Round the houses

My old schoolfriend was down last week staying with her Mum [they're in a bubble] and so I needed to come up with a plan where we could catch up outside without needing to travel too far. Thankfully my Dad signposted a new series of local heritage walks that have been created by the town's museum staff [it hasn't reopened since March] and one of those turned out to be the perfect candidate.

Now with so much off limits it's not so easy to add in the usual level of detail when all you're basically doing is walking up and down both sides of a single long road for an hour, but I don't think we did too badly under the circumstances. This place looks like it's got some age to it with it gorgeous decorative barge boards. However, looks can be deceiving for above the door is the date 1932. It's built in the Tudorbethan style which was all the rage at the time. Some of the material used though has been salvaged from earlier buildings which does help to make it look older.

Go back a hundred years and this area would have been a mixture of farmland and a large country estate. It even had its own cricket pitch. The big house was demolished in the 1950s and all that remains is the lodge....still rather a lot larger than many of of its more modest modern neighbours though!

This grade II listed house genuinely is 17th century. It's called Dendy's after a local Dr Dendy lived there with his family. Tragically he and his family caught typhus and died after he'd carried out a post mortem on an executed prisoner from the town gaol in 1827. Nowadays it looks rather marooned stuck in the middle of a housing estate.

As we wandered up and down aimlessly looking for a mystery gatepost [we never did find it] I was rather pleased to see that somebody had decided leaving the utility boxes plain and boring just wouldn't do. I'm not sure that I've ever seen art inspired by takeaways before though.....

And to finish...pray what is a good walk, but without a bit of weirdery.....a fairy door and occupants. It really isn't my friend's sort of thing, but she humoured me nevertheless! 🧚 I know that I've shown this before, but the fairy has gained a friend since my last visit a couple of years ago.

A most splendid way to spend a morning.....this was pre Lockdown.

Arilx