Category Archives: Old Catton

#SEWES2016, Lincoln, Market Rasen, Nicky Wells, Old Catton

#SEWES2016 ~ Sept 18 – Old Catton to Market Rasen

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#SEWES2016

Sept 18 – Old Catton to Market Rasen

After dropping off the maple syrup that we’d left behind (I left it in the suitcase and never gave it a thought yesterday) at Catton Old Hall, we carried on towards our other stops for the day.

My author friend, Nicky Wells, invited us to lunch at her house. The last time we’d met for a meal we spent the entire afternoon talking about writing and publishing and everything in between.

Sept 18
Do not disturb – chef at work.

I’m not sure what Nicky’s husband was preparing for us when I took this picture, but he’s certainly in deep thought.

Over a wonderful selection of Tapas (mushrooms in a creamy garlic sauce, tear and share bread, mussels in sauce, Spanish Omelette, fish cakes, Chorizo sausage in a red wine sauce, and cheese and olives and likely other things I’ve forgotten). The meal was delicious!

This time the conversations went beyond the nineteen to the dozen on the subject of writing and publishing, we dabbled in the Brexit debate… was it good, was it bad. The Wells family move from Bristol to Lincoln… and a number of subjects in between.

All too soon, our wonderful afternoon came to an end and he had to carry on down the road to Market Rasen.

I hurt Monty today. After yesterday, driving around trying to find Castle Acre Priory, through the Bailey Gate, down Blind Lane (aptly named because it’s so narrow that the leaves on the trees touch both sides of the car as you drive down it. Yikes! Thankfully, I never met anyone.

But after that and traversing a number of other narrow roads with passing places – all without incident, I might add, a brick wall and narrow, driveway (at an awkward angle to enter) thwarted me. Monty got scratched on the front, passenger door.

It took some maneuvering but I managed (with some navigational help from hubby to get Monty righted and into the driveway. It wasn’t like this was the first time we’d stayed at this guesthouse either. It was the third time! Just Monty was the biggest car.

We were so stuffed after all the delicious food nibbled on all afternoon, that we didn’t even attempt to go out for a meal.

Once settled, I emailed my cousin in Dragonby about stopping in on our way through on Tuesday (20th) for a visit with him. We’d already made plans to visit the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Visitors’ Centre tomorrow.

 

 

#SEWES2016, Castle Acre Castle, Castle Acre Priory, Castle Rising Castle, England, Old Catton, The Fur and Feathers Inn

#SEWES2016 ~ Sept 17 – Castle Day and Pub Supper

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#SEWES2016

Sept 17 – Castle Day and Pub Supper

Not one of the nicer days we’ve had weather-wise but since returning to England from Wales, there have been cooler, rainy days.

Our first stop of the day was Castle Rising Castle.

Sept 17
Castle Rising Castle from outside the gift shop
Sept 17
Inside Castle Rising Castle – notice how the ceiling isn’t perfectly centered between the windows and the one is partly obstructed
Sept 17
Castle Rising Castle
Sept 17
Castle Rising Castle
Sept 17
“Monty” in the centre of the car park from the keep

The brisk wind, as evidenced by the billowing flag, made it feel even colder when I took to the top of the curtain wall to get a photograph of the castle keep.

Sept 17
The keep from the stop of the outer curtain wall

I’m a junkie when it comes to collecting interesting rocks when on vacation and despite the weather, I found an interesting one.

When we’d had our fill of this castle, we visited the toilets one last time and ventured down the road to Castle Acre Castle.

Sept 17
Sign in the car park about Castle Acre Castle
Sept 17
Castle Acre Castle
Sept 17
Tower house sign at Castle Acre Castle
Sept 17
Remains of the tower at Castle Acre Castle
Sept 17
Remains of the tower at Castle Acre Castle

We could have walked to Castle Acre Priory from here but with the weather threatening to close in, we opted to drive.

In the end it wouldn’t have taken any longer because dear Satnav Sally had a very hard time finding the place.

I don’t have pictures of the bailey gate but we did drive through it a couple of times.

We’d almost given up on the priory altogether, when we spotted an English Heritage sign at the main road so followed it instead.

Sept 17
Model of Castle Acre Priory
Sept 17
The other side of the model showing the reredorter or latrine
Sept 17
Castle Acre Priory
Sept 17
Castle Acre Priory
Sept 17
Sign describing the reredorter or latrine
Sept 17
Looking inside the remains of the reredorter
Sept 17
The end of the redorter showing both ‘canals’ that ran through it

We made a quick stop in Swaffham on the way back to Old Catton for a stop at a bank machine for some cash followed by another stop at a different services – this one located right on a roundabout.

When we got back to Catton Old Hall, I took my laptop down to the dining room where I connected to the Wi-fi and got the blog post up and scheduled for Monday. I didn’t like leaving it quite that long but I assumed that these places that offered free Wi-fi, it really did work everywhere in the building.

Don’s cousins were picking us up to take us to the The Fur and Feathers Inn for supper.

I got a number of pictures of all of us but there always seemed to be one person in each shot that turned out to be ‘not-so-good’ so they won’t get posted.

We had a lot of fun, a lot of laughs, and when we left the restaurant we went back to theirs for a drink. Since they wouldn’t let us even chip in on the bill from the restaurant, when we got back to theirs, I sneakily signed and presented Susan with a copy of The Secret of Hillcrest House as a thank you. We also had bottles of maple syrup for them but forgot them back at our room.

Don and I could have walked home but Andrew, who was the DD for the night took us back to Catton Old Hall.

Tomorrow, we’re moving on to Market Rasen with a stop for lunch at my writer friend, Nicky Wells’s house. But first, we’ll have to swing by Susan and Andrew’s house to drop off the maple syrup.

#SEWES2016, England, Middleton Cheney, Old Catton

#SEWES2016 ~ Sept 16 – Middleton Cheney to Old Catton

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#SEWES2016

Sept 16 – Middleton Cheney to Old Catton

When we arrived at Manor Cottage yesterday, I didn’t photograph our room so got some pictures this morning before breakfast. We’d spent the night in their daughter’s room on the top floor of the house.

Sept 16
Our room at Manor Cottage

The small window in the background is the one in the picture I took last night from the driveway. If you look really closely, Robbie Raven is peeking out of the smaller jute bag in the chair.

Sept 16
Our room at Manor Cottage
Sept 16
Our room at Manor Cottage
Sept 16
Our room at Manor cottage

It had rained overnight, and quite hard from what we heard over breakfast this morning. A train derailed because of a landslip, and many reports of localized flooding.

We hoped none of the roads we’d be travelling to get to Catton Old Hall would be submerged under flood waters.

About 4:00 pm, we arrived at our destination without encountering floods. The downside to driving in the rain is it makes you have to go to the bathroom a lot more.

Stopping at services to use the bathrooms, the ones in the petrol station/convenience store were out of order. However, a Little Chef was located in the same complex. Their toilets worked but a huge sign on the door stated they were for restaurant customers only. Two small tins of Pringles purchased, we used the facilities and carried on.

Sept 16
Our room at Catton Old Hall
Sept 16
Our room at Catton Old Hall
Sept 16
Rainy view from our room at Catton Old Hall
Our Room at Catton Old Hall
Our Room at Catton Old Hall

The Wi-fi up in our room was terrible. I connected with my phone and it dropped out seconds later. Neither my laptop nor iPad could connect at all. Frustrating to say the least.

The Woodman Pub opened for supper at 6:00 pm. We’d eaten there on a previous trip to this area. The food was good then so we assumed it would be this time. Being a Friday night, we should have booked a table.

When we walked in the door, one of the barmen informed us it would be 7:30-8:00 before our food was served, but we were more than welcome to pick a table and have a drink.

While we sipped our first beer, we perused the menus and decided what we’d like for supper. They took our order, again telling us it could be a long wait. At least now, our meals were in the queue. And we received them long before the estimated time!

After a delicious meal (every bit as good, if not better than the first time we’d eaten here), we walked back to Catton Old Hall. It stopped raining while we were in the pub.

Before going inside, I snapped this picture with my phone of the hotel illuminated by floodlights.

Sept 16
Catton Old Hall

Tomorrow, we’re having supper with hubby’s cousins at a country pub called The Fur and Feathers. It should be fun. There are some castles and other historic things I’d like to see while we’re in the area so we’ll do them earlier in the day.