COTSWOLDS INFO

                                                 Absolutely Charming

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. I found several neat and different things to learn about and photograph. Here are some of them.

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 fat from cooking, 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.

All bus and truck drivers in England, by law, 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.

Built in 1246  Hailes Abbey ruins, , 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.

SURPRISES

                                            New Things Here and There

• In Germany I saw the tallest lupines I’ve ever seen. They came in all colors and seemed to be a garden favorite. Quite different from our Texas bluebonnets.

• In the Bahamas Cable Beach was a beach with no name until 1907 when it became the starting point for laying the trans-Atlantic cable to Florida that connected the island to the US mainland.

• In Croatia a linden tree is always near a church so people can sit under it to contemplate and solve problems. The tree has a heart shaped leaf and is a symbol of hospitality. The linden tree is the Croatia’s national tree. Tea is sometimes brewed from the leaves. In Belgium the linden tree is severely cut back each year. 
   
• In Belgium bell towers have a clock on all four sides---this is also true in other places.
• Scotland has 2 million sheep—two for every person in the country.
• It is possible to exchange money in at the post office and may be the cheapest place to do so.
  
  
• In Switzerland many stairs lead to a ravine tunnel elevator that took us to another stairway leading to Trummelbach Falls where the noise was deafening—the noise of 20,000 liters of water per second cascading down the mountain!. It was a damp and slippery walk up to the falls that are glacier fed from the Mts. Eiger, Monch and Junfrau. The sight was spectacular and difficult to capture on film and because of the noise it was impossible to carry on a conversation.
   
• Dutch auctions start high and go down, opposite of most auctions.

Small villages in Holland have hand operated draw bridges.

Dutch people are friendly and have a great sense of humor.

• In York, England streets are called gates from the Viking word. So gates are bars and streets are gates---confusing! I’ve seen many ancient city gates in my travels but York had the most extensive and different gates still intact. Bootham Bar is the defensible bastion for the north road. Micklegate Bar on the south was traditionally the entrance for monarchy, and the place where traitor’s heads were displayed. Monk Bar, the last bar built, is the tallest and has kept the portcullis (iron grating) in working order. It has a couple of levels and each one is defendable. On the street level is a tax door, as everything entering the city was taxed. Walmgate Bar is the only town gate in England to have preserved its barbican, a funnel-like approach forcing attackers to bunch together.

• We walked a good part of the  ancient three-mile  wall surrounding the inner city of York. The population inside the walled city is 2000, the city’s population reaches 60,000 and greater York approaches 150,000.