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Vintage car
13th May was Victorian Day Petersfield Earlier this year I read Dr Gilbert White’s ‘Natural History of Selborne’. His beautiful illustrations of the village and countryside and descriptions of birds attracted me; we decided to visit there for our holiday.
However, Selborne doesn’t have the train station. The nearest town is Petersfield; we decided to stay in Petersfield from 13
th to 18
th May.
The Old Drum Mark found ‘The Old Drum’ through Booking.com. This B/B hotel was conveniently located both to the railway station and to the town centre. We soon found our hotel as we walked down the street from the railway station on 13
th May.
The Old Drum is one of the historic buildings introduced in the leaflet of Petersfield Blue Plaque Trail. Petersfield’s history began from the early 12
th century and was a crossing point of some important trade routes. There are several streams flowing around Petersfield and the Old Drum is located along the Drum Stream. This historic inn seemed to have been refurbished recently: the building of the picture in the leaflet was different – the building was painted in
Physic Garden
This lovely garden had a wide range of medicinal herbs. cream with green coloured window frames a few years ago, but it was a white building with horse logos in May 2018. This recently refurbished hotel offered us modern and comfortable facilities and cooked breakfasts and boasted a 16
th century timber-framed interior – staircase, hallway and dining room.
Victorian Parade The town looked quite busy when we arrived at Petersfield: we could hear a series of patriotic music and see people in Victorian costumes and riding on the old-fashioned vehicles on the way to the Old Drum. As we reached the square, we saw a number of stalls selling beer and snacks and a wide variety of vintage vehicles – horse carriages, bicycles, standing on the left side of the square. These vehicles were not only display but also used for entertaining for the local people or tourists from children to the elderly people, the majority of whom were wearing in Victorian costumes.
Physic Garden We found the Physic Garden while walking on the High Street. This lovely, tranquil garden had a knot garden, topiary, orchard and herb beds. Many
of the characteristics and features of this garden were designed in the 17
th century and by John Goodyer and John Worlidge – who were highly influential in the sciences of botany and horticulture. We found a wide variety of scented flowers on the beds along the wall and collections of herbal medicinal plants on the narrow beds in four quadrants. Once we arrived at this physic garden, we started feeling relaxed and were able to forget about everyday life and work in London. While we were in the garden, we hardly heard the noise of the Victorian parade in the Square – it is an oasis of calm in the centre of the town’s hustle and bustle.
Afterwards, we browsed through shops and the Waterstone on the Rams Walk.
Strolling through Petersfield On 14 May, we started strolling through the town after 9.30. There were many charity shops – Oxfam Bookshop, 2 Cancer Research shops, Scope, Sue Ryder and Dog Trust. There were quite a few second hand bookshops in the town. We popped in the tourist information centre and picked up leaflets
of Petersfield and local interests. Compared to the bustling previous day, the town square was very quiet on the Monday morning. The statue of William III stood out on the centre of the square on the Monday morning, whereas we couldn’t see it on the previous busy day. There were several historic buildings around the square – Square House, the Old Corn Exchange and 1-2 the Square. Some of these buildings retain medieval timber-frame façade and many of these buildings have been converted into restaurants, hotels and shops. We popped in St Peter’s Church on the south of the square. We admired the Norman arcaded chancel arch, which can prove this church was founded in the 11
th century.
Heath Pond It was a warm and sunny day. We decided to go to the Heath Pond, southeast of the town. We followed the ‘Heath Road to reach the destination. Heath Pond was a surprisingly big pond – apparently 22 acre ‘pond’, also known as Heath Lake – and is surrounded by a 69 acre of grass and heath land. We walked along the large pond in a sunny morning and saw
My lunch
We went to the 'Apothecary Tea Room'. I really enjoyed eating 'goat cheese'. a wide variety of waterfowls – ducks, swans, herons. There were quite a few local people walking on the trail. There seemed to be several other trails on the grass and the heath lands; we tried one of these courses. We saw a couple of burial mounds on the grassland. The courses on the grass and the heath land were not well-marked; we decided to do another circular trail along the lake. We found very clear vapour trails in the sky and one of the swans breeding on the nest.
We walked back to the town centre in the lunch time. We found the ‘Apothecary Tea Room’ and decided to have lunch there. As the name suggests, the restaurant serves a series of recipes containing healthy and organic ingredients. I hadn’t eaten ‘goat cheese’ for a long time: I had toasted bread with goat cheese and pepper with crest. It was delicious.
Blue Plaque Trail We continued doing ‘Blue Plaque Trail’. We saw Dragon house on Dragon Street and ‘the Old College’ which is a fine classic example of Georgian building. In front
book exchange
Some of infrequently used telephone boxes have become the stations for 'book exchange'. of the Old College, we found a telephone box stacked with books. Mark told me quite a few infrequently used telephone boxes have turned into the stations for ‘book exchange’ in this country. Like tubes’ stations, there were a number of interesting books. I picked up one ‘Sophia – an Indian born princess who devoted for female suffrage’ written by Anita Anand.
We carried on ‘Blue Plaque Trail’ and reached the street called ‘The Spain’. The brick building is 15 The Spain looked quite distinctive: it boasted decorative patterned façade shown between the ground and the first floor level, bay window on the centre and black-hued wall, which suggested the lower part of this building was built at earlier period. No.28 The Spain building showed a timber-framed stacked by bricks. The oaks used for the frame of this building lasted for a long time. It was said that the house was lived by the family called ‘The Tullys’. Long-lasting timber frame and the central position of the town prove that the Tullys was the wealthy family. Next to the historic building we found the house in which was resided by John Goodyer, the leading botanist and herbalist
in the 16
th century.
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