After breakfast we checked out of our hotel and drove to Stourhead House & Gardens in glorious sunshine. We signed in at the National Trust reception area before heading through to the house and gardens. It was around 20 years since our previous visit and it was our first visit to the house, which contains some interesting items. After our tour of the house we entered the gardens and found its colours to be spectacular. Before continuing on our journey to Cirencester, we lunched in the National Trust Cafe where to our pleasant surprise, we found the food options more varied than we have come to expect from a National Trust tea room.

Outside our hotel in Cirencester we parked in the drop off area as advised by the hotel. Mr C was harassed and told to move his car, by an angry van driver that happened to arrive a few moments after us. Mr C moved to a nearby space whilst we checked in to the hotel. We were given a lovely welcome pack which included local points of interest and a walking tour of Cirencester. After unloading we moved the car to a local pay & display car park, freshened up for dinner and made our way to the hotel bar.

I ordered a dry sherry, which the bar tender, after offering cider, eventually found with the help of Mr C.  I was then asked if I would like a 125, 175 or a 250 ml glass. At this point I gave up and said don’t bother whilst thinking that if you have got the drink in your chiller so you should know how to serve it. Mr C asked how we should pay the bill (his G&T) and the young man who was serving us hadn’t got a clue.

The restaurant turned out to be not quite our thing. The menu blended from starters to main courses with some options being either. We chose fishcakes which we thought would be a main course. It turned out to be starter size for Mr C and not even big enough for a main course for me with my small appetite. Although the meal was brief it was delicious. During our meal we got chatting to a couple on the table next to us and found that they had got married the Saturday before. She was struggling with her arm in a sling, having tripped up some steps and broken it on the Bank Holiday weekend just before the wedding.

When we had finished chatting, we stepped out of the chaos that was the hotel’s bar and dining arrangements into the calm of the street. We crossed the road to the Fleece Inn where we soaked up an enjoyable relaxing atmosphere.

The 2nd picture is a partial detail from The Destroyer Memorial Monument.  It was unveiled on 14th November 2007 by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. The memorial is sited alongside the preserved WW11 destroyer HMS Cavalier, which is a memorial to the 11,000 men from 142 Royal Navy destroyers  that were lost in that conflict.  On the reverse of the memorial the names of those ships are listed.

I had the honour to represent shipmates at the 1st Armed Forces Day Parades in Chatham, as a Standard Bearer.

The first picture here shows the full Memorial monument from the front and the next two pictures show different views of HMS Cavalier.

HMS Cavalier was one of nenety-six war emergency destroyers built for th Royal Navy during the Second World War.  awarded the Battle Hohour ‘Arctic 1945′ for operations off horthern Norway and in support of the homeward-bound Russioan convoy RA64, Cavalier later operated in the Western Approaches undertaking duties which included the high-speed escort of the liners-turned-troopships RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth.

Following the end of the war in Europe, Cavalier was allocated to the British Pacific Fleet.  After a major refit, Cavalier returned to service in 1957 to undertake extensive Cold-War and peacekeeping duties.  Cavalier paid off at Chatham in 1972 as the Royal Navy’s last operational Second World War destroyer.  She is now preserved by the HMS Cavalier (Chatham) Trust, as a memorial to the 142 Royal Navy destroyers sunk during the Second World War with a loss of over 11,000 men.