Rochester

Rochester Castle

Rochester Cathedral

A Wordless Wednesday post

It’s got lots of history and some literary connections too. By the end of the 12th century it was described as an ‘Antient Town, worthy of veneration’  and it became one of the Cinque Ports in the 14th century. This meant that it had to supply ships and seamen for the defence of the Realm. Parts of the town still have a medieval look, with cobbled streets and narrow passages.

Here are some of our photos (click on them for a bigger picture) from our last visit in 2006. First the Parish Church of St Mary’s which is almost 900 years old, damaged by fire in 1377 by French invaders. It has the oldest working church turret clock in the country dating from 1561-2.

We climbed the tower – the view is spectacular (but I can’t find our photos!)

One of the highlights of our visit was Lamb House, a brick-fronted Georgian house in West Street once the home of Henry James, later E F Benson, and then Rumer Godden, now owned by the National Trust.

West Street - Lamb House at the far end

Lamb House as it is today dates from 1722 or 1723 with some minor alterations made by Henry James and the addition of bathrooms by the National Trust. James lived there from1898 until the autumn of 1914. There is a beautiful walled garden – I’m particularly fond of walled gardens – where in the summer James used to dictate his novels in the little Georgian pavilion that was later bombed in 1940. There is not a lot to see in the house with just three rooms open to the public but some of his furniture and books are on display.

E F Benson lived there until his death in 1940 and wrote many of his Mapp and Lucia novels there. Rumer Godden also lived there from 1968 to 1973. But nothing of there time here remains, as far as I could see.

We also walked round the harbour

 and then along the shore line, which is a Nature Reserve with bird-watching hides. 

The Nature Reserve extends as far as Winchelsea Beach, a huge shingle bank, 2 miles down the coast.

For more Favourite Places visit Margot’s blog Joyfully Retired where she  regularly features her favourite places.

The last time we have Bath was just over three years ago, when we had a weekend there. There is a lot to see in Bath and we only managed to go to a few places – the main one being the Roman Baths.

We stayed here:

and walked into the centre of Bath, down Great Pulteney Street, passing this Victorian pillar box:

We walked over Pulteny Bridge and looked down on the River Avon and the weir:

Here is Bath Abbey, where Edgar was crowned King of the English in 973:

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*Added after first posting:

There have been three churches on the site of Bath Abbey – the first was an Anglo-Saxon church dating from 757, destroyed by the Normans after 1066. The present Abbey church was founded in 1499 and completed in 1611.*

Visting the Roman Baths was the highlight of our weekend. We could have stayed in there all day, with so much to look at. 

Here is the underfloor heating.

Although we were footsore after walking round the Baths we managed to go to the Fashion Museum, which is housed in the Assembly Rooms

and after looking at the displays of fashion dating back to the eighteenth century

we wandered round the Ball Room, imagining what it was like on ball nights during Jane Austen’s time and then had a cup of coffee in the Assembly Rooms cafe.

I took some of these photos from a tour bus. Our grandchildren insisted we went on the Horrible Histories tour, which was very entertaining – of course the ordinary commentary was available as well. From Waverley Bridge we went past the Scott Monument, along Princes Street, and circled round the streets until we were looking up at Edinburgh Castle towering above. 

I just managed to take a photo from the bus looking down at Greyfriars Bobby as we went past.

We got off the bus at Lawnmarket.

Just off Lawnmarket is Lady Stairs Close, where the Writers’ Museum is to be found. This Museum is in Lady Stair’s 17th century house. It’s a fascinating place full of things that belonged to Sir Walter Scott, Robbie Burns and Robert Lewis Stevenson. There are pictures, room displays containing Burns’s writing desk, Scott’s dining table and lots of memorabilia – including bibles, pipes and walking sticks. You can’t take photos inside but here is the outside.

And the plaque in close up shows that the house was first built in 1622 and was restored in 1897.

From there we walked down the Royal Mile.

We stopped at a number of places including the Museum of Childhood, which took me right back to my own childhood. It’s full of toys and games of all sorts. I thought the display of dolls was scary – all standing to attention in glass display cases staring out at me. It reminded me of the terrifying dolls in the film, Barbarella. Much more comforting were the teddy bears and children’s books.

Finally here is a view of Arthur’s Seat, an extinct volcano.

We went there last August to see Julius Caesar at the Courtyard Theatre. I wrote about that here. We stayed at this hotel  

 in the room on the first floor next to the entrance (in shadow in the photo). This is the view through the window  

The hotel is not far from the River Avon

Whilst there we visited various houses connected with Shakespeare. We’ve been to Stratford many times but had never been in Shakespeare’s birthplace, so that is where we started.  

There is a display at the entrance which I found to be claustrophobic because the doors were locked behind us as we went in, but I enjoyed the tour of the house.  

We then went to Nash’s House and New Place. New Place was Shakespeare’s home for the last 18 years of his life. It was pulled down in the 18th century. Nash’s House, next to New Place belonged to Thomas Nash who married Elizabeth, Shakespeare’s granddaughter. 

On after that to visit Hall’s Croft. John Hall, a physician, married Susanna, Shakespeare’s oldest daughter. The house has a small room furnished as John Hall’s consulting-room would have been and the garden contains many of the herbs mentioned in Hall’s medical notebook.   

There is so much to see in Stratford – these are just a few of my photos! There are more on Flickr