We set off a little later than planned for the first stage of our holiday where we were staying with family in Kent for a housewarming party before moving on to Chichester.

Despite the late start we were still in time to stop for lunch at Little Amsterdam, Banbury. Suitably refreshed we carried on with our journey which was slow and tedious due to congestion on the motorway around London.

We eventually arrived at our destination. We were given a tour of the house before a well earned aperitif before dinner.

First stop was Little Amsterdam Cafe for lunch.

After lunch we made our way to Broughton Castle where we enjoyed the landscape views and a visit to the Parish Church of St Mary Broughton with North Newington before the castle was open for visiting.

During our visit we enjoyed a pleasant conversation with the eldest son of the current Baron of Saye and Sele (owner of Broughton Castle) and also a brief encounter with the Baron himself.

We arrived home to find a couple of unexpected visitors!

Links to my previous posts about Broughton Castle and Banbury:

• Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross
• A Day Trip to Banbury
• Broughton Castle
• Broughton Castle – Interior
• The Chapel – Broughton Castle
• The Garden – Broughton Castle
• Lunch in Little Amsterdam

Marcus Tullius Cicero

On a soggy saturday we drove to Banbury for a family gathering at the delightful Little Amsterdam Cafe. We ended up spending most the afternoon there due to an accident on the motorway causing holdups on the journey.

The pancakes were as delicious as they had been on our previous visit and the staff were charming. They loved the fact that we had all travelled from some distance to meet up in in a central point and we had chosen their cafe.

A good time was had by one and all

The guidebook I picked up on my recent visit to Broughton Castle provides an interesting anecdote in relation to the Fiennes family name:

Local legend has it that the famous nursery rhyme was originally ‘Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross to see a Fiennes lady ride on a white horse’ – as opposed ‘to see a white lady’

“Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross
To see a Fiennes lady rie on a white horse
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
She shall have music wherever she goes”

Cicero

A licence was granted in 1331 to John de Broughton ‘for Divine service in his oratory at Broughton’. It is a rare example of a 14th century private chapel. The fixed stone altar slab supported on three solid brackets and the encaustic tiles on the floor are all of the original date.*

The chapel can be viewed through a squint in the corner of Queen Anne’s Room.

*From the Broughton Castle guidebook

John de Broughton built the house and surrounded it by a moat in around 1300. William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England, bought the house in 1377 and it has been in continuous ownership by the same family ever since. The licence to crenellate was granted in 1406 allowing the house to be called a castle.

The unusual compound title of Saye & Sele dates from the original creation of the Barony in 1447. It is partly personal, from the connection with the family’s French ancestors in Normandy, the Lords Say, and partly territorial,, through ownership of land at Seal (now on the outskirts of Sevenoaks) in Kent.  The family name Fiennes (pronounced Fines) is from a village in Artois in northern France. Giles Fiennes had emigrated to England in the 13th century, following in the train of his cousin Queen Eleanor of Castile when she came to England to marry the future Edward I.*

The 16th Lord Saye & Sele changed the family surname in 1849 to Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes. The present-day, 21st Lord Saye & Sele reversed the process in the mid 1960, so the current family name is simply Fiennes.

*From the Broughton Castle hand book

Little Amsterdam Cafe and Restaurant in Banbury is fully licensed and serves much more than the pancakes I showed you in my previous post. In addition to the pancakes it also serves Omelettes, sandwiches, gelato, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, cakes, muffins, waffles breakfast, main courses, deserts and daily specials.

On the Little Amsterdam website Ilja explains about the food and the reason behind the name:

Little Amsterdam is the name that the Dutch affectionately use for Haarlem, a beautiful market town about 20km from the capital. I was born in Haarlem so to call this delightful café Little Amsterdam is very appropriate.

I am looking forward to sharing with you some of the very best The Netherlands has to offer.

It’s not just about clogs and tulips, The Netherlands has so much more. From the famous cheese markets to beautiful architecture, from culture and history to the people themselves and, of course, the food. Dutch pancakes are pretty much as popular as fish and chips are here in the UK.

Many people think that pancakes are eaten only as a sweet treat but they can be enjoyed as much as any main course.

The Dutch pancake isn’t really complete unless it is served with stroop (syrup, pronounced strope) – my favourite is the cheese, bacon and stroop pancake… delicious!

I also recommend the “poffertjes”, another extremely popular Dutch dish. These are fluffy mini pancake “discs”, best served with butter and a generous dusting of icing sugar… amazing!