On our first day in Wells we came across the quintessentially English scene on the lawn in front of the Bishop’s Palace.
6 Comments CherryPie on Aug 10th 2016
Henry John “Harry” Patch (17 June 1898 – 25 July 2009), dubbed in his later years “the Last Fighting Tommy“, was a British supercentenarian, briefly the oldest man in Europe and the last surviving combat soldier of the First World War from any country. He is known to have fought in the trenches of the Western Front.[1] Patch was the longest surviving combat soldier of World War I, but he was the fifth longest surviving veteran of any sort from World War I,
Patch died at 9 a.m. on 25 July 2009, aged 111 years, one month, one week and one day.
Patch’s funeral was held in Wells Cathedral on Thursday 6 August 2009.[42][43] At 11.00 a.m., the bells of Wells Cathedral were rung 111 times to mark each year of his life. A quarter peal of Grandsire Caters was also rung, half muffled, while quarter-peals were also rung in Bristol and at several churches around the country.[44][45] His coffin travelled from his home, Fletcher House, to the cathedral where the service commenced at noon.[46] The theme of the service was “Peace and Reconciliation” and in addition to pallbearers from The Rifles (the successor regiment to the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry), Patch’s coffin was accompanied by two private soldiers from each of the armies of Belgium, France and Germany.[43]
16 Comments CherryPie on Aug 9th 2016
Wanderer, your footsteps are the path, and nothing more; Wanderer, there is no path, the path is made by walking, by walking one makes the path and upon glancing back one sees the path that will never be trod again. Wanderer there is no path – only waves upon the sea.
Antonio Machado, Campos de Castilla, 1912
18 Comments CherryPie on Aug 7th 2016
Breakfast was buffet style and lived up to expectations from our previous visit to the White Hart. After breakfast, we loaded the car and made our way to the Salisbury Museum. We had been disappointed on our last visit to find the archaeological section closed for refurbishment and due to reopen just after we returned home. The museum’s archaeological collection is now housed in the Wessex Gallery and it was well worth the wait. We spent most of our morning browsing around the collections.
We had a cup of tea in the cathedral and visited the cathedral shop before returning to the hotel to freshen up ahead of our journey home. A timely missed turning led us to Marlborough which was the perfect opportunity to stop for a lunch time treat of lemon cake. We then retraced our steps and picked up the correct route to continue our journey home.
The weather was lovely and I had planned a nice meal on the patio but Mr C was feeling a little delicate following our previous evenings meal. I had to improvise and think up a dinner for one.
8 Comments CherryPie on Aug 6th 2016
I awoke to the delightful sound of cathedral bells before we made our way downstairs for our final breakfast in Stoberry House. Some interesting conversations took place over breakfast including one involving a couple who were thinking of opening a B&B who were seeking advice from our hostess, Frances, on how best to go about getting started.
We chatted to our host, Tim, as we paid the bill and were thanked for making things easy by jotting down the drinks we had had from the honesty bar. Apparently this is unusual and not doing so can lead to some awkward conversations. We said goodbye to Frances who hoped we would be back. As we left the house we checked out a secret lounge that we hadn’t noticed before. Next time we visit this will be our lounge of choice 
On the car park as we were getting ready to leave we got chatting to another guest about Shropshire amongst other things.
We headed off to Stonehenge where we found that, as English Heritage members, we did not have to join the long queue. We chose to walk to the stones rather than take the shuttle bus, taking in the landscape as we made our way towards them. We took a leisurely stroll around the stones which I found quite peaceful despite the crowds. Back at the visitor centre, we shared a sandwich in the cafe and I bought a new book about Stonehenge before we made our way to The White Hart in Salisbury.
We checked in and freshened up before walking to the Haunch of Venison for dinner. This turned out to be the culinary disappointment of the weekend. The service and food quality did not match up to that of our previous visit in 2014. I finished the meal joking about taking the upside down mint from the plate that had been placed in front of us. It was only after I had eaten it that I noticed there was a rip in the foil. It left me wondering if this is why it had been placed upside down…
After this less than desirable experience we walked through the cathedral crescent, enjoying the view of the moon as it rose over the roof of the cathedral. We ended up back at the hotel where we enjoyed a drink in the hotel terrace garden whilst watching the sky turn from blue to black.
7 Comments CherryPie on Aug 5th 2016
We enjoyed another lovely breakfast looking out towards the cathedral before we set off, in brilliant sunshine to visit the Bishop’s Palace. The palace rooms were interesting as was the current exhibition of church robes. The under-croft was set up for a wedding breakfast that was due to take place later in the day. We also visited the adjacent Bishop’s chapel before venturing into the gardens. The gardens are stunning and the location of the wells that gave Wells its name. We took our time enjoying the gardens and walking along the ramparts to take in the views of the surrounding area.
The Bishop’s Table cafe was rather busy so we made our way back into the town for lunch at the Swan Hotel. We sat outside overlooking the cathedral whilst enjoying as poached salmon and dill sandwich.
After lunch I would have liked to have walked around a few historical areas of Wells that I had not seen. Mr C, however was in the mood for learning more about the Battle of Sedgmore, so we set off in the car in search of the visitor centre. After driving around in circles for some time due to the lack of signposts (mentioned in my previous post) we eventually found the right one only to find that the visitor centre had currently been replaced by a signboard explaining the battle site. Mr C didn’t get out to look at it and was not interested in finding the battlefield memorial.
We got just as lost making our way back towards Glastonbury and it was only as we drove past Barrow Mump that I was able to pinpoint where we were and realise that we were travelling in the wrong direction!! I regret that we didn’t stop off to visit the Mump but by this time Mr C had got the hump so I remained quiet as we retraced our steps, stopping briefly at Street Village before returning to Stoberry House.
I took the opportunity to explore the gardens whilst Mr C enjoyed a quiet moment reading. Monty decided to join me, twining himself around my legs as I walked and paused to take photographs. All too soon it was time to return to the room to freshen up before dinner. We dined in the Fountain Inn which serves freshly prepared pub style food. We were accompanied by some very noisy diners, including one group who were quite naive in the conclusion to the political discussion they were having.
We escaped the noise and returned to Stoberry House where we enjoyed a glass of wine whilst sitting on a bench in the garden. Mr C had fun trying to take a selfie of the two of us (the camera focused on anything but us ) whilst, on and off Monty came to supervise us 
This was our last night at Stoberry House and it seems that love has turned into joy…
15 Comments CherryPie on Aug 4th 2016
