{"id":1336,"date":"2018-03-29T00:01:32","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T13:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/julesforth.com\/walkingtheblackdog\/?p=1336"},"modified":"2018-03-30T08:56:54","modified_gmt":"2018-03-29T21:56:54","slug":"day-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/julesforth.com\/walkingtheblackdog\/day-25\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 25"},"content":{"rendered":"

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From:\u00a0<\/strong>Beckington to Box
\nDistance:\u00a0<\/strong>15m \/ 24km
\nCumulated distance: <\/strong>320m \/ 515km
\nPercentage completed:\u00a0<\/strong>31.14<\/p>\n

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Today I got off to a cracking start. I realised that one of the reasons I was getting in so late was because I was leaving so late. Duh. Actually, breakfast is just served at a leisurely time in B&Bs. I totally get it .. if I was on a proper holiday there’s no way I’d want to be fed at 7am. The Woolpack was very accommodating and I was off by 7.30 this morning.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Woolpack at Beckington<\/p><\/div>\n

After putting my feet up for the morning yesterday I went into Bath and got a terrific sports massage.\u00a0It was a very restorative rest day which seemed to stretch on forever. I was grateful to feel its benefit had spilled over into today. I was hugely buoyed up by all the wonderful messages too .. thank you so much.<\/p>\n

After leaving Beckington the first village I reached was Rode, or Road if you prefer the pre-1919 spelling of the town\u2019s name. Once a big wool and cloth producing centre, it is now what they call a \u2018dormitory\u2019 town, with its good access to Bristol, Bath, Trowbridge and Frome. It hit the cover of Vogue in the 18th century, when a consortium of mills in the town won a national competition to manufacture a dress for Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III. The entrant to the competition used a new blue dye to colour the dress. Because of the association with royalty, the town was given a royal certificate which allowed them to market the colour as \u2018Royal Blue\u2019. Neat.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Rode village<\/p><\/div>\n

Just another mile further on I walked through Tellisford, another former cloth village and one of the few \u2018Thankful Villages\u2019 in the country. The name was chosen to mark the fact that all of the young men from the village, who went away to serve in the First World War, returned home safely. It\u2019s one of only 52 Thankful Villages in England and Wales. In France only one such village exists, not surprisingly. Somerset was particularly fortunate in that 9 of the 52 villages were in the county. \u2018Doubly Thankful\u2019 is a title referring to those villages who also remained unscathed by the Second World War. Quite extraordinarily, serendipity had the village in Normandy well within its sights, as it too became Doubly Thankful. What were the chances.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Plaque next to the village notice board<\/p><\/div>\n

Close by the village of Tellisford there’s a pillbox. Like the pillboxes along the Thames, which seem very out of place, this one is part of a series, which was built to form the GHQ Line: General Head Quarters. Together with similar lines of pillboxes criss-crossing the country, the strategy was to compartmentalise the country and hold up the invading force while reinforcements were rushed to the front. I don\u2019t know anything about military strategies, but this one sounds as if it would have been about as effective as the French Maginot Line. All very well to have these scathing views in hindsight, I suppose.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Macmillan Way really delivered culturally today. A bit further on the route I came to IIford Manor, close to the River Frome. Although the manor is beautiful, it is the Grade 1 Italianate Garden which is the big attraction. It was designed by Harold Peto who lived at Iford for 30 years or so, making the design of the garden his life-long passion. Flowers play second fiddle to cyprus trees, statues, walks and water features. I could just see the spectacular water feature from the Way.\u00a0 I love the idea of returning to the garden in the summer when there is a 3 month long music festival, with jazz, opera and concerts taking place in the loggia and the cassita. Today the gardens were closed, although the gardeners were very much in evidence, delivering tons of mulch to prepare the grounds for Easter visitors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Iford Manor<\/p><\/div>\n

I stopped to have my tea and biscuits in the porch at the parish church in Farleigh Hungerford. Having started the day early it felt so good to have the time to stop awhile and relax, soaking up the atmosphere of the English country churchyard, recalling Grey’s beautiful poem.<\/p>\n

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Pit stop<\/p><\/div>\n

Farleigh Hungerford is home to Bath Rugby Club’s training ground: Farleigh House. It’s a hopelessly romantic building of Gothic Revival style .. although the chapel is now a gym and the outbuildings have been redesigned to look after all the medical needs of the squad. It’s not a bad place to train.<\/p>\n

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Farleigh House<\/p><\/div>\n

Out the other side of the village are the ruins of Farleigh Hungerford Castle.\u00a0The castle has a long and dramatic history linked to the fortunes of the Crown and Parliament. Sir Thomas Hungerford was elected as the First Speaker of the House of Commons and his son was knighted by Henry VI, later fighting at Agincourt after which he received the Knighthood of the Garter. However in the War of the Roses, the family lost their lives and their castle to the Crown. English Heritage looks after the site and looks to do much to bring history to life there .. there are battle reenactments, lively story-tellings and a great audio guide educating the listener about some of the characters of the castle from over the years. They tell the story of<\/span>\u00a0the spendthrift Sir Edward Hungerford IV, who gambled away a manor on a single throw at a bowling match and the tale of the murder and burning of John Cotell in the castle kitchen. As with the National Trust, English Heritage opens all its sites around the country at Easter each year .. it’ll be great to see some of them along the way.<\/p>\n

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Ruins of Farleigh Hungerford Castle<\/p><\/div>\n

And then it was on to Bradford-upon-Avon. A couple of locals advised me to take the canal route into town. I was so glad they did as the route was quietly beautiful in the rain.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Barges on the canal<\/p><\/div>\n

Did I mention it was raining?<\/p>\n

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Weather for ducks<\/p><\/div>\n

Bradford on Avon was made wealthy by the river .. which powered the mills .. which made the cloth .. which created the garments .. which were bought by all and sundry. The cottage industry soon became factory based and was augmented by the arrival in the 17th century, of two particularly fine Flemish weavers. Their names are commemorated on a plaque in Church Street. However, as the cloth industry lost out to keener competition of the mills of northern England, the other Bradford among them, the factories gradually lay derelict. However, all was not lost. As rubber came in from the colonies, warehouses were needed to process it and this gave Bradford-upon-Avon a whole new lease of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bradford on Avon lies on the River .. yep, Avon. It’s built in a valley with steep, steep sides which makes for a very attractive view of the town, from either the river or from the top of the hill.<\/p>\n

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From the bottom ..<\/p><\/div>\n

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.. and from the top<\/p><\/div>\n

All these references to industry, mills and rubber might lead you to think that BoA is not that attractive. But no .. it really is astonishingly pretty. It has the same beautiful bleached stone that it’s more famous neighbour, Bath has and while it’s less grand it’s really very charming.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, did I tell you it was raining? This is what it looked like for a lot of the day:<\/p>\n

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Wet and grey<\/p><\/div>\n

In fact, once I’d taken this photo I parcelled my iPhone up in its clever little plastic pouch, convinced that I wouldn’t be taking any more photos. Ten minutes later I was grappling in my jacket to find it before the mother of all rainbows evaporated.<\/p>\n

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Fantastic afternoon light<\/p><\/div>\n

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Dramatic sign of hope<\/p><\/div>\n

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Collision of two very different skies<\/p><\/div>\n

The drama which came and went so quickly, more than made up for the mud-trudging of the afternoon. I was awed by it.<\/p>\n

I didn’t get to Lorne House in Box until 6 o’clock but it had really been a richly cultural day with the time to stop and ponder a while in church porches, on canal bridges, atop stiles and from the tops of soft hills. It had really brought back into sharp focus the enjoyment and the reason I was doing the walk. Great feeling!\u00a0 Oh, and there’d been humour too!<\/p>\n

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Tee hee!<\/p><\/div>\n

Black Dog Tails
\n<\/strong><\/span>Jet helped to rescue a phenomenal 150 people from a bombed building during the Second World War. His proud owner was Mrs Babcock Cleaver.\u00a0In July 2016 pupils of Childwall Primary School cleaned the nearby memorial, where Jet is buried and had a birthday celebration for him. Also in attendance was 93 year old Lilias Ward (n\u00e9e Cleaver) Jet’s former owner.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Today I got off to a cracking start.<\/p>\n

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