Les Misérables

Les Misérables is playing in Wellington for a three week run. We’d bought tickets, like, ages ago (i.e. before we left for Europe), so off we went. It’s the first production in the newly-strengthened St James Theatre, which has been closed for the last three years after being assessed for earthquake strengthiness, and falling short of the required standard.

We decided to go for cocktails first at CGR Merchant, one of Wellington’s premiere cocktail lounges on Courtenay Place. I had a gin infused with carrot cake concoction, and Nicola had a floral fizz of some kind. If they published their menu online I could tell you what they were. Our plan was then to trot around the corner to Mr. Go’s, our Go-to (see what I did there?) Asian food place. Unfortunately, it seems everyone else had had the same idea, and the place was packed. The maître d' found us some space at the bar, and we ordered dumplings, Korean chicken wings, and bok choi. Despite the busy-ness, the food was delivered in short order and we had plenty of time to consume it.

St James looks much the same as it did before, or at least as I remember it. Maybe there’s a few more columns in the foyer? We were in the stalls and had a good view of what was going on.

The production is a bit of a marathon. If you know the story, and the film, you’ll know that they do go on a bit…this one was over three hours including interval, so it was a bit wearing on the buttocks. The seats in St James haven’t been modernised, but they’re a bit better than the Opera House, at any rate. The interval didn’t come until we’d got through two hours of musicalizing. It was all done to a high standard with a revolving stage to assist with the scene changes, and a big barricade for the second half, and a cast of thousands…OK, maybe around thirty. We finished up at around quarter to eleven, and poured ourselves out into the darkness of Courtenay Place.

 

The Trojan War

We’re back in Wellington, and it’s the middle of winter, but nevertheless there’s stuff going on! We got back just in time to book (now sold out) tickets to go and see The Trojan War, as performed by fave alternative drama collective, A Slightly Isolated Dog.

But first, inevitably, dinner. Now Wellington On A Plate is in full swing at the moment, however we managed to get a table at Capitol, where we haven’t been in simply ages – largely because we’ve been in the Northern hemisphere. You know, that one. It’s also handily Bluff oyster season, so I was able to order a half dozen of these delectable beauties for my starter, whilst Nicola had the Dine Wellington dish, a crayfish soufflé. For the main I had veal saltimbocca, and it duly leapt into my mouth. Nicola had the gnocchi. The quality at Capitol remains consistent, and it’s one of the best places to go in Wellington.

Then a quick dash around the corner to BATS Theatre in the driving rain – the whole of New Zealand is in the midst of a tropical deluge at the moment, and it’s causing major problems in some parts of the country. We were just in time as the doors were opening. There’s no allocated seating at BATS, so you need to get in quick to get a good seat. We were greeted by members of the troupe as we entered – this is part of their modus operandi, as they assess victims for the audience participation parts of the show. We haven’t been to an ASID show for donkey’s years – the last one was Don Juan in 2016 – but I’ve been following their adventures on Facebook, waiting for them to return to Wellington.

Unlike most theatrical productions, they start by announcing that we can take as many pictures as we want – it’s encouraged, so here’s some:

Paris in blonde wig

 

Achilles

The Greek fleet sets sail for Troy

Grand finale

As usual, the show is an anarchic mix of acting, storytelling, audience participation, and songs. The chief characters – Helen, Paris, and Achilles – are played at various stages by all the actors, who don special headgear to indicate the character: a veil for Helen, a blonde wig for Paris, and an improvised helmet (made from a plastic bucket and a broom head) for Achilles. Also in the audience are the gods – Zeus, Aphrodite, Athena, and Eris, who all have parts to play. And Fate is a major recurring character as well. The story is told in a reasonably easy to understand way, but is interspersed with various side plots. It inevitably ends with (spoiler alert) the building of the wooden horse and the sacking of Troy.

Did I mention that they do all this in cod French accents? It’s their signature move…they’re actually playing characters, playing the characters in the play, all the time. It’s bizarre, it’s hilarious, and if it comes anywhere near you, you should go and see it!

Hereford

We’re travelling down to Jonny & Sarah’s wedding in Gloucestershire and decided to stop off on the way at Hereford. Sattie directed us to a car park; when we arrived there was plenty of space but no machine. A sign informed us that the only way to pay is via the app, so I downloaded the app, and tried to use it. In this I was hindered by the fact that it was in Russian. Fortunately there was another car park round the corner, with a machine, so I deleted the app and we parked there instead.

A short walk into town and we spotted a sign which directed us towards the cathedral. Hereford cathedral has all the usual cathedral-ly things about it, and we looked at all of them. This included some old stained glass, and some newer stained glass. It also had the tomb of Sir Richard Pembridge, a three-legged knight. This is due to his effigy having lost a leg when it was moved from Hereford Friary to the cathedral. A replacement was made of wood, but later an alabaster one was made, and the wooden one banished to a shelf in the library. It is now displayed next to his tomb.

Modern stained glass window

I'm Sir Richard Pembroke "The Peg"

...with my extra leg

What Hereford also has is the Mappa Mundi, a medieval map of the world. It doesn’t actually resemble much of a modern-day map, although it is surprisingly accurate at least to the placement of some of the countries on it. This is the main draw, although they twin it with the chained library. This does exactly what it says on the tin, and was a 17^th century solution to the problem of books going missing, not being returned etc. The books are literally chained to the shelves. There is a desk underneath for you to study the book at, but the books never leave the library.

A modern, more legible version of the mappa mundi

 

The chained library

Afterwards we found a little café bar down an alleyway to have some lunch in, then drove on via the Wye Valley. We stopped at Tintern Abbey as we spotted it in time to turn off. The abbey is, of course, a ruin (that Henry VIII again), but the remains are spectacular. Part of the church is not accessible at the moment as they are carrying out restoration work, but there’s enough to see and plenty of explanatory plaques dotted around the place to explain what went where. 

A short drive further on and we arrived at our destination. Best Western hotels is possibly one of the most inaptly named chains…Average Western would be more accurate. But it’s only for one night.

Shrewsbury

Nicola spent the morning get her hair and nails done, so we met up for lunch, and then went looking at Shrewsbury. Put like that, it sounds easy, but it wasn’t. I had high hopes of finding a parking space in the centre of town, but eventually, after a bit of circling, found one at St Chad’s Terrace. This is nowhere near where I’d dropped Nicola, or so I thought, and also I was navigating by Google Maps. This isn’t a great idea in Shrewsbury has, for some reason, it has very poor phone reception. Eventually I found the café where she was waiting, and we managed to find somewhere for a bite to eat.

The heatwave is under way again in the UK, and the temperature was heading towards 30°C already. The town has some picturesque (I need a new word for picturesque) buildings, and also some old churches. The church of St Mary’s contains some 15^th century stained glass windows, originally from a church in Trier, which were bought in 1788 and installed here (the original church in Trier was being demolished). It's also home to a memorial to Admiral Benbow, originally from Shrewsbury.

The Old Market Place

Picturesqueness

St Mary's church

After that we had a look at the castle. This is now an army museum dedicated to the Shropshire regiment, and details all their campaigns back in time to the 18^th century campaigns in Europe, up to the present day. There’s not much actual castle to look at, which was a bit disappointing. In the gardens there’s a sculpture of an egg which is part of the Shrewsbury sculpture trail. We didn’t spot any other items. 

What, you egg?

By this time we were running out of steam, so we headed back to St Chad’s Terrace. Whilst there it seemed churlish not to visit St Chad’s church, which turns out to be a circular church. Quite unusual! It was more modern than other churches, so other than its design, it was unremarkable. 

Circular pews!

Circular ceiling

That about concludes our historic adventures. The next couple of days will revolve around Johnny’s wedding, and then we head back to the far side of the world.

 

Wroxeter Roman City

…And we’re back with the Romans. Wroxeter Roman City, or Viroconium, is just ten minutes’ drive down the road from where we’re staying in Meole Brace. We would have been there on the dot of 10 o’clock, but we got stuck behind an agricultural vehicle on the way, so it took us a little longer.

It was once the fourth largest* Roman city in England with a population of 15,000 – around the same size as Pompeii in Italy. It was originally built as a fort for a cohort of Thracian auxiliaries, on a strategic location to defend the Severn crossing on Watling Street – a major Roman Road that ran from Dover to the North. It was later increased in size as more legions arrived to attack Welsh tribes, and a town grew up around it. Its position on a main road, and access to Wales led to its increasing importance and size.   

After the Romans left, the city continued to be used for a short while, but as the local Cornovii tribe split in two, it (stop me if you’ve heard this before) fell into disuse, then the stones were used for local buildings, and the rest was buried and turned into farmland.

Most of the site remains unexcavated. The baths were first rediscovered in the 19^th century, and then further excavations took place in the 1960s and 70s. Unfortunately, much of which was uncovered has been damaged by exposure to the elements, so at the moment no further dig is expected. Instead, the site has been comprehensively surveyed in situ underground, using modern geophysics techniques. What is shown above ground is the remains of the substantial bathhouse, including the largest freestanding piece of Roman masonry in England, known as “The Old Work”. 

The baths

The old work

Also at the site, on the other side of Watling Street, is a reconstructed Roman house. This has been built using Roman techniques and materials, similar to what we saw in South Shields, and gives an idea of what life was like for an ordinary(!) wealthy upper middle-class Roman.

One of the things Romans did in England was grow vines for wine. Less than a mile down the road is a vineyard, not quite on the site of the Roman vineyard, but not far from it. The Wroxeter Roman Vineyard has been in business for over 30 years, and we tasted some of their wares before buying a bottle of Shropshire Gold.  

There’s also another English Heritage site nearby, so we stopped off at the ruins of Haughmond Abbey on the way back. This is yet another dissolved abbey dating from the 12^th century. As usual, there were plaques describing what we were seeing and abbey life. The abbey is set in the countryside, and our perambulations were observed by a bunch of bored-looking cows. 

*            1: London (Londinium)

              2: Colchester (Camulodunum)

              3: St Albans (Verulamium)

Meole Brace

We thanked Johnny & Kathrin, and left High Borrans in the morning, to begin our trek southwards into the sun. Whilst the North has been very enjoyable, the temperature difference between there and the rest of the UK has been noticeable....in a good way, with daytime temperatures rarely exceeding 20°C, unlike the heatwave that has been sweeping the rest of the UK. Blimey, I even contemplated long trousers at one point! Temperatures are again set to reach 30°C by the end of the week in the South.

Our first stop was at Chester, where we intended to tour the castle. This hope was dashed on the rocks of reality, when we found out on arrival that you can only visit by pre-arranged tour. We’d already paid for parking all day by then, so decided to explore further in Chester. But first we needed to find a public convenience, as the tea we’d had for breakfast was starting to make its presence felt. We found the public toilets along the river bank. These were positively Victorian in construction…see if you can spot the design flaw in the gents’: 

Full occupancy would be rather cosy

We walked up through the Roman Gardens and the amphitheatre, and then decided it was high time we lunched ourselves. By the cathedral we found the Coach House, and they did light bites and panini. After lunch we checked out the cathedral. Parts of it were closed off as there was a “service in progress” (it wouldn’t actually start for another hour), but we saw the important bits. Chester cathedral isn’t high on the list of cathedrals to see, for good reason - there’s not much there, and no famous dead people. 

The amphitheatre

The Roman Garden

The old city wall. This part was breached by cannon fire, and you can see the repair

Roman tiles and baths

Picturesque Chester

The cathedral

Getting to Chester had broken the back of the three-hour journey, and we only had a short section left. What we’d forgotten, however, was that it was Sunday, and the supermarkets would be closing at 4pm. We put the details of the big Sainsbury’s into Sattie  (there wasn't a Waitrose), and she informed us we’d get there at 3:47. That should be OK, I thought…but when we hit some traffic, that started to lengthen. We found another Sainsbury’s which was open late, actually very close to our destination, and headed there instead. Although it hadn’t said so, this was a Sainsbury’s Local, so had limited selections; but we found everything we needed, and then did the final mile to our latest AirBnB in Meole Brace. This is a one-bedroom house in a little cul-de-sac, and has everything we need, including a washing machine. It also has a little patio out the back which is an absolute sun trap, so I’m sitting indoors as it’s cooler here.

 

Kendal

Today we visited Kendal, the largest town in the Lake District. Whilst not known for its Roman origins, it does have an amount of other history associated with it. It is also, of course, the home of Kendal Mint Cake.

We first headed up the hill to the castle, which is atop a drumlin, and was the home of the Parr family, a very influential family in the 15^th century. The Parr family are probably best known for Catherine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII. The castle is now a ruin, and had already been deserted by the Parr family by the time of Catherine’s birth, as they had largely decamped to London by then. So far as we can tell, Anne of Cleves never visited it either. 

Looking down onto the town from the castle it was clear how it earned its nickname “old grey town”. Most of the buildings are made from the local sandstone, grey in colour, and everything looks very monotonous. 

View from the castle

We walked back down the hill into town, and read the various plaques dotted around the place which explained the history of Kendal. This includes the story of Bishop Blaize, martyred in 4th century Armenia by being, literally, combed to death. He is now the patron saint of woolcombers. His connection to Kendal? Well, there's a lot of sheep around here... Much of the town is connected by narrow lanes, or yards as they are known colloquially. We bought some mint cake from original manufacturer Quiggin’s (other imitative brands are available), to sustain us on our travels – it was famously taken to the Antarctic by Shackleton, and to Mount Everest by Hillary. It’s basically mint-flavoured sugar.

Also in Kendal is the third-widest church in England. Who goes around measuring the width of churches, and who is first and second, wasn't divulged. I assume cathedrals are also excluded as many of them are quite wide.

Look at the width on that!

After a lunch at Low Sizergh Farm Shop we drove South West to Cartmel, to see the Priory and the town. Cartmel Priory has the distinction of being (a) founded by William Marshal (yes, him!), and (b) remaining undissolved in the dissolution of the monasteries. They did this via a loophole that William Marshal had presented the altar to the townspeople rather than the church, and the villagers successfully petitioned to be allowed to keep it, as it was their only place of worship.

Inside the church there are a number of gravestones which feature a skull and crossbones motif. This doesn’t mean that they are pirates, but the reason for it is unclear. According to a notice in the church, it was a symbol used in the Crusades as often the only parts of noblemen returned to Blighty were the skull, and maybe the femurs. It came to symbolise mortality, and was often accompanied by an hourglass with wings, signifying the passing of time. The dates on all the ones we found were 18^th century, so we’re a bit dubious about this claim. An alternative explanation proffered at Arthuret church in Longtown was that the remains were plague victims, and should not be dug up. Whilst we think of the Great Plague being in 1665, plague was still a cause of death in the 18^th century, and there were recorded cases in the UK as late as 1918, so this is plausible.

Don't dig me up!

The rest of Cartmel is also very picturesque, and it holds a claim to fame as the birthplace of sticky toffee pudding.

We drove on from there to almost-the-beach, at Grange-Over-Sands, which is in Morecambe Bay. The tide was out – a long way out – so we walked along the promenade and could just about make out Blackpool Tower, 31 km away. After a cuppa it was time to return to the lakes, and we drove up along the side of Windermere, through Bowness and then Windermere, both of which were throbbing with tourists. Tonight, we’re going down the pub.

Penrith

We left Longtown for the last time and made our way down to the Lake District. On the way, we stopped off in Penrith. This is a small town with a castle, so we had a look.

It's ruined, I tell you!

Penrith Castle is a ruin. There’s a couple of placards explaining about it, but not much else. It detained us for about 10 minutes. It’s picturesque, though.

Next we headed to nearby Brougham (pronounced “broom”) Castle (pronounced “castle”). Guess what? It’s a ruin. There’s a bit more to see here, though, and we were able to ascend to the top of the tower via a spiral staircase, to admire the views from the top. The castle was built in the 13^th century by Robert de Vieuxpont, on the site of an old Roman fort called Brocavum. In common with many castles in this area, it featured heavily in the wars between England and Scotland – Edward I used it on occasion. It was owned by the Clifford family for many a year, but was attacked and sacked in 1388. The castle wasn’t well maintained and fell into disrepair in the 16^th century, but was briefly restored by Lady Anne Clifford. After her death it was again left to decay. It is today administered by English Heritage.

View from the top

Also in the area is Mayburgh Henge. This is such an uninteresting place of interest that Sattie couldn’t find it on “Places of Interest”. It consists of a single stone in a field. 

Nearby is King Arthur’s Round Table. This again over-promised and under-delivered. It’s a semi-circular ditch in a field. 

It's a ditch in a field

We circled back to Penrith to find some lunch, and formulated a plan for the afternoon. This involved a visit to another henge at Castlerigg, but we were thwarted in that endeavour by the Cumbrian constabulary, who had closed the A66 due to a serious accident. Instead, we headed into the Lake District and over Kirkstone Pass, towards Windermere, where we’re staying for the next couple of days.

 

Museum & Birdoswald

The first of today’s destinations was the Roman Army Museum. This is a ticket that we’d bought in advance as a joint ticket when we visited Vindolanda two days ago, as they are run by the same people. As we wanted to get on with stuff we arrived at around two minutes after ten, so were pretty much the first people in.

The museum basically recaps a lot of what we’ve learned over the last week about the Roman Empire in Britain. They have various artefacts from sites along the wall, including an impressive collection of brooches. They also have a 20-minute film which shows every half hour, so we stopped to watch that. It’s in 3D (remember that?), and covered the building of the wall, and everyday life for the soldiers who manned it.

The brooch box

Infantryman

Cavalryman

A manuballista - a small artillery weapon that fired large arrows

After a cup of tea, we backtracked a few miles and went to Birdoswald. This is another fort on the wall, and whilst the ruins aren’t all that, it’s on the longest stretch of the wall that is still standing.  The Roman fort was known as Banna. It was manned by a cohort of Dacians (modern-day Romania). It also has evidence of the use of one of the granaries after the Romans had departed. In the 12th century there is evidence that one "Radulpho de Bordesald" was witnessing charters and granting lands around the site, and this is presumably how it got its modern name. It remained farmland, with a typical Bastle house built on the site, with defences against local bandits known as reivers. In the 19th century, in what sounds like a very familiar story, the site was excavated by its owner, Henry Norman, to expose the ruins we can see today. The farm remained in use until the late 20th century. 

Roman inscription

The granary

A section of wall

More wall

This about wraps up our Hadrian’s Wall-related adventures. We’re moving on from Longtown tomorrow to go and stay in the Lake District for a couple of nights, then we start our journey south to get to Gloucestershire.