A Trip to Gloucestershire
Anna and I were in Gloucestershire for the weekend. We’d gone down for my brother’s 50th birthday as we were all meeting for a meal on Monday evening so thought we’d spend a few days there. Morgan wanted to stay home and had the excuse that he has upcoming exams, so he wanted to revise. With an excuse like that, we couldn’t really argue! Although, I imagine the amount of actual revising that took place was probably somewhere between zero and none!
I wanted to inspect the bees before we left on Saturday so by the time I’d done that and we were ready it was the afternoon. We had to drive via Lampeter as well so that I could drop the camper off to get some work done on it. Anna therefore followed me in the car and then we both jumped into the car and continued on towards Bristol via a somewhat unconventional route. It made a change if nothing else.
Once in the Bristol area, we drove to my parents where we’d be staying for a few nights, said our hellos and had dinner with them.
Historic Houses Day 1
I headed off for a nice run on Sunday morning. It looks as though it would be a nice day as I ran around the woods and hillside above Wooton-Under-Edge.
It turned out to be a nice run too.
Woodchester Mansion
After that and a shower Anna and I headed off to nearby Woodchester Mansion. This is an unfinished, Gothic revival mansion house. After a stroll along the woodland paths to get there we followed the tour around the mansion itself. Strangely, the fact that it is unfinished makes it more interesting than your normal ‘historic house’. The unfinished nature gives you more of an impression of the work, money and skills involved in building such a house. It’s all formed of öolitic limestone too so I was able to indulge in a bit of ‘geological nerdery’ as well. The limestone is lovely though and the stone masonry is amazing.
We had a little stroll outside too and then walked back up the hill to the car. Lunch was taken at the impressive Gloucester Services. This isn’t your average motorway service station, so it was worth a visit.
Bonsai World
Next, we headed to the other side of Chelthenham to ‘Bonsai World‘. I’d like to get some proper bonsai trees but can’t really afford them – at least I can’t if all they’ll do is die on me!! I thought I nice trip to bonsai world for some inspiration might be fun though. Although to be honest I didn’t expect too much from it.
As we approached we started to come across quite a few brown tourist signs all pointing towards ‘Bonsai World’. If it warranted such signs, maybe there was more to it than I was expecting. Sadly that wasn’t the case. It was nice enough and the people running it sounded helpful to the person who had made a purchase, but there wasn’t anything that particularly caught my eye. We therefore came away empty-handed.
Miserden House and Gardens
Next, we headed back up onto the Cotswold Hills through the little village of Miserden and into the Garden at Miserden. We didn’t have much time by the time we got here so we just had a quick stroll through the gardens, around the woodlands and then went to the café for tea and cake. We did see a slow worm whilst there and the ancient Mulberry tree. However, we’ll probably come back another time as it was a really nice garden.
We continued our visit to historic houses on Monday as well.
Dr. Jenners House
The first stop on a sunny Monday morning was Dr Jenners House in Berkeley. Dr. Jenner is the father of vaccination so his house is now a museum all about his life, the development of vaccines and the eradication of smallpox. It’s all very interesting and nicely laid out too. The house has a pleasant garden for a little stroll as well. There’s also a strange little summer house that was used as a vaccination clinic.
Berkeley Castle
Just around the corner is the impressive Berkeley Castle. We’ve been here before but thought another visit was in order. So, after a walk around the castle itself, we spent some time strolling and chilling in the gardens.
The gardens are lovely and always worth a visit. The Wsiterian and Ceanothus growing up the castle walls were impressive today. Ther new pond put mine to shame and the lawns were being freshly mowed.
The same couldn’t quite be said of the food we had for lunch there. The microwaved ‘pizza wrap’ was underwhelming and £3 for a small cardboard cup of tea is ridiculous! On a more positive note, they are building a new visitor centre and walled garden so maybe they’ll be serving food there next time we visit and hoepfully it’ll be an improvement!
Birthday Celebrations
After a day of visiting old houses, it was time to celebrate the oldness of my brother for his 50th birthday! The plan was a surprise for him as he didn’t realise there would be 21 people there for a meal at the Green Dragon Mezze Restaurant in Downend, Bristol. The food was good and we all had a good time so the evening was a success. Jay seemed to have nothing but whisky as presents!
We then spent another night at my parent’s house before a pleasant drive through the sunshine on Tuesday. Time then to catch up with household chores and work. A day or two of annual leave is always nice, but the work doesn’t stop coming in so there’s always lots to catch up with afterwards.
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[…] after a recent trip to family in Bristol we returned with a huge Dracaena, a formative Sansevieria, a Tradescantia cutting and a whole load […]
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It was lovely as always to see you both x
You didn’t mention the eurovision song contest !