Friday was not a bad day at work; I had another good week as far as the job was concerned; recovered more money and so made my Boss happy, and then he offered me a permanent job, which was very nice of him indeed. And one of the other temporary workers here, Mark, had got a new job for himself working for a boat company on Harwich, and so left us on Friday; and we all went down the pub in Minster for beer and cheesy chilli chips. I say beer, but we had shandy, as we had to go back to work, butt he cheesy chilli chips were fine; cheesy and full of chilli powder with extra chilli powder on top.
I left work at four, and headed to Tesco here in Ramsgate, as I could not face the one in Dover , which always seems to be so crowded. Shopping done, headed back home for the weekend, secure that we could lay in Saturday morning most chores having been done.
Even though the forecast for Saturday was not good, we decided to risk it and head up to Chatham for a wander around the old Naval Dockyard, which I have not been to for three years. It is about 45 minutes to Chatham , and so we went the roundabout way, over the Medway bridge, along the road to Grain and then through the Medway Tunnel. In doing so we spotted a sign for Upnor Castle , and decided we would head there after the dockyard.
Chatham Dockyard supplied the Navy with ships, masts, rope and all sundry items for centuries, before it was closed down in the early 1980s as a cost cutting measure. And these days it is a large open air museum, full of interesting things and fabulous photographic opportunities. As we were near the front of the queue when it opened, we got tickets for the ropery at half ten, which meant that I had to dash to the covered slip straight away before the crowds arrived.
No. 3 Covered Slip was once the largest wooden span structure in Europe when it was built at the beginning of the 19th century, when it was contructed so ships could be built under cover. For many years it has been closed due to a pigeon infestation, but is now clean and open, but called ‘The Big Space’, which is it.
We walked up the steps to the mezzanine floor, closer to the roof, and we were dwarfed by the sweeping lines of the wooden timbers and roof. It was stunning; and as we walked further back from the bowed frontage, the majesty of the building got greater and greater.
The process of making rope, on the face of it, does not sound interesting. Indeed an hour-long talk on how to make rope should be as dull as ditchwater, but it is fascinating, and all the more so by the guide who talked us through the process and brought the story to life. Mr Steve, as the foreman was called, pretended to be from 1875, and talked us through each step of the process, from getting the fibres, making twine and then making the rope strands and combining these to make a rope. After about half an hour, three of us made a short length of three strand rope, which I had done before, but I enjoyed, and each of us go to keep a short length of the rope we made.
We walked to the restaurant for some lunch, and for two sandwiches, two muffins, two lemon squashes and two coffees we were charged £17.20! It really is quite shocking how much we are ripped off in these places.
We walked round some more, but did not go on the schooner, the submarine or the frigate, as we had done two of them before, and there would always be another time. Anyway, after a while, we decided to leave and head to Upnor to have a look at the castle.
It was just a short drive under the river through the tunnel, up a short stretch of road and turn off down a country lane, and soon we were heading up a twisty lane, up the side of the valley to a wooded car park. A twenty yard walk through the woods brought us to the top of the High Street, and what a sight! It is a cobbled street, lines with cottages and two pubs, leading down to the water’s edge and the castle.
The castle was built in Elizabethan times to defend the dockyard, but it is difficult to get an idea of the shape of the castle due to its shape. So we walked in through the gate, and into a courtyard, with the main building straight ahead. Turns out this used to be the powder store for the cannons which used to line the battlements. I snapped the lead-lined spiral staircase leading down to the waterfront, and then looking back at the castle’s impressive frontage.
After snapping it from most angles, we left and stopped in the fine looking pub just yards up the High Street; The Tudor Rose. We sat outside and watched the world go by, or a few villagers anyway, and sipped our beer. Even though it was cloudy, it was humid and felt hot. The beer was good on such a day.
We headed home, and just happened to arrive in time for me to listen to the football on the radio and begin to process the pictures I had taken. In the evening, we sat down to watch Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang on TV.
The weather forecast for Sunday was much worse, with heavy rain and gales forecast. But, a Flickrmeet had been arranged, and so myself and my good friend, Gary, set off at nine for Leeds Castle . Leeds is set in fine grounds, and is part-built on an island in the moat, and also has fine gardens and gangs of peacocks wandering around.
It was already raining when we left Dover , but as we travelled north, the rain stopped and the light grew brighter, until we arrived at the castle and there was sunshine. Gary and I already had tickets and so we walked right in without having to queue, and we were the first to reach the casle and get people free shots while the light lasted. We walked round so the sun was at our backs, and the castle was not in shadow, and almost as soon as we got our shots, the sun went in and the light began to get slightly darker and darker.
At eleven, we walked through the gardens back to the main gate to wait for the others, snapping ornamental streams and mature trees in the fading light. At the gate we waited. And waited. We were approached by peacocks who were used to begging for food, I got some nice shots of an albino one. As for the others, they did not turn up. Seems like as it was raining on the coast, no one bothered to come. And so, we decided to move on before the rain started here, and so made our way to the car.
We drove the short distance to Lenham; I spotted a sign pointing the way to a fine mediaeval market town, and we were convinced to go there. We parked up and in the gathering gloom we snapped some timber-framed buildings, two fine pubs and the parish church, before heading into one of the pubs for a beer and a packet of crisps.
We decided to drive back to Dover , and soon enough the skies grew very dark and the rain began. And did not stop until we were home, had dinner and night had fallen. But we got some good shots, and had found another fine looking Kentish village and another great country pub.
Yay, weeknds!
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