ley lines intersect.  Thus it had spiritual power for the ancients.  A Ley line is a magnetic of spiritual line that crosses our globe.  If given metal divining rods, you can pinpoint the exact place the lines cross or are strongest.  I’ve done it at another stone circle, and it was quite amazing.

View in center of circle. Some lichens on the rocks are very rare and unusual.

 Woodhenge is a site of 6 concentric ellipses(ovals).  The long axis of the ellipses aligns with the solstices. The ellipses were made using wooden poles each 25 feet high and weighing 5 tons.  A baby was found buried in the center of them.  The remains were taken to London, but were destroyed during a WWII blitz before they could be examined extensively. 

Outer rings of Woodhenge.  Concert posts show where the wood ones once stood.

Center of woodhenge where the body of an ancient baby was found.

 Durrington Walls are next to Woodhenge.  These walls look like a cake pan 500 meters in diameter with a wide relatively flat bottom and short wall around the perimeter.  The remains of Neolithic homes have been found here.  It is estimated that 1000 homes were here and 4000 people lived in this enclosure.  Because of Woodhenges proximity to the houses, it has been theorized that Woodhenge was for celebrating life and Stonehenge celebrated death.

Depression that is Durrington walls. Air force officers housing in background.

 The Cursus is a rectangular ditch or depression that runs east and west for 3 km (1.8 miles) and varies from 100m wide at the east end to 150m (175 yds) wide at the west end. It sits about ½ mile north of Stonehenge.  It lines up with the Spring and Autumn equinoxes. It got its name because the Victorians though it was a Roman race course and Cursus is race course in Latin. The area around the Cursus has burial mounds but they are 2000 years newer than the Cursus itself.

Cursus from the Kings Barrows. The western end is the opening between the trees.

 

West end of cursus in background with burial mounds along its south side.

King’s Barrow Ridge is an area with a high concentration of burial mounds the most notable one is an oval ½ mile long.  Most of these have not been excavated but are being left for future exploration when better techniques exist.

The length of the King's Barrow is the area covered by the trees. Under the trees is a rounded mound making up the barrow.

 

End of the King's Barrow

 

View of Stonehenge from the King's Barrow

 

From the King’s Barrow Ridge you can walk down the Avenue which is the ceremonial approach to Stonehenge that the ancient would have taken. 

Stonehenge rises from the ground as you walk up the avenue toward it.

As you approach, Stonehenge slowly rises from the ground until it stand before you as a very impressive site.

Walking up the Avenue to Stonehenge.

St. Benedicts and the Mother's Union

St. Benedicts

The Church of England has an organization called, “The Mother’s Union” or MU.  Its purpose is to promote and support the family and family life.  The MU groups in the Lincoln cathedral region own a church, St Benedicts in the heart of Lincoln, which has been turned into a tea and coffee room. 

Interior-Chapel on right lunch counter on left

This is one way the group raises money while offering the community a place to gather.  Each local group has to take its turn manning St. Benedicts.  It was our groups turn this last week and I volunteered to go. 

Helen, Sue, and Shirley helping a customer

 

St Benedicts was built in 1535 and is still used for mass on occasions.  Its bell was restored in 1925. At noon we ring it and say the noon day prayer with whoever is enjoying their lunch with us.  I got to ring the bell. It was three sets of three rings.  I naturally asked why not 12 for noon, and was told,” It’s for the father, son and holy spirit, not the time.”
 

Bell pull

I worried that I wouldn’t understand what the customers were asking for, but the choices were few enough that when I did have trouble with accents I gathered what they wanted. Other than telling them the cost was dollars, to which they laughed, I did fine.

Salisbury

We were in Salisbury overnight. We went into the Cathedral at the end of evening song.  It is amazing because it was built in 38 years. Since it was built in one lifetime it is very uniform in construction. 

404 ft spire- tallest in England

 
 

Interior of Salisbury cathedral

Something unusual in most Cathedrals built in the 1200’s. The spire is the tallest in England at 404 feet.  The baptismal font is very modern and unusual too.  The water always flows in it.

Baptismal Font

Cardiff

Wall near castle around central park has a wide variety of animals coming over it.

This is the capital of Wales. It is situated on the Severn Estuary (same river as Shrewsbury and Iron Bridge) at the mouth of the River Taft on the south coast. Because of this it gets hit by all the storms coming from the Atlantic and can generally be wet and windy.  We experience both.  The wet was downpours that did stop.  The wind lasted all weekend.

Cardiff Castle wall- Gun ports at the top of wall.

This area has been home to people since the Neolithic period or 6,000 BC.  The Romans founded a fort here in 75 AD and the current Cardiff castle is built on its foundations.  Cardiff castle is Medieval with a Victorian gothic revival mansion. The original mottle and bailey still exists that was built in the 1000’s century.

Cardiff Castle main gate



Original 11th century keep and moat
 



Victorian Mansion inside the castle

 

Just outside Cardiff is St. Fagan’s National History Museum. When St. Fagan’s castle, really a manor house, was donated to the county, they acquired and moved 40 other buildings from all over Wales to the grounds to show what life in Wales was like over the last 1000 years. 

St. Fagan's Castle

St. Teito's Catholic church from 1520


Drawings in church that were found when it was being moved to the museum.  they had been covered by Cromwell in the 1500's

 

Tannery

Farm house from 1700- House on right Animals to left of door

 

Inside 1700 farm house. Used until 1950's

It is an outdoor interactive museum.  You can go into churches, several styles of farm houses, tannery, black smith, town shops, school, Iron-workers row houses, miners club, and of course the Manor house.





Iron Bridge

Near Shrewsbury in the Severn River gorge is the first bridge built using cast iron. Finished in 1778 during the American Revolution it is fascinating to see. 

 They didn’t know how strong the mew material would be so they erred on the side of caution and have more supporting structure than needed.  Not knowing how to build with the material they built the bride as if it was made of wood using all the traditional timber joining techniques. Any rivets you see in the pictures are modern repairs. Bolts are original.

 

When completed, it cost a half penny to cross. Everyone, even royalty paid.  Poorer people could pay less and cross by a coracle ferry.

 

 

 

 

Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury was built in 800 AD, and became a major market town because of the navigable river and the wool produced in Wales a short distance west.  It still has over 660 buildings from the 14 and 15 hundreds.

This makes it a fascinating town to stroll through.  Sitting on an oxbow in the Severn River, the town has a beautiful river walk and park.

River walk - some flooding due to heavy rains

The castle dates from 1074 and the Monastery from 1083.

Castle gate

Castle tower

Shrewsbury Abbey

Inside Abbey