ENGLAND'S UNIQUENESS

                              Just so You Know

            Nearly everywhere I‘ve traveled I have found something totally unique, some more than others. England seems to have a fair number of interesting  things that are pretty much English.

Maybe we should start with a few common words. Fell=mountain, beck= small stream, dale=valley

weir=small dam, Brits don’t phone but ring up,  free house sells a variety of a brew, not the only one of the sponsor.              

In the lovely Lake District the fells and meadows are dotted with a patchwork of shoulder high slate fences. Some of these fences go right up over the fells disappearing into the sky—picturesque.

I learned The Enclosure Act passed in the 1700s allowed for fences on the fell. The walls are dry set in a double line maybe 18-24 inches apart.  Then the space between is filled with rubble. Periodically a stabilizing stone is placed all the way through. It is quite a knack to successfully build these walls. No mortar here! Most of the fences were in as good a shape as they were when built 250-300 years ago. Really amazing.

A bank barn  is literally built into the side of a bank. The top level is easily driven into as it is level with the hill and the hay and feed are stored on the upper floor. The cattle are kept on the lower level. These barns almost always have a winnowing door which really is a window opposite the double- wide barn door.  The window is opened with 3-4 horizontal slats. When the big barn doors are open these winnowing doors allow the air to circulate.

A hole in the wall is an ATM machine.

We saw many and crossed over a couple of pack horse bridges. These arched stone bridges are very narrow.  Many are still standing 3-400 years later and are in good condition.

Mushroom management—being kept in the dark with stuff coming down on you. I love that one!

Few roads have shoulders. Many roads are alley wide.

The Mountain Rescue teams are kept busy as there are many mountain accidents, often because people are ill prepared and weather changes can be quick.

In areas where barns are not bank barns, but regular buildings and are not used any more, they have become stone tents for hikers and backpackers.

Celtic crosses are found intermittently on the moors and serve as direction finders as it is easy to lose a sense of direction on the moors as it is in the desert.

We found ripe raspberries on two different hikes and had great fun indulging!

Waddle and daub refers to wood and mud construction, the mud being used as mortar.

English clothing tends to be in dark colors--tough for me who likes shades of red, cranberry.

COTSWOLD INFO

                        Picturesque Villages and More

     I can’t imagine anyone not being enthralled with the Cotswolds with its quaint villages, charming thatched-roof homes, lovely gardens and the picturesque bridges over all the rivers running though towns. Here are some of the  neat and different things I found to learn about and photograph.

 Avon is a Celtic word meaning river. Stratford is a Saxon word: strat means soft road and forde means over a river, in this case the River Avon, not the Avon River. Over time the final e has been dropped from Stratford. Richard I (King Richard the Lion Hearted) granted Stratford-upon-Avon a charter in 1196. A charter was necessary to become a market town.

      

Upon boarding a canal boat we learned all of the locks are manual, no mechanized ones, and are operated by the same winch—(or whatever the tool is)—which is given to you when you rent the boat. We found out soon enough that it is rather strenuous work to open and close the locks, but one soon gets the hang of it.

    

 Mr. Wedgwood helped finance the canal system built in the 1700s---too much of his merchandise was being broken via horse and wagon.

In town we boarded a  manual winch ferry to cross the river, as we needed to be on the other side of the river. On this small ferry the fellow stood up and turned a wheel which moved a chain that propelled us the short distance across the river. This mechanism was new to me.

     

 Windows in the 1700s were only open wooden framed spaces in the walls and tended to be few in number. Being open left the home exposed in bad weather. When it rained a cloth, smeared with cooking fat covered the wooden frame placing it over the window opening. Perhaps this was the original storm window?

A yeoman farmer is one who owns his farm vs. a tenant farmer who rents his plot of land.

By law, all bus and truck drivers in England are required to stop for a 45-minute rest every 4-½ hours. They are limited to driving only 9 hours a day.

China clay is quarried, but only a small amount of it is sent to the china/porcelain industry. It is the paper industry that has a big demand for it, as it is the substance that makes paper shiny for all those slick colored ads.

Hailes Abbey ruins, built in 1246, once housed 20 monks and 10 lay brothers. Richard, Earl of Cornwall, and brother to Henry III, was caught in a storm at sea in 1242. He vowed that if he survived the storm, he would build a religious house. Hailes Abbey was the fulfillment of that promise. The first cloister was built of wood, but replaced with stone at the end of the 15^th century. The abbey was destroyed, like nearly all others, during Henry VIII reign. All churches were catholic until that time. Henry just ravished England with his destruction of the churches.