Category Archives: England – Autumn 2018

England – Autumn 2018

Bourton-on-the-Water – 17 October 2018

We got the bus to Bourton-on-the-Water, an attractive and picturesque Cotswold town, which just happens to have a motor museum.

Mini hedge find

Dedicated petrol heads may be better off at Gaydon up the road, which has lots more cars, but this place is in a nice setting and is as much a social history and advertising experience as a motor museum.

Advertising signs

The place is full of enamel advertising signs, most of it motoring related, but lots of other stuff as well.

Hillman Imp

Not  only are the floors and walls full, we didn’t even see the Raleigh Chopper dangling from the rafters until after looking at the photo.

Just to top things off, here is a farmyard animal:

Farmyard animal

Another nice thing about this place is that it is not a regiment of exhibits like most motor museums – there are no ropes keeping you away from the items.  There were also plenty of volunteers around willing to answer any questions.  A return visit is a must to take in all the things we missed.

Moreton in Marsh market

Tuesday is market day in Moreton in Marsh so we went for a look.  Not a bad market.  We got a trucker’s UK road atlas for £3 and a lovely pork pie.  No photos of the pork pie as we scoffed it.  The road atlas includes CCC campsites and CLs and some other sites as well.

Moreton-in-Marsh market

This stall was a painful return to reality after five weeks in France:

Get your long johns for winter

Unfortunately for the traders, there was no cash available.  There are three hole-in-the-wall machines here.  The one outside Tesco has been out of action for days, the one by the post office was out of service, and the one at Lloyds bank was working, but had run out of money.

No cash here – or anywhere

Folkestone to Henley-on-Thames – 14 October 2018

Rubbish weather.   It has poured with rain all day,  Might as well be Thames-on-Henley, it is that wet.  No point in going into town with a brolly as the roads are flooded and we would get drenched by spray.

The M20 is still one of the worst roads in the country, which they have made even worse by adding three lots of roadworks between Folkestone and Maidstone.  Why bother?  It will just be a big lorry park after brexit.  Idiots.  To catch up on the fun, the M25, which already had an appalling surface, is now even worse,  These roads need to be fixed, but no, let’s instead spend billions on “smart” motorways.  Somebody is making a lot of money out of this and we wonder who?

Anyway, here we are in Henley-on-Thames at midnight, still pouring with rain, out of here tomorrow.

Could be worse, at least we have:

Things could be worse

Went to Hythe – 13 October 2018

Got the bus to Hythe.  Got off at the Red Lion but getting off at the next stop would have taken us to the light railway.  We will know next time.  Hythe is ok, a few antique shops, more than a few charity shops, and reasonable pavement eating culture.  There is the Royal Military Canal, built to keep Napoleon I out, but the French never came, so a bit of a waste really.

Royal Military Canal

More seagulls here, this one clearly fancied our chips.  However, good manners prevailed and it adopted a look but don’t touch attitude.  Unlike the Cornish variety.

Poliite Hythe seagull

Henley on Thames – 31 August 2018

Messing about on the river at Henley-on-Thames

Henley-on-Thames is pretty much half way between Birmingham and Folkestone and an easy diversion from the M40.  It is also a very nice place with an easy walk from the campsite to town, and on the bus route from Reading to High Wycombe.  Two nights here planned, then a night at Folkestone, then the tunnel to France.