Off Again

The last couple of days in Woking were spent practicing using the Tomtom car navigation system. The tomtom is wonderful but takes a bit of getting used to. Judy has frequent arguments with, "Jane" the disembodied voice which tells her where to go.
We set off on Thursday for Cambridge, stopping off at Hatfield House,childhood home of Elizabeth 1, where we had a guided tour of the house.

We arrived at the home of Judy's friends, Ann and Tony in Shudy Camps (no, that isn't mis-spelt). They have a 700 yr old wattle and daub, thatched cottage. We were fascinated by the construction and spent much time examining the old timbers and the walls and ceilings which had no smooth, flat areas at all. Then we climbed into the roof space and were astounded to see that the original thatch still survived, complete with a coating of soot from the time when there was no chimney. When the roof needs re-thatching, only the rotted outer layer is replaced, leaving the layer nearest the framing intact. Tony and Ann have researched the history of the cottage as far as possible, though records prior to the 1500s are not available.

On Friday, we all went into Cambridge where Tony gave us a guided tour of the university and the associated colleges. The buildings were magnificent, especially Corpus Christi and King's College Chapel (picture below).

Saturday, we drove to Buxton, a very pretty Derbyshire spa town, through rather miserable weather, with rain and fog most of the way. My elderly cousin, Margaret (nee Whalley) lives in Buxton with her husband, Tom and step-daughter, Rachel and I am looking forward to spending some time with them.