Never too old to learn

 I'm not doing much riding at the moment. Can't go too far on these short Winter days, as I have to be home before it gets dark - got a temporary night blindness thing going on.

That, and the fact that it was very icy this morning, made me decide to hop on the HS1 Javelin train to London, and visit the British Library exhibition rooms. 

They have a great exhibition at the moment on the voice of medieval women - basically of beautiful illuminated books and manuscripts written by women who, at the time were treated more as chattels than equals. 

They are very enlightening, and it shows that women then had to deal with many of the issues we women today have. 

I've added a few samples to the chapter on the British Library (LONDON2), and others have been placed elsewhere if appropriate (e.g. a manuscript of part of the Canterbury Tales in the Chapter for Canterbury with the statue of Chaucer)

I have kept more back, which will be inserted as and when I visit other places.

Will it, won't it?

 Well it didn't, but i thought it might. Rain, that is. It was sunny but chilly when me and Graham left home. Hubby not very well, so I decided to let him rest and go for a ride. I should have ridden Twinkle, but at the last minute I opted for Graham, as the route I intended to take was nearly all main roads.

I was glad I did in the end, as when I got to Headcorn, the sky was as black as Dick Whittington's cat. So it was a bit of a quick look at the church and the top end of the High Street, and then run for home

However, the first stop was Biddenden (KENT1 page). The church had just closed when I got there, but the kind lady told me exactly when it would be open. Apparently it hosts the village library, and is open for two hours, three days a week, but not the same hours every day! I did have a good look round the village though. 

From there, it was a quick 4 mile sprint to Headcorn (KENT2 page) I will need to return here as well. As you can see, I didn't have a lot of time to look around.

It's lovely being able to spend time really poking about the local area, but I look forward to when the weather and his health improve, because I really need to get further afield.

The disadvantage (sort of) doing all this local stuff, is that I will Shortly need to start a KENT3 page!

Very mild for the time of year.

 Yes, today was mild and relatively sunny. Finding myself at a loose end for a few hours, I decided to go and visit one of the most beautiful villages in Kent, and a couple more in the vicinity.

Originally I had a list of 7, but as is often the case, I ran out of time, so the other 4 will have to keep. 

The first place was Goudhurst, right on the edge of the Weald of Kent. And the church was as beautiful as the rest of the village. I do wish though that they could build a by-pass for the centre. If you've been there, you will know that road has signs at each end saying that it is unsuitable for large vehicles. But they still try to force their way through the bends around the church and up and down the incredibly narrow and steep street.

I've updated the Kent1 page for this one.

Next, I took to the country lanes to find Horsmonden church - well, it ain't in Horsmonden that's for sure. It stands behind a farm about 2 miles from the village down a couple of very narrow lanes. It was well worth searching it out though.

From there, I went and had a quick look at the actual village, then went on to Brenchley for my third and final visit of the day. 

 That's a pretty place too, and another very interesting church. I was cold by this time, so I just covered the bit of the village where the church is, and left the rest for another day.

Horsmonden and Brenchley on Kent 2

walking into history

 Less than two miles from my house, is a small village that I never go to. And all because, when they built a new road to bypass the village, they effectively seperated it from the estate where I live.

However, you can see the village church clearly from anywhere in the locality, as it stands tall and proud on a mound at the highest point of the village. Every time I go down that road, I think, I really must go and take a look.

So today, I made time to do just that - not just the church, but the entire village. And I was amazed at what I found.

Now - I'm going to start putting up the pictures and writing the piece to go with them. I need to do a lot of research first, into not just the buildings, but some of the people who were obviously important to the village.  

There is a V.C buried in the churchyard whose name I didn't recognise, and there is one corner of the church that is purely in memorium of members of one family, who really were important to the village. I'd never heard of them either.

I'm going to paint a concise picture of the church and village, and then do some research on the people, and write my findings up as and when I can. Therefore, you may have to call back from time to time, to discover what I've found.

So - the village is called Great Chart, and it will appear on the Kent2 page.

No let up on the weather.

 But at least the rain was only showers today.

Was feeling a bit bored with being shut in the house, so decided to take a little stroll around the less obvious parts of the town centre. 

At last! I managed to get into the parish church - well, for a half hour. Then I got asked to leave, as they wanted to lock up.

It's a magnificent place, and I really need to sort out which mornings it's open for a couple of hours for coffee, so that I can have an in-depth scrutiny of everything.

Still, I did my best, and the results have been added to the Ashford chapter on Kent1

So, I also need a map of the layout of the Old Graveyard in Canterbury Road. I know that what I want is in the Catholic Section, but I don't know where that is in relation to the entrance.

A visit to the Ashford Museum when it's open is in order too.

Quick trip out for a birthday meal

 Been too busy lately to be able to get out and about visiting places and doing research. 

Hopefully, I can resume shortly. In the meantime, tonight we went for a meal in a small village pub 'out in the sticks'.

Warehorne is somewhere we go through often, but seldom turn off of the main road. Having done so tonight, I can heartily recommend the Woolpack. It's not cheap, but the food is exquisite.

St. Matthew's church stands on a mound opposite the pub Obviously by the time we rocked up there for dinner, it was closed. But it looks interesting, so I've added it to my 'to do' list, and meanwhile, I'll look to see what else is interesting about the village.

Piccy of the pub, and a section opened for Warehorne on the KENT2 page.

A quick spin in between rain showers

 Yep, it was one of those days again. It happened the last time I set out to explore Lenham, and it was the same today. However, between the rain clouds, I managed to explore a large part of Charing, and added a lot more to my knowledge of Lenham.

Plus I managed to get in a reasonably long, quick ride on my new bike (always a bonus), and get home without getting it wet and dirty.

O.K. so both Charing and Lenham have relevance to my husband's family. His mother came from Charing, and I've traced that line back through the centuries, and her family also came from Lenham and all points around there. Inevitably, there will be one or two mentions of them, but I will try to keep it minimal.

So, both places will be included on the Kent2 page (there's already a bit about Lenham on there).

Probably won't be complete for a couple of days, but here goes........................

Short and sweet

Time hasn't been on my side for the past month or so. Got my new motorcycle just as The Other Half discovered his bike was booked in for a service and he'd surpassed the mileage required.

Luckily, the weather has been excellent recently, so we left the bigger bikes at home, and went out to play on the little Yellow Perils for a few days - which means I've not had a lot of time for my new bike.

However, today I found myself on my own. I needed to go to Wye Farmers' Market, but I only needed a few things, so I duly got the new bike out and headed off.

As the church at Wye is right next to the market, and there didn't appear to be anything on, I decided to have a quick look round.

The resulting shots are on the Kent 2 page.

After I dropped the shopping off back home, I carried on to Lydd, to try and find a grave in the cemetery with an unusual story attached to it. Success! Quite a long story about it has been logged on Kent 1.

They were the only places I managed today - weekends in the school holidays this close to the coastal resorts are not conducive to peace and quiet!

Churches, dogs, and strange conversations

 So, at a loose end today, and it being a lovely sunny day, I decided to take one of the small bikes and poke around some more local villages. I worked out a route that would take in 9 of them, but in the end, the heat, dehydration, and increasingly heavy traffic in the Canterbury area, beat me.

I did, however, manage 5 of them. Dogs and conversations will be included amongst the write-ups. So, the article about Chilham on the Kent1 page, will be updated. The remaining four (Godmersham, Chartham, Sturry and Fordwich) will appear on the Kent2 page

Changing Plans

 Robert Bruce held that 'The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry' - only he said it in a broad Scottish brogue.

He wasn't wrong though. I spent the most part of the winter, making plans to go to some very interesting places. The year started off well, with a lot of ground covered.  Even bought a new motorcycle to do the longer trips on.

However, since the visit to St. Albans, things seem to have fallen apart a bit. All of my city and town trips are now on hold for the foreseeable future, because of the serious unrest in this country. I just don't feel safe going into places with large populations.

Luckily, I still have quite a lot of small villages and curious places to cover. These are mostly ones I would normally do on 'Twinkle', my little yellow bike. However, I am now reviewing them, to see if I  can do some on the new bike - otherwise, I can't see me riding it too much at the present

Ah well, normal service will be resumed, when the Far Right get over themselves, and stop preaching hate to those who believe every idiotic thing they are told................