Bearsted and Henley on Thames

20 to 26 March 2023

A Farewell to Kings

The van had been serviced and the tyres, which were beginning to show signs of age, had been replaced so we needed to plan a "shake-down" trip prior to starting the motorcaravan season. It was also time to visit Mum in Kent, and how about meeting up with Barbara and Clive? Seeds were being sown ....

Sadly the weather forecast was not looking great, but as we know, there is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing!  I was dropped off at Mum's in Charing and John took the van to Bearsted CMC to spend the night there. Next morning Mum and I used my sister's car to drive up to Bearsted to have coffee in the van (a change of scene for Mum) then all three of us went to Lenham in the car for a fish and chip lunch at The Square Fish Cafe, a favourite. We spent the afternoon at Mum's and John returned to Bearsted that evening by bus. After collecting John next morning we took Mum shopping and had lunch at her cottage. Later that afternoon both John and I boarded the trusty 10X to get back to the van.

In the meantime we had had a message from Barbara to say that Clive had Covid so they would not be going to Tenby as planned and not meeting up with us either. Disappointing, but that's the way life continues to be.

On Thursday morning we left early as we wanted to stop off at NT Ightam Mote, a 14th century moated manor house, on our way to Henley. We managed a brief walk around the gardens before the rain started and then went inside the house. It has had numerous owners over the years, each making changes to suit the current fashion or their needs. So the house has 700 years of history, architecture and stories under one roof.

We arrived at the CMC site at Henley around 4 pm and it was fairly full, with remaining pitches being close to the road, which means it is very noisy. But it is not a big site and other pitches are probably not any quieter.

We had booked tickets online for Windsor Castle for Friday and parked at Alexandra Gardens in the overflow coach park for the staggering sum of £14.50 for five hours or more. Could we still afford a cup of coffee before going into the castle?  

A ten minute walk took us to the castle and the sun shone for a while to put blue skies into our photos. Draped with cameras and audio guides (free!) we went into St George's chapel first. The roof of the nave, the stained glass windows, and the carved wood of the Quire were all beautiful and I found it moving as we slowly filed past the vault where George VI, Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II lie together. The services at the chapel are open to the public and I thought it would be good to visit again to do that and experience the organ and choirboys in full flow.

The State Apartments were many and splendid and the audio guide gave a brief summary for each room, which was very useful, as it had been in the chapel.

After lunch in the undercroft (coronation chicken sandwiches seemed appropriate!) the final item to see was Queen Mary's dolls house, which was a gift to her from George V on behalf of the nation to showcase British craftsmanship.

On the way back to the van we had to shelter from hailstones beneath The Arches, under the railway line largely turned into industrial units.  And it was a very wet drive back to the site. But we had escaped other showers during the day by being inside so we had not done too badly.

Saturday was sunny and quite warm and we walked into town to find The Chocolate Cafe by the river for coffee and hot chocolate, both excellent. 

We deserve many brownie points for resisting all the delicious cakes in the chiller! Our walk along the river was cut short at Marsh Lock, where the bridge was closed for repair, but we enjoyed watching and taking photos of the white water canoeists battling in the water gushing through the sluice.

Lunch at Cafe Rouge set us up for the walk back to the site, where we relaxed reading the newspaper.  The weather of Sunday morning was exactly as forecast, wet. We didn't have far to travel home and had missed out on an hour's sleep last night due to putting the clocks forward, so we didn't rush up but were still home soon after midday.