Year: 2023

Rushden Lakes – Saturday 3rd June 2023

Rushden Lakes is a shopping and leisure centre which opened in 2017.  It’s located beside Skew Bridge Lake in Northamptonshire and was constructed on the site of gravel pits, a dry ski slope and a country club which had lain derelict for many years.  The complex houses a visitor centre for the Nene Wetlands which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) – this area is home to many species of birds and plants. We really liked Rushden Lakes as a complex – there are loads of shops, including Waterstones, as well as restaurants, a cinema and canoeing! 

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Rushden Lakes map

The photo of the visitor centre is used with permission under licence.  The Photo has been resized slightly.  The copyright belongs to © David Dixon (cc-by-sa/2.0)

Milton Keynes – Friday 2nd June 2023

The town of Milton Keynes was founded on 23rd January 1967 as a new town – its purpose was to allow people to move out from London, which was very overcrowded, and its creation absorbed some existing towns and villages from the area.  The main centre is built on in a grid arrangement, with road names including H or V for horizontal and vertical.  There are plenty of green areas too, and the town has a modern feel and a diverse population.  The Waterstones is located in the heart of Milton Keynes centre in an area called Midsummer Place. 

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Milton Keynes map

This bronze bench sculpture is outside Waterstones and is called Sitting on History by British sculptor Bill Woodrow. 

On the first morning of our stay, I got up early for a walk round the nearby Willen Lake to the wonderful Tree Cathedral nearby.  The lake is used for all sorts of watersports, and there is a path around the perimeter of the lake, and a bridge to cross from one side to the other in the middle.  The Tree Cathedral was planted in 1986 and is modelled on Norwich Cathedral. The landscape designer was Neil Higson. As well as being free for anyone to enjoy, it is also used for wedding blessings and woodland burials.  It was so peaceful at the lake and cathedral first thing in the morning. 

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Currently reading:  Chocky by John Wyndham

Oxford – Sunday 7th May 2023

Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, and is the county’s only city.  It is home to the oldest university in the English-speaking world and has a rich heritage which is reflected in many beautiful buildings.  The rivers Thames and Cherwell pass either side of the city and join to the south of it, and the Oxford canal starts in the city and ends at the Hawkesbury junction of the Coventry canal.  Due to the beauty of Oxford, it is the location of many films and TV shows, including the Harry Potter franchise and the excellent adaption of Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse series starring the late John Thaw. We were visiting to celebrate our coral wedding anniversary.   The Waterstones is set over five floors and is located in a stunning building called William Baker House, which  was completed in 1915.  Baker was a furniture maker and the company occupied the premises until 1987, when it was taken over by bookshop chain Dillons, becoming Waterstones in 1998.

Oxford map

Carfax Tower

Carfax Tower – or, to give it its proper name, St Martin’s Tower, is all that’s left of the 12th century St Martin’s church.  The church was demolished in 1820, leaving this tower, due to it being unsafe, and the replacement church of the same name was later demolished in 1896 as part of a scheme of road improvements in the area, but again the tower survived.  It is now owned by Oxford City Council.  There are 99 steps to the top of the tower, and the climb is worth it for the views from the top!

Oxford Canal

The photos below of the faun and the lion door at Brasenose College are said to have inspired CS Lewis’s writing of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.  There’s even a lamppost nearby!

Below.  Top row – Oxford Castle.  Bottom row – The Bridge of Sighs.

Below.  Top row -The Shedonian Theatre (left), The Radcliffe Camera (right).  Bottom row – The Bodleian Library, including a statue of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke.

The Headington Shark

No trip to the area would be complete without a visit to the Headington Shark (official name Untitled 1986), just a couple of miles out of the city. It’s a 25-foot fibre glass sculpture which was erected in 1986 without planning permission as a protest against war.   After a six-year fight, the owners were permitted to keep the sculpture.  It’s certainly very striking!

Happy anniversary to us!

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Currently reading:  The Forgetting by Hannah Beckerman

Ipswich Martlesham – Friday 5th May 2023

We’d been in Suffolk for a family event, staying just over the border in a beautiful little town in Norfolk called Loddon.  We stayed a couple of nights and the weather was great so I did a couple of early-morning walks.  When we left, we made a diversion from the direct route home to visit a branch of Waterstones that has opened just outside Ipswich since we were last in the area. This new Waterstones is in a Next store in an out-of-town shopping centre.

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Due to the store being in a shopping centre rather than a town, there was nothing in the area to visit, and we were keen to get home, so I thought I’d share some pictures of Loddon instead!

Currently reading:  The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman

Lichfield – Friday 14th April 2023

We were heading to Yorkshire for a family birthday celebration, so on the way we stopped in Lichfield, which is a cathedral city in Staffordshire, possibly most famous as being the birthplace of Samuel Johnson who was responsible for creating the first Dictionary of the English Language.  He lived in Breadmarket Street in the city for the first 27 years of his life, and house became the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum in 1901. It’s free (donations welcome!), and is well worth a visit.  The Waterstones is located opposite the museum in an attractive grade II listed building, built mid to late 18th century.

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Lichfield map

Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum

Lichfield Cathedral

Lichfield Cathedral, officially The Cathedral Church of St. Mary and St. Chad, is one of only three cathedrals in the UK to have three spires (the others are St Mary’s Edinburgh and Truro).  It’s beautiful inside and out.

Photos below – Top – Dr Samuel Johnson (he looks like he’s having a snooze!).  Bottom row from left to right – Dame Oliver’s Infant School, and plaque – Johnson attended here in 1714. St Chad, situated outside the cathedral.

Currently reading: Class of ’37 by Hester Barron & Claire Langhamer

Trowbridge – Friday 31st March 2023

Trowbridge is the county town of Wiltshire.  It has long been connected with textiles – as far back as the 14th Century the woollen trade was a prominent cottage industry, and the first mills appeared in the early 1800s.  The last to close was Salter’s Mill which shut its doors in 1982. The building was incorporated into a new shopping centre, The Shires, in which Trowbridge Museum is housed, as is the Waterstones.

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Trowbridge map

Trowbridge Town Hall

The town hall was built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887 and was also the local Magistrates Court, Coroner’s Court and County Court.  I’d visited Trowbridge with a friend, and we popped in to look at the building, and one of the staff members gave us a tour of the cells below the building.  The ballroom upstairs was used for dances, and, in the 1960s, The Who performed there!  Outside the town hall is a plaque to Sir Isaac Pitman, who developed Pitman Shorthand, and who was born in the town.

Wording for the plaque on Trowbridge Town Hall above reads:

Trowbridge

Trowbridge plaque By Phil Williams, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12582703

Currently reading:  The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

 

Bristol Clifton – Sunday 26th March 2023

Clifton, sometimes styled as Clifton Village, is a suburb of the city and county of Bristol and is probably best known for its suspension bridge.  Clifton is one of our favourite parts of this wonderful city and we visit often.  Today we called in on our way home from having lunch out and walked across the bridge, calling in at the free visitor centre for the first time.

Afterwards we visited the Waterstones, which is located in a baroque-style building which was built as a private dwelling in the late 1800s.  The outside of the building is lovely.  Before Waterstones took it over, it was a branch of HSBC Bank.  Fortunately, a great deal of the interior remains untouched, although a lot of it is hidden by the bookshelves. 

Bristol Clifton map

Clifton Suspension Bridge

Clifton Suspension Bridge has always been a toll bridge was designed by William Henry Barlow and John Hawkshaw, but based on an earlier design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It opened on 8 December 1864 and today carries about 10,000 vehicles a day! 

Clifton Village

Bournemouth – The Arcade – Saturday 25th March 2023

We visited Christchurch on the south coast to celebrate our Uncle John’s 90th birthday with a family meal, and afterwards popped to Bournemouth, which is the largest town in Dorset.  We didn’t have a great deal of time here as it was late when we left the restaurant, but we had time to visit the Waterstones which is located in a covered shopping arcade and set over three floors.  The design of the arcade was the brainchild of a local businessman called Henry Joy.  It was completed in 1866 – initially it was uncovered, but a glass roof was added in 1873.    

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Bournemouth Arcade map

The Aviary

The aviary is located in the Lower Gardens and home to various tropical birds including golden pheasants, parakeets and love birds.  There has been an aviary on this site since the 1930s. The current one opened in 2022 and replaced one from the 1980s.

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Currently reading:  Sycamore Gap (DCI Ryan #2) by LJ Ross

Torquay – Sunday 5th March 2023

Torquay is a popular seaside town on the south coast of Devon, colloquially known as the English Riviera.  The town is currently undergoing quite a lot of regeneration.  The author Agatha Christie was born in the town in 1890 and lived there until 1914 when she got married.  The town is rightly proud of Christie, and there is a statue commemorating her close to the harbour.  Torquay is also known as being the location of the 70s sitcom <i>Fawlty Towers</i> starring John Cleese, his then wife Connie Booth, and Andrew Sachs.  I thought it would be fun to find the hotel used for filming, but sadly it was demolished, and a retirement living complex built in its place.  It’s called Sachs Lodge, and has a blue plaque to mark the show.  The Waterstones in Torquay is in the main shopping area in a modern building.

Torquay map

The Pavilion Theatre

The theatre opened in 1912 and hosted numerous plays and concerts before closing its doors in 1973 when it was proposed the building be demolished.  It was given listed status and continued with new owners in 1976, until it closed again in 2013.   Art Nouveau in style, it is due to be renovated by the council, with an aim to reopening it to the public for events in the future.  There is, of course, a plaque to Agatha Christie on the front of the building!

London Bridge Arch

This is a natural limestone arch close to the South West Coastal Path.  We spotted it from the Beacon Quay so walked along the path to take a closer look.

Torquay Harbour

Currently reading:  What July Knew by Emily Kock

Bristol Cribbs Causeway – Wednesday 1st March 2023

Cribbs Causeway is an area of South Gloucestershire located to the north of the city of Bristol.  Its location makes it popular as it is close to two motorways and has plenty of parking.  There are lots of large shops in the area, as well as a cinema, bowling and an ice rink.  The Mall shopping centre, which opened in 1998, is also on the site, and the Waterstones is here on the ground floor.  It’s one of a few stores I’ve come across with a fish tank!

Bristol map

On the top floor of the Mall is a statue of two men (one of whom I think looks like Einstein!). I haven’t been able to find out any information about this, but according to openstreetmap.org, it’s called ‘The Architects’, and one of the men appears to be holding a sketchpad, so I imagine it’s to do with the architects who planned the shopping centre.    

Currently reading:  Ticket to the World by Martin Kemp and Hide and Seek by Andrea Mara