Warwickshire 5 - Warwick /Charlcote/ Manor/a deer park and a connection with Bodelwydden /sausage roll and coffee and the Wagon and Horses

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Time is like grains of sand that slip through your fingers. One minute you have them in your hand and the next they are gone. Slowly slipping through grain at a time.

It hardly seems five minutes since we set off for Greece. All that planning. All that excitement. All that waiting . Time has flown since we got home. We have rattled around the house. Like marbles in a box we roll around from room to room. So much space after living in a white box on wheels. It always seems odd to come home and takes us time to adapt to our much larger surroundings. We also have that feeling of being let down. The holiday has gone and all we have are the memories. What memories though.

The weather since we arrived home has ranged from cold and miserable to hot sunny and muggy. There is no sense of Summer just miserable weather that looks and feels like Autumn. It is either too hot to do anything being uncomfortable to the extreme or the sky is dark and leaden. Lumpy clouds threaten rain or worse. This is not the summer we remember from chldhood.

We had ordered and paid for our new window for Suzy when we arrived home. It has arrived and we need to pick it up from Derby. . This gave us the excuse to go out for the day. Where to go though? It had to be within two hours of home. We didnt want to spend all day getting somewhere. We needed somewhere interesting. After Greece things would seem rather dull and ordinary.

My thought for the day read "Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is happening now. Dont' try to figure anything out. Dont try to make anything happen. Relax, right now and rest " But relaxing was not what we wanted to do. A few days off work so we had to do something. Sitting around was nagging at our brains.

We pulled out the National Trust book - we tried the East Midlands - nothing caught our fancy. There are places to see but they were further away and in the wrong direction . West Midlands how about Charlecott Manor ? It was an hour and 45 minute drive down the M1 fairly close to Warwick and Stratford. It was Elizabethan so our favourite architecture . It had gardens and probably somewhere for a half decent lunch. Last weeks at the Gingerbread Man on our way home had been sadly the usual chain pub fayre. We wanted better today .So Charlecott it was.

The journey was as always busy. The M1 ran fairly freely but there were the usual roadworks which seem to be going on forever. Will they be finished by the time we go on our September holiday? What are we doing in September? The conversation pinged backwards and forwards like a game of table tennis. Me - how about going on the Friday if I finish work early? OK but what if you don't? We will have to travel so far down Friday ? When will you know what day we can go? A blank expression of despair fills my face . Who knows? Soon hopefully. But where to? What about getting off later on the Saturday? Where to? Sicily - too far to drive after our long trip to Greece. Italy - Northern sounds nice. What about France? There are bits we have missed. We have the Tesco vouchers and we must really book the trip or we will go nowhere. 89 days to go and counting down. The deadly deed of booking the train must be done.

Arriving in the village of Hampton Lucy - what a pretty name we parked up alongside the pretty cottages and houses that lined the village road. Old mellow brick Elizabethan cottages. Victorian Gothic styled cottages. Georgian houses and even modern ones . All were charming in their own way and must cost an arm and a leg to buy. Roses around the gates, clematis clinging to the walls. Cottage gardens all played their part to make Hampton Lucy a desireable place to live . It even had an up market pub. and a pretty stone church standing in its own grounds.

We parked up in the large car park which was relatively empty. The enquiries desk was the other side of the road from the hall surrounded by a small plant nursery selling cottage garden plants. We crossed the road and walked down the long driveway that lead to the Elizabethan entrance gate. What a pretty sight. Mellow red Elizabethan brick made up this pretty building . Through it we could see the hall. A tantalising view .

This had been a home for the past 800 years to the Lucy family. The gatehouse was built in the 16th century and had remained relatively unchanged over time. Outside the building was a board and on it cardboard keys with times on them. They were for guided tours of the gatehouse , 11.00. 1 00 and 2 pm. The guided tours took you into the rooms and onto the roof. We did not join them but instead walked through the gatehouse into the neatly manicured lawned garden. Later I was to think I wish I had joined the tour as the house did not have many rooms to wander around. The family still live in one wing of the house and the rest looks empty and rather neglected.

The house was not yet open so we walked up to the gardens . The National Trust volunteers were digging the borders and tidying the plants. Cutting back and weeding they were a busy and happy bunch chatting amongst themselves . A small thatched cottage stood in the middle . A summer house complete with inside furnishings and stained glass it doubled up as a playhouse for the children. Bright red poppies, blue delphiniums and purple alliums filled the borders.

Across the ha ha was a meadow full of deer. The perfect English country scene. Around the edge of a Capability Brown landscape ran the River Avon. A manicured landscape that gave the illusion of being natural. It was a typical English scene serene and peaceful. Across the parterre we could see glimpses of the deer and read that we perhaps might see kingfishers if we were lucky.

We called in to the Orangery , the hot house once used to grow exotic plants was now a cafe. We stopped for a cup of coffee and a delicious hot sausage roll. We had planned lunch but sadly there were only two meals on offer - Soup and a creamy curry. This meant we would need to find somewhere else to eat. I could eat both but Glenn with his stomach problems would be affected by both. Sadly this meant we would need to search out a Toby Carvery or a local hostelry.

Once the house opened we entered the hall. What a hall it is too. The ceiling is covered with Tudor roses and the plasterwork mimicked wood. Portraits of the family lined the walls. A bust of Elizabeth I had pride of place on the fireplace. The windows were all delicately stained with light glass letting in a pretty muted light. If there was one item that really took our eye in that room it was the table. With a sign saying not to touch as it was fragile it was an example of a table worked out of stone in Italy. Around the border was a pattern. A pretty pattern at that . It was only on close attention that we noticed butterflies with their wings made of different coloured polished stone. Crickets sitting on thin branches of trees. Frogs and snails . It was exquisite and hard to see any gaps where the stones joined each other. It was the centre of attention quite literally. There were examples of heraldry and the connection with Wales was clear to see . Mrs Lucy before she married was a Williams born in Bodelwydden Castle in North Wales .

We headed for the billiards room only to be turned away and pointed back to a doorway in the corner. Go that way round - the volunteer said. You will come back to the billiards room on your way back. The next room had a fantastic plasterwork ceiling, a hideous Victorian serving cupboard. Over the top, dark walnut wood and overly carved it really was probably up the Lucy street when they purchased it but it was not to our taste. The walls were red flocked wallpaper and the dining table covered with the families precious silverware. On a small table was the menu provided by Mrs Beeton. The best bit of the room was the view out of the window which overlooked the parterre and the river. It apparently was the talk of the dinner table at dinner parties .

We were filtered from the dining room to the Library. That was an interesting room. In each room were wooden boards with information . Just enough to tell us that the Lucy family rather than have the books for show actually read them. It was a warm room and one that would have been pleasant on a winters day. A door led into a music room with piano and harp. A warming fire was giving the room a warm glow . On the walls were portraits of the Tudors another link with Wales. From here through to the Billiards room . Like any big country house no self respecting gentleman would be without his billiard room. The table taking up the middle of the room. It looked like many billiard rooms we have seen over the years. In the corner was a small door with a back staircase leading up to a bedroom. This was the guest bedroom. The first of many upstairs we thought. A dark wooden bed with red drapes filled the room. It had been brought from India and converted from a day bed to this thing we see today. Around the rooms were reminders of India - a ceremonial sword all siver and turquoise. The volunteer stopped us all and started her talk. We stayed a while and listened to her stories of what a guest might have when they stayed but in the end we wandered off . Down a long corridor. A room filled with chairs all covered in white drapes protecting them. A room which a servant used. A simple comfortable bed, a dresser to hang clothes and a suit of clothes , black trousers and dinner jacket lying on the bed. A few empty room with a suitcase in an alcove . This all lead us to the stairs . Dark and wooden not the grand wide open staircases you see in grand houses . This was rather plain. The walls covered in tapestries and paintings. It lead us back to where we started - the rather grand hall.

We felt a touch disappointed . The size of the house promised much. Inside the rooms were either empty or not available to the public. Outside a stunning building . Inside well maybe in a few years more will be opened .

We wandered around the grounds to the weir and into the outbuildings before setting off for home. We need food . Sadly we were on dual carriageways and motorways and found nothing. We picked up the window and headed to pick my new glasses up. We stopped at the Waggon and Horses- sadly another chain for pubs. Undercooked fish and an insipid chicken meal reminded us yet again that we really dont like chains and will avoid them like the plague .

What of the window ? It is too big . We have to re-order as Swift have ordered the wrong size.

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