9 August - Plymouth, St Agnes and Mt Hawke and Stonehenge and The RomanBaths

Charles Church is the second most ancient Parish Church in Plymouth, Devon in England.

This was the view outside our window at the hotel we stayed at in Plymouth.

Construction started: 1640

Destruction date: 1940

Destroyed by: Fire during a sever bombing by the Germans and never rebuilt but stands as a memorial to the people from Plymouth who lost their lives.

We had our first ride on the London Underground.  We got to Plymouth and next morning we  picked up the hire car at 9.00am.  It didn't have a GPS but they gave us a map..... Unfortunately, the  page we needed had been torn out.  We eventually arrived in St Agnes, went to the museum and got some info and directions to the place where the grave stone is.

I still thought that it wouldn't be there after so long but we found it and after we cleaned the grass away from around it we were right.

Any Hawke wishing to travel where we Hawkes have already been, it's about 6 paces inside this gate in the main drag (sorry very narrow windy road) in the village of St Agnes about opposite the butcher and a few doors up from the news agency whose owner kindly loaned me a brush to clean the dirt off the stones.  Just to the right of this sign is an entry point which used to be the mortuary.

We then went to the house on Banns Rd,  Mt Hawke, and met the current owner called Richard Tuff.  He has had the house for about 2 years and said another Hawke had visited the area about 18 months ago.  He kindly gave us a tour of the house and said he thought it was built in about 1823 by an "Edward" Hawke.  I will have to research that a bit.

The front of the house appears to be original except maybe the add on on the left hand side.

The original kitchen with a fairly modern range hood stove but a slightly more modern kitchen has been added on to the back along with a shower and toilet.

The entry way, which appears in the middle now was very narrow and low.  Stuart hit his head on the door jam in another room.

The current owner was very obliging showing us through and told us when Stuart asked him what he did and he said that was a painter.  Thank God Stuart didn't allude to his painting houses as it appears he is a relatively famous painter in the area and does a lot of maritime stuff which I really didn't take to but you might.  

I needed to have a real "Cornish" Pasty for lunch while in Cornwall, but best I could do was a baguette at the local pub which was built to house Adams children I think.

Unfortunately, we were on a tight schedule and had to get the car back before 5, and then the train to London.  Driving back into Plymouth without a map and without street signs (they are on the side of buildings etc so we found out) was a nightmare.  However we managed.

It was good to get back to our hotel room in Euston London.  We now have a couple of days rest before the flight up to see the Royal Edinburgh  Military Tattoo.  

We went on a trip up to see Stonehenge before the Tattoo.  A big day but worth it.  The giants stones have been dated at Round 5000 years old and somehow the people  of the day managed to get 60 x 4 ton pieces of stone from South Wales, over 150 miles (nearly 300 klms) and 30x 25 tons from 20 miles away is still baffling people.

They actually used a system that we use today to lock the pieces in place similar to the modern mortise and tenon joint.

This one I could almost see a face in if I held my tongue straight

These mounds are buried mounds and some have been found to contain who,e villages who have died out giving thought to the possibility they they died of the plague.

For the sake of the army buffs who read this, we went past an army camp at Salisbury Plains where there were a lot of service people during the last war.

They still hold training camps there and as we went through, the red flags were up to indicate the firing of live amo.

A little way away form Stonehenge, we stopped for a good old country English Breakfast at an old (13th) century) hotel at a lovely little town.

The guide said to take a wander over the bridge and the second house was the house filmed in the movie Harry Potter, as the home of Professor ???

So we did and got a few good shots........we didn't see the first house and took a photo of the second house which of course was the third house and missed the correct one altogether and only realised it as we drove out on the bus and it was too late.  Sorry Harry Potter fans.

We then went I to Bath where the Romans found a hot spring and turned it into somewhere for them to relax and unwind after a hard day at the battlefield.

The steps on the sides and walkways were still original around the baths.

A couple of locals who told me that there was no such thing as Australia as if you get too far away from here you just disappeared off the edge.

On the way back the guide pointed out the rows and rows of houses that were typical of the day when all upperclass families had servants who lived below stairs.  And we could see each house had a front door and near it the stairs leading down to the "below stairs" kitchens and working area.

Had dinner a couple of quant little English pubs each night.  Strange - we found when we got to them that they were so crowded there were up to 50 people standing around on the footpath drinking and thought they were overflow from inside but no, they just wanted to stand outside and drink their beer, wine or whatever.