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Published: October 3rd 2012
……….Kingswinford, in the West Midlands in the borough of Dudley and a small town that even has a mention in the Domesday Book and the name Kingswinford is derivative from a Ford for the Kings Swine.
Leaving the bulk of our luggage with Gary and Karen, we throw a few things for an overnight stay into a couple of Marks and Spencer carrier bags, classy luggage I know, but it was so much easier than lugging our huge cases around with us!
We head off from Tamworth early afternoon, and I hate to say it they did lend us a sat nav, in the absence of having a map and we really needed a steer on where to go, until now I have been relying on Google Maps on my Iphone, which I have to say has been pretty good. The sat nav worked well for us until we got into Kingswinford and the directions were wrong at one junction, it said turn right and then left, but once we made the right turn I realised that we should have gone straight on, there was no left turn. Never mind, I do hate relying on electronic navigation in the
The Bentons
John and Hilarypreference for my own sense of direction, but it is exceptionally useful.
We were soon back on the right road, and within 5 minutes found our way to John and Hilary’s house. Andy and John met through work several years back and had stayed in touch.
When we arrived again the sense of time melted away as we were welcomed into their home, and not only that, Hilary had prepared what I would classify as a quintessential English afternoon tea! Ok maybe the bottle of chilled white wine is not perhaps the quintessential English afternoon tea, but it went down well with the sandwiches and exceptionally good cup cakes.
We even sat outside to eat our tea. The afternoon was sunny and warm and was deceptive of the onset of Autumn, perhaps England would get it’s Indian Summer after all! We ate, drank and chatted the years away.
We then went out to a small pub called the Crooked House, it was right, it truly was crooked, I believe something to do with subsidence because it is mining country, of course it has been shored up and is safe from falling over, but it is a
The Crooked House
A storm seems to be brewing over head. weird sensation standing on the inside of a crooked building.
Eventually it got cooler, the afternoon had vanished and it was time to go our for another meal, John and Hilary showed us to our room, we freshened up and then walked into town for a curry.
Later that evening we swapped stories of our travels, John and Hilary showed us their video of China and we showed them Kangaroo Jacks Aussie Adventures.
The following morning brought a decision with it, John and Hilary had taken the day off work to spend some time with us and we pondered what we were going to do with the day. It was decided that we would head to Blists Hill Victorian town and with ease we were transported back to the year 1900.
Another glorious summer’s day was upon us which made it better for walking around. The first thing that we did was to pop into Lloyds Bank to change some money, we find the bank clerk behind the desk and give him 5 of our British Pounds and we were soon furnished with pennies, farthings and sixpences. We could spend the money around the museum as
we chose.
We viewed the exhibits which were mainly buildings that had been removed from their original locations and rebuilt brick by brick and restored to their original era.
We went into the grocery store, the drapers, the pharmacists, which also happened to have a little room for the dentist, one look at that dentist chair and I would run in the opposite direction.
It was nearly lunchtime and we were feeling a bit peckish so we popped into the chippy for some traditional freshly deep fried potatoes, that would be chips to you and I. Don’t tell Andy’s cardiologist but they were fried in beef dripping, oh my they tasted good. We sat on the bank of the canal and ate them.
Andy found a huge cart horse peering out from a doorway, so of course he had to stop for a chat. The cart horse had some cream on him and after a bit of investigation turns out that it is antihistamine as the horse was allergic to fly bites and it stopped him from scratching.
We see the candle makers, the estate office; we meet another horse ready to pull a cart
around the museum and officer the public rides. Everyone here is dressed in traditional Victorian costume; it felt like walking back in time, I even took most of my photos in black and white for the authenticity.
We bought a small cake each from the bakery and sat in the afternoon sun to eat them with a cool drink.
There were a couple of tiny little tied cottages that we went down to look at, we find the occupiers of the cottages and they talk to us on the way round, one of them asks what that thing was around my neck, of course it was my camera. She then asked where we were from, we explained that we had come from Australia, she exclaimed that it was a long way to come and asked how long it took us, we said 24 hours, she wanted to know the name of the ship, so we said “British Airways” and she said she had never heard of it. I explained that it was a relatively new company who had developed a quick way to cross the ocean.
It was strange trying to have a conversation with a woman
Hilary and Caroline
Holding the freshly deep fried potato's from the 1900’s, but we played along the best way we could, in trying to respect the traditions of this era.
This little cottage was tiny, yet it housed a family of about 13 (from what I remember anyway, but there were quite a few). We think we have problems, but the way of life was very primitive for families like these and to think we grumble when we cannot get the broadband signal to work as it should.
We walked along the edge of the canal and back into the town, and it was soon time to go, but on the way we picked up some gobstoppers from the sweetshop, that kept us all quite for a while!
Stopping in Ironbridge on the way back to John and Hilary’s, to see the Iron Bridge of course.
We had a terrific time with John and Hilary, the weather was just perfect and a great day out at Blists Hill Museum (recommend a visit) but all too soon we had to say our goodbyes with promises to catch up soon.
By then it was late afternoon when we headed back to Tamworth for our final evening
in the West Midlands.
The Tuesday morning, we leave Gary and Karen to it, we say our goodbyes, I think it was a little easier to say goodbye this time as Gary and Karen are leaving for the airport shortly after us as they are heading to warmer climes for a holiday, they invited us along but we just didn't have the time to spare on this trip, maybe next time?
We make our way toward Coventry to catch up with our friends Jen and Roy, on our way back to the South of England, we spend the rest of the morning with them but again time presses on and we need to hit the road again.
That evening we are back with Keeley and Denzil, of course also reunited with the rest of our luggage. We have another busy few days ahead of us.
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