DAY 3

These next three posts are going to be in rapid fire sucession.

I know, I know, this is the longest, most drawn out tale you have ever had the misfortune to listen to. I will make quick work of Day 3 and 4 though, then I will tell you about the magnificently, marvellous Mark Horton march around Bristol.

Day 3: Off we went on Day 3 to a village about an hour away from our hostel. Not sure what the name of the place was, can’t be bothered with things like that, haha. We stopped to see a memorial to the soldiers of the village who had lost their lives in all the major wars from WWI to the present day. One of their boys died about 2 years ago in Iraq and he had his very own special spot on the memorial.

We then quick like bunnies scurried down the street a little ways to see a very old, some what derelict house built for one of the town tobacco trades men in the early part of the 1600’s. We thought that we were just going to see the outside, but since it was such a large and completely conspicuous group of us all traipsing around the front of the house, the heritage manager of the house came out and invited us in to have a quick tour of the place. Mark and his normal tour leader self were having a bit of a lay in and so the lady was able to conduct the tour herself. After our tour, our group met up with Prof. Mark Horton at a church just down the road to take a look some rather nice stonework detailing the shipping and tobacco industry of the town.

After taking a peak inside the church, it was back to the mini busses and Landies (Land Rovers). With our trusty Greg at the gears, we wound our way around and landed our vehicle of adventure to go into a fully restored smithy shop. Run by water wheels the tour guide (again not Mark, he was working on his computer at this point) was very informative and gave us a demonstration of the iron press and showed us how to make a shovel.After our tour, we all got to sit down and relax for the first time all day and have a “spot of tea.” Leanne and I were, at this point on a mission to find some cream tea (Cornish curdled cream, jelly, a scone, served with tea. It’s amazingly tasty!). The smithy shop had a teahouse and cream tea but they were very expensive so we opted out for the time being.

Back to the Mini bus we went once again; on to the coalmines and Morwellham Quay, a heritage site that is now officially “in administration,” closed. We arrived for Morwellham Quay's final day, very sad to see such heritage go away but as Nick Saunders keeps telling us, it just means a new leaf for archaeologist to explore and think about. In its heyday, Morwellham Quay would have been a really fun place for families to visit. We even got a mine tour! It reminds me greatly of the heritage sites that line the East Coast of our United States, James Town, Williamsburg, Mt. Vernon, and Plymouth Plantation.

We made our last stop of the day at a house just up the road from Morwellham Quay, for details about this apply to the author of this blog. We packed it in after eating fruitcake and drinking tea with the owners. Mini bus fun continued as we spent 3 hours playing 20 questions. Our mini bus got lost….again.