Chepstow Castle

Day 2 of my Wiltshire sojourn and we headed across the Severn to Chepstow. Which may mean more to you as a racecourse but actually has a very fine castle, albeit one under a fairly serious bit of maintenance. This involved a brief excursion across the border into Wales with the inevitable rain.

This is a good choice of castle, if one overlooks the slightly over-zealous appeal to small children. It has history, a lot to look around and great views of the river.

These doors have been dated back to 1190, the oldest castle doors in Europe.

 This is what I meant about the over-zealous courting of the under 10s. Plastic dragons in the courtyard. Really?

Not the very early Norman doorway. This castle was built not long after the Norman invasion.

 The eco-friendly basket-work knight has seen better days, on his now three-legged horse.

Lacock

Another trip out to the West Country for me, this time to visit friends in Marshfield, a village outside Chippenham. Now it has to be said this is a lovely part of the country, and I arrived Saturday morning in glorious sunshine. We stared off by visiting Karen's grandparents, and a cup of coffee in the garden led to a bottle of prosecco and before I knew it I was sunburnt. Doesn't take much with me.

But in the afternoon we went to Lacock. I had been here before but not for some years. Its main claim top fame is that it was home to William Fox Talbot, one of the men with a decent claim to have invented photography.

But as with many houses up here it has a medieval history, and was once an abbey housing nuns.

 The great hall contains a somewhat bizarre collection of terracotta (as wewll as Karen sitting by the fire)

 Outside the grounds and gardens are highly appealing.

As are the cloisters

Eamonn looking a picture

 

Apart from the Abbey there is also a picturesque village to wander around. Unfortunately on a sunny weekend, other people had the same idea. Luckily by the time we were out of the house and grounds most of the tour parties had departed.Otherwise, the invasion is similar to a locust infestation.