2 July: To Somerset

Transfer from Norwich to Zummerzet.  May be some entertainments en route.

Well that one  happened as scheduled (more or less).  It was on the right day but the driving was basically much better than expected (until we got to Bath)  so we were heading for a very early arrival at Beanacre Barn.

After a farewell to the Coach House (the last set of windows on the right) and our lovely hosts Mary and Mike we hit the road towards London and the SW.  We had allowed 3 hours to get from Wicklewood to the M25.  Including a stop for diesel at Thetford we did this in a bit under 2 hours.  We started on the M25 - which makes expert drivers cry - at 9:43 and left 39 miles later at 10:23 an astonishing average of nearly 60mph on the most notorious motorway in the UK!  (The sort of thing we had expected on this was day was not denied us.  We got a serve on the last day driving up the M5/6 conglomerate.)

We turned off onto the M40 because either Ron or Paul had said that Red Kites could  be seen at the Beaconsfield turnoff.  As we turned off Frances spotted a 'big raptor' soaring through the murky weather.  We parked and after I had run back to the intersection with no luck I walked back to the car muttering, when Frances pointed back towards the intersection.  There was a beautiful Red Kite flying towards us twisting it's beautiful red tail.

As we were in front of our schedule  Frances looked up the Road Atlas and found a National Trust place to visit.  The selected pile was Laycock Abbey which had two main things going for it:

• a restored convent; and, being owned by the Talbot family
• the residence of Fox Talbot who basically invented modern photography.

The restored building was excellently done, with the ground floor left as mediaeval while the 1st floor (or second floor in the US) being updated to a habitable standard.  In the mediaeval area a notice explained that this place had been used as the internal location for Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter movies.  One of the upper rooms had been set up as Fox Talbots studio so that one could put on costumes and take a photo against his backdrop.

There was also a Fox-Talbot museum with some history of the development of the negative (as distinct from the glass plates of Daguerreotypes).  They had a special display of the negatives of famous photographs including Henri Cartier Bresson shot of a guy jumping a puddle; the Icarus photograph from the Empire State Building; and another of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce.

We then wandered round the village. all of which is very historic, including a visit to the George Hotel for a Wadsworth IPA.  This has been a pub since 1361 and is he oldest in Wiltshire (and one of the oldest in the UK).  The beer was very refreshing, although I think Greene King is still holding the prize.

We then motored on around the back roads heading towards Binegar through Bath.  This turned into a major challenge since bath was subject to a large traffic jam and an absence of road signs.  However we soon got on to minor roads and found our way to Binacre Barn.

This is a very luxurious place which actually is a converted barn.  Our hosts have a book of photographs of the conversion to prove it.  There are bird feeders outside one window, and a herd of cattle which look across a fence into the kitchen window.  All up has potential to be a great spot.