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Ashby de la Zouche, Breedon, Grantham & Woolsthorpe Manor
Ashby de la Zouche
Ashby de la Zouche is a town in Leicestershire, peculiar for its fancy name of Britanny origin (Le Zouch) and significant for its castle, which was made famous by Walter Scott's Ivanhoe where a tournament is held in Ashby. It was destroyed during the English civil war. The Loudoun monument is another curiosity both in shape and in denomination.
The first stop on our 5th campervanning trip, we hadn't planned to stop there but drifted here as a result of an error in exiting the highway. The first night was spent in a nearby pub's parking. Ashby was a destination that was on our list anyway. We decided to re-join the English heritage charity on this occasion. Our short stay (~2h45) mainly covered the castle & the church with a loop passing by Our Lady of Lourdes and back from Market street (see trajectory)
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Map of Ashby.
The highlight of the place: its castle.
Elena and Julia.
The main tower.
Walking on the frosty moats.
Avec papa, en haut de la tour.
Con mama.
View over our Lady of Lourdes (Catholic church).
Running in the sunken areas (probably training defending features).
Elena.
Julia.
Market Street.
The type of timber-frame house you can find there.
The Bull's head pub.
In the market hall, in front of the pub.
Saint Helen.
Inside.
A relic of the Black Death.
Breedon on the Hill
Breedon on the Hill is a must-go destination in England, a village of very old origin, it hosts the wonderful Church of St Mary and St Hardulph on top of its hill, that hosts itself a large body of extremely rare and valuable Anglo-Saxon art, possibly the oldest in the country, also including the longest frieze of this era.
It also features an unsettling skeleton sculpture, which has been unusual since the time it was put there, at the demand of George Shirley who set up this monument to grieve the loss in childbirth of his wife (Francesca) for whom he wrote this beautiful plea:
- Death, which untimely tore thee from my bed
- And robbed my home,
- Shall one day give me back with thee to wed
- In this thy tomb.
Julia with the Shirley monument, which she declared was "mon époux".
Elena admiring the frieze.
Detail of the Saxon engraving behind...
and of the Anglo-Saxon saint.
A small fraction of the said frieze.
Beautiful depiction of hell from a millennium ago.
Grantham
Grantham is a town in England, famous for its association to Newton (many things are named after him), also being the birthplace of Margaret Thatcher as well as the first UK diesel engine.
It was on our list of places to go for the Angel & Royal hotel, which has been in operation since 1203, making it one of the oldest hotels in the world. It is also known to have hosted a large number of royals in the past. At the occasion of this visit, however, although we ate in town (at the Japanese where I had authentic Wagu steak) we did not enter the place itself, focusing instead on Wulfram's church.
Grantham's street, by day.
The "blue pig", which Julia could read by herself.
Saint Wulfram, possibly the highlight of Grantham.
Details of the facade.
Inside, still Christmasy.
Elena chasing the details.
There is much to look for and admire indeed.
The majestuous roof.
The same outside, with a complete series of gargoyles.
Side view of the church. Each black spot is a gargoyle.
Julia in the graveyard.
In the Hall court of this schoold, Sir Isaac Newton was taught.
Grantham's street, by night.
The oldest hotel in the world.
The Guildhall, a gothic Victorian doll-house palace snubbed by Newton.
RAF North Witham
In Twyford wood, the American Station 479 was hiding warplane runways, from which, on 5 June (1944) at precisely 21.54, 20 aircraft departed to launch the invasion of Normandy. Their mission was to position radio-signaling beacons behind enemy lines to guide the main invasion aircraft.
The site is popular with dog-walkers and these two friends accompanied us for a while.
Overgrown wartime runways that changed the face of the World.
Now left to walkers, dogs and children to play.
Some hints of a gloomy military past.
The desolation of the site is inviting reflections on the nature and fate of historical events.
We covered about half of the site
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Woolsthorpe Manor
Woolsthorpe is a legendary place, being both the birthplace of Newton and the location where he developed his most important scientific achievements, including the theory of gravitation and optics.
Julia, who signed as 'Julia Losi', met a cat there, which she reported as the item of the visit which inspired her. Although it seems we stayed there forever, it was only hardly over 2 hours, from 11h20 till 13h28. We also visited the village itself (Colsterworth), which is worth it as the church includes an original carving of Newton (a sundial).
The manor. The top right window is Newton's office (and bedroom).
Whoolstorpe is a little farm complex.
The highlight is understandably the tree...
which is itself falling under the weight of gravity.
A great source of inspiration for everybody, so it seems.
To what hangs a scientific revolution!
Believed to have been carved by Newton as a child.
Newton's desk...
and bed.
Discussing another assumed Newton's carving, this time, Wulfrum church in Grantham.
Julia's input in the logbook with a drawing of Newton carving the circle.
In the church where Newton was baptized, in the nearby Colsterworth village.
where you can find another carving from Newton, this time the original.
You have to know where to find it (behind the organ!)
Befitting gargoyle to Newton's mischievous mind? Didn't this also inspire his theory of gravity?
