| Tips and photos of unusual, out-of-the-way England attractions, posted by real travelers and locals. Map |
 | England Off the Beaten Path | Tips 1 - 10 of 104 |  |
Village wells are usually rustic affairs of stone and slate, but one Oxfordshire village has something far more exotic. Here the well head takes the form of a domed Indian kiosk and a golden elephant sits atop the winding mechanism. This is the Maharajah's Well at Stoke Row, high in Oxfordshire's Chiltern Hills.
Before 1842, the villagers, had to walk several miles to fetch and carry water by hand as the village had no well. When told of this by the local governor (who came from Stoke Row) , and on hearing how a village boy was beaten by his mother for drinking the last of their precious water during a drought, the Maharajah of Benares decided to give the village the gift of water. He paid for a well to be sunk, a wellkeeper's cottage to be built, and a cherry orchard planted to provide the income to maintain the well. Together, the little complex served the village's water needs for many years until modern times and connection to the county grid saw the well abandoned.
Now handsomely restored after some years of neglect and decay, the well is still capable of drawing water. The wellkeeper's cottage is still standing in the garden next door though it's a long time since the couple of geriatric cherry trees that remain have borne fruit.
Directions:Stoke Row lies about 5 miles west-north-west of Henley on Thames
Two good pubs: The Cherry Tree pub on the village green has very good food. A little further afield, through the village and down a country lane, The Crooked Billet is always excellent Leave a Comment
|
 | |  |
Visiting England?
Read reviews about England Hotels
Real Reviews from Real VirtualTourist Members.
Lovers of the work of Jane Austen know how she treasured village life. A visit to her home in the little Hampshire village of Chawton takes the visitor right into the world of this most beloved of English writers. She moved here with her sister and widowed mother in 1809 and lived the modest red-brick house until she moved to Winchester to be nearer her physician just before her death. These were the years that saw her work published to great acclaim and it was here that she did nearly all her work - revising Sense And Sensibility and then producing Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion.
The house is furnished just as it would have been in Jane's days here, with many family and personal possessions - furniture, china, personal mementoes and the like, including a wonderful patchwork quilt she and her mother and sister stitched together. The desk she wrote at still stands by the window in the parlour- and the door into the dining room still creaks - this was her warning signal that visitors had come as she didn't like to be "caught" writing. The donkey cart she used is still in the stables and the garden is planted with plants she would have found familiar. You really do get a tangible sense of the author and her life when you visit Chawton.
Directions: Chawton is 1 mile south-west of Alton, Hampshire, signed off the roundabout at the junction of the A31 (Winchester) and the A32 (Fareham) roads.
Trains from London (Waterloo) to Alton run approx hourly and connect to bus X64
Where to eat: The pub across the way does a reasonable pub lunch; those feeling like something more suitably ladylike after a visit to Jane's House may prefer the tearooms at Cassandra's Cup - though I can't vouch for the fare as it's always been closed when I've been to Chawton. Leave a Comment
|
| | |
Cliveden, the grand Italianate mansion built by Sir Charles Barry in 1850, high over the Thames Valley at Taplow, became American multi-millionaire William Wardolph Astor's home in 1893. and was famous as home of the smart, rich and influential "Cliveden Set" (Nancy Astor, WW's daughter-in-law - an American by birth - was the first woman elected the Westminster), High jinks of another kind earned the estate equally great notoriety in the 1960s when much of a scandal that rocked the government of the day was played out in a cottage in the grounds. Now the mansion has resumed its former grandeur, but this time in the guise of a beautiful country house hotel - pockets need to be deep to stay here.
The estate is owned by the National Trust nowadays and the wonderful gardens that are Cliveden's glory are open to the public every day. The huge estate is laid out as a series of gardens each with an individual character. The water gardens and formal parterre are particularly beautiful but there are also lovely woodland and riverside walks that offer spectacular views of the Thames far below.The famous balustrade along the house's terrace was acquired by Astor from Rome's Villa Borghese and you'll see ancient Roman sarcophagi, urns and statuary that were bought at the same time spread around the formal gardens.
Splendid as all this is, my favourite corner of Cliveden is the little cemetery tucked into the cliff-side below the Mausoleum. Lady Astor founded a Canadian Red Cross hospital in Cliveden's grounds during WWI and the cemetery is the last resting place of soldiers and nurses from "the colonies" who died there from their injuries and from the great Spanish Flu epidemic that killed more people than the war did.
Directions: 2miles north of Taplow; M4 Exit 7 to , M40 Exit 4 onto A404 to Marlow. Look out for the brown signs. Enter at main gates opposite the Feathers.
Map
Best place to eat: The restaurant in the Orangery near the house. Food at the Feathers is very ordinary! Leave a Comment
|
| | |
Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) was born, lived and died in Cookham and the village features constantly in his paintings. It would be a mistake to regard his work as simply quaint scenes of village life however. His religious fervour and unconventional attitudes to sexuality and romance are all expressed in his work and when they first appeared many provoked both shock and controversy. His work was decidedly avant-guard but it is also imbued with great wit and charm with wonderful resonances of early Italian painting by masters such as Giotto and the works of Post-Impressionist, Paul Gaugin. The works are no pastiches though - Spencer's vision was peculiarly his own and there are some very powerful images - he was an official war artist in both WWI and WWII.
The very best place to begin to understand Spencer is in his own village - Cookham - as picture-perfect an English village set down by the Thames as you could imagine.
The Stanley Spencer Gallery is housed in what was once the Methodist Hall on the High Street.
As well as a considerable collection of the artist's works that allows for regular changes in what is on exhibition, the gallery also has a large collection of letters, photos and memorabilia, including his painting materials, the old black pram that he used to to carry his equipment and the sign he would put up to keep curious on-lookers at bay as he worked. A visit here, combined with a walk around the village visiting the places connected with him and those that feature in his paintings, leaves you with a real appreciation of the artist and his work.
Directions: High Street, Cookham, Berkshire. London 28 miles, Maidenhead 3 miles
Change at Maidenhead for trains from London
Best village pub: Bel and the Dragon, immediately opposite Leave a Comment
|
| | |
 The Jacobean gatehouse and
Great Hall by TheWanderingCamel, 4 more photos
Building began in 1240, but that was a time of great unrest in the Welsh Marches - parts of the massive north tower and solar block date from then. By the time Lawrence acquired the property however, peace had come to the Marches and he was able to continue building with comfort and style more in mind than security, setting big windows into the outer walls and adding a Great Hall. Lawrence was out to impress as well - it was he who added a battlemented south tower (an addition that required permission from the king) and had an artificial moat dug.
Today, Stokesay Castle and the neighboring Church of St John the Baptist stand alone in the Shropshire countryside, the village that they once were part of has entirely disappeared. As you walk through the churchyard around to the pretty half-timbered gatehouse (a 16th century addition) you certainly feel the modern world slipping away. Cross the threshold into the Great Hall with its soaring cross-gabled roof and central hearth and you step back into another world. Climb the stairs to the solar - the family's private drawing room - and you can almost sense the presence of the generations of solid English merchants and farmers who called Stokesay Castle their home.
Stokesay Castle is maintained by English Heritage. Check their website here for opening hours, entry charges and facilities.
Directions: 7 miles north-west of Ludlow, off A49
Where to eat (and stay) nearby: The Clive serves a great Sunday lunch. I'm sure the food is just as good on other days. Leave a Comment
|
| | |
Visiting England?
Read reviews about England Hotels
Real Reviews from Real VirtualTourist Members.
 yeah, like you'll find one
THIS big :-) by aaaarrgh
Lyme Regis. You will find some beautiful cliffs and beaches here.
But what makes Lyme Regis special is that it is now a World Heritage Site. Vast quantities of fossils have been discovered in the cliffs. And continue to be discovered.
Because of the geology of the area, rocks dating back to the Jurassic period, 200million years old, are exposed at Lyme Regis.
Apparently Springtime is best to come and find lots of fresh fossils on the beach. Every winter the storms wash more objects out of the rock. Watch for bellemnites (very common, pencil-like sea creatures) and ammonites (like coiled squid) amongst the pebbles. Kids seem to love this sort of thing, we could hardly drag my neice of the beach :-)
The earliest collectors found complete skeletons of prehistoric fish and reptiles.
If you can't be arsed to look yourself, and have some cash, there are gift shops selling large fossil specimens.
There is a museum and large carparks at Charmouth, from which we walked a mile or two along the beach to Lyme Regis itself.
Have fun! Directions how to get there by train or car are on the Lyme Regis website... Leave a Comment
|
| | |
 St Mary the Virgin, Eaton Bray by TheWanderingCamel, 2 more photos
St Mary the Virgin at Eaton Bray, early 13th century, built of local stone with a small spike rising from its tower, not especialy notable from the outside but it's a different story once you pass through the fine 13th century ironworked south door. Two grand arcades with splendidly decorated capitals to the piers create an impressive interior that is enhanced by a 13th century font (where both Mark and Henry no doubt protested in the way of all babies at the shock of being splashed at their baptisms in 1801 and 1843)
Two and a half miles away in Stanbridge, Rebecca was born in 1811. Standing in front of the Saxon font at the 13th century Church of St John the Baptist by the village green I could picture her parents bringing her to be baptised and I could see the young girl coming to her wedding there in 1830.
Five minutes by car back over the A505 is Totternhoe and the Church of St Giles - an appropriate dedication for a village where stone has been quarried for centuries - St Giles is the patron saint of cripples. Three of Mark and Rebecca's children were born in this village before they moved back to Eaton Bray. The 14th century church here is built on 12th century foundations in an chequered pattern of ashlar blocks. Inside, the original carved roof nave is notable, as are a fine deep-relief 15th century carving of an angel bearing a shield and a magnificent modern stained glass window by John Piper.
Directions Between Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard. You really need to be driving yourself.
Where to eat The Cross Keys at Totternhoe is a pretty yellow-shuttered 14th century thatched pub with a view, a menu of pub grub staples such as sausages and mash served with excellent onion gravy and friendly staff. Leave a Comment
|
| | |
A small gem of a city just 9 miles and a few hundred thousand tourists a year away from nearby Cambridge, Ely has much to offer those in search of something different. From its beginnings in the 7th century when a Saxon queen had a church and monastery built on what was then an island in the Fens the city grew up around the cathedral but remained cut off in its watery isolation for another 1000 years until the Fens were drained in the 18th century - until then Ely could only be reached by boat.
Despite this isolation, Ely Cathedral has always been a great centre of pilgrimage, first as one of the great Saxon churches and later as one of the glories of Norman achievement with its soaring towers, fabulously carved and painted ceiling, stained glass museum and massive mediaeval doors adorned with wonderful iron-work and the surrounding monastic buildings . Take some time to visit the nearby parish church of St Mary , and to walk around the surrounding streets with their fine collection of half-timbered houses.
The large half-timbered house next door to St Mary's was, from 1636-1647, home to Oliver Cromwell and his family. Now the Ely Information Centre, the house also has several rooms furnished in Cromwellian-style and the audio-visual displays there not only tell the story of the life and times of the Lord Protector but also of his death and ultimately gruesome demise, neither of which took place in Ely.
Directions14km north-east of Cambridge, on the A10. 1 hour 15 minutes from London (King's Cross) by train.
Where to eat Once part of the 12th century monastery and with a beautiful garden, The Almonery is historic in atmosphere, satisfyingly modern in its approach to food and has a glorious view of the cathedral from the garden tables. Good lunches and delicious teas have taken the place of the mediaeval monkish fare. Leave a Comment
|
| | |
 Leicester Guildhall by leics
an equally excellent market and shopping centre, Abbey Park (with the remains of a Medieval abbey) and three museums containing not only the 'Rutland dinosaur' but German impressionist paintings, Roman remains and lots more. Find out about Leicester at www.discoverleicester.co uk ....and spend a day there if you get the chance. Oh, and it's got the National Space Centre too (www.spacecentre.co.uk)! Leave a Comment
|
| | |
 Cup and ring mark. by leicsLeave a Comment
|
|
More England Travel Deals Hotels Cheap
Save up to 50% on Hotels and Now Get Our Best Price Guarantee. London Hotels
Find the Perfect Hotel! Book Online for the Lowest Prices Guaranteed. Vacation Rentals
Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We take care of everything, so you can relax. Sponsored Links - Quality Hotel Bournemouth
47 Gervis Rd, England - Caledonian Hotel Newcastle
Osborne Road Jesmond Tyne and Wear, England - Bolton West Travelodge
M61 J6 J8 Service Area, England - Ramside Hall Classic Hotel
Carrville, England - The Hotel At Chelsea
Fulham Rd Stamford Bridge, England - Stapleford Park
MELTON MOWBRAY, LEICESTERSHIRE LE14 2EF, England n, England - Ashford International Hotel
Simone Weil Avenue, England - Somerset Roland Gardens
121 Old Brompton Road South Kensington, England - Holbrook House Hotel
1 WINCANTON HILL, WINCANTON BA9 8BS, England null, England - Hardwick Hall Classic Hotel
Sedgefield, England - Charlotte Street Hotel
15 Charlotte Street, England - Number 5 Maddox Street
5 Maddox Street Mayfair, England - Langstone Hotel
Northney Road, England - Shaftesbury Metropolis London Hyde Park
78-84 Sussex Gardens Hyde Park, England - Longhirst Hall Classic Hotel
Longhirst, England
|
