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LONDON to SAFFRON WALDEN - July 2, 2006

On Gail’s birthday, we left and drove north….stopping to see things along the way, and finally arriving in a town that was enormously rich back in the early part of the second millennium…..

July 2, 2006

Today we left London at last…..  Got up late and breakfasted while Susan was over at the local church ringing bells.  I heard them pealing out from upstairs while on the computer, and they sounded great.  Susan was disappointed when she got back because her timing was off – and instead of “dong, dong, dong”, with her bell the middle one, it was more like “dong-dong, dong” because she didn’t control her bell well enough.  They ring these things – hundreds (or thousands) of pounds of metal – by swinging them up into the vertical position, and then allowing them to fall back and pulling again to swing them vertical on THAT swing…..they ring each time they come down from the vertical, and the skill is in keeping them in perfect time with the people (four to ten of them) around you who are also pulling on ropes to ring the other bells in the set.  I’m impressed!

Susan got back about 10:00, and we sat around talking about good places to visit in Norfolk, and we got away about 11:00 with a sack full of sandwiches plus apples, water, and sunflower seeds.  We headed north, and quickly decided we liked the A roads rather than the motorways, and the B roads even better.  We kept the car headed in the right direction, but kind of moseyed through villages and through vast fields – largely barley, although some wheat and a bit of rapeseed.  We passed Chipping Ongar, Epping (where we heard a local group pealing the bells, and they weren’t all that regular and even, either), Toot Hill, Great Dunmow, several different Rodings (White, Little, and Great) etc.  Wonderful names, and beautiful scenes.

We ate our lunch by the remains of the grand Waltham Abbey Church (made up of the fourth and fifth churches on that site) that Henry VIII (the old thief) took from the Catholics, and let his subjects demolish for the stone.  Waltham was the last abbey to be dissolved, and there was discussion of retaining the church as a Cathedral (Anglican), but it’s a bit out of the way and that never happened.  The fourth church (which formed the front part of the complete Abbey church) was saved, and one of the two towers (each originally with its own nave) was rebuilt at the front, having been removed from where the fourth and fifth churches connected into one huge building.  They were finishing baptism Sunday when we arrived, and the church was packed….lots of young parents and little babies and toddlers.  We walked around the extensive grounds that they finally excavated in the ‘60s and ‘70s to discover exactly how grand a place it had been before Henry’s depredations.  We went into the crypt where they have a gift shop and talked to the volunteer couple running it – they told us all about the crazy man, who in 2003 came into the church with an axe in each hand and proceeded to chop the heads off of every statue he could find.  He smashed a good bit of the organ, too….until the police finally sprayed him with CS gas and subdued him.  Apparently wasn’t interested in attacking any human beings, but when someone is off their medication, who knows what is going to happen!  There is a wonderful side chapel with some nice glass, plus a lovely tomb with the man and his wife all carved and painted, lying down on their sides above the coffin.  The last Saxon king of England is buried here – Harold, killed in 1066.

Then we got our sandwiches and apples and sat on a bench by the church to eat.  Along came a gent on a bicycle, Alan Avery, who drives night buses in London (we were about 40 miles north of town) and is recently retired.  He was 62 years old today, which is something of a coincidence, because it’s Gail’s birthday as well – so we took a photo of the two of them to celebrate, and spent a half hour or so chatting with Alan…spelled “I – L – I – N”, he said…..Gail says his accent is VERY East End of London, and I’m betting that most of the criminals they sent to Australia came from there, because he sounded a LOT like an Aussie!  He gave us a Xerox copy of the history of the cathedral, and we left Waltham Abbey and promptly got lost.  Seemed to be going in circles, and so did not get to see Toot Hill, but we actually lucked into something better…at least, I’m guessing so. 

That was the Great Bardfield Cage and Cottage…..the “Cage” is a really, really old jailhouse.  Two sides – one for males, one females.  Each closed with two doors – each door with airholes, but none of them line up….so that friends and family couldn’t pass things in to the prisoner….especially booze!  There were a group of people who followed us, and one of the ladies said that her grandfather had been incarcerated in that very jail back before 1920 (it wasn’t used after 1924).  He and the laird had bad blood, and one time when the landlord went by on a horse, her grandpa said something under his breath and the fellow turned on him with his whip…whereupon grandpa assaulted him, and was put in the hoosegow for two days for his troubles!  Great story.  Nearby is a medieval one-room cottage preserved (and restored?) just as it was a millennium ago….it’s closed just now because they are replacing the modern stucco on the inside with a softer, lime-based variety that is more authentic as well as easier on the ancient wood.  We looked in the windows and were grateful for modern housing!

We drove on, and found ourselves on the main street of Thaxted – approaching an ancient half-timbered building with almost the entire first floor being open to the outside, surrounded with the pillars supporting the two upper floors.  The first of these was originally also virtually open, with shutters to close off the openings all around that made it more like a pavilion than a room.  This was the medieval guildhall, built in 1390, and one of the landmarks of Thaxted…but not the only one.  As we came up the street, we could see the tower of the church -  a church begun in 1340 and only completed 170 years later!  It’s magnificent – on top of a little rise, and looming over the town.  We walked up the narrow street paved with stones from local streams and into the churchyard.  Walked all around, stared up at the steeple with its flying buttresses, but couldn’t go in, as it was closed. 

THEN, we looked south and saw the windmill…..easily accessible along a path between restored medieval cottages and along a hedgerow protecting the cemetery (still in use) and a field.  It’s still operating, after just over 200 years….got a big repair job in 2003 or so, after the swiveling of the top tore out a bunch of the old brick.  Fascinating lot of stuff inside, along with a couple of old men who volunteer to explain it all to folks.  They grind grain in it when the wind is at least 12 mph, and you can climb the ladders up four levels to where the gears are visible in the top.  The old wooden machinery is still operating, just as it was designed all those years ago.  What a wonderful town!

We drove on, enjoying everything, until we got to Saffron Walden (believe it or not – and it IS named for the spice, which was grown here in the past) which is an astounding mixture of medieval and Georgian buildings…..it’s just a fabulous place!  We’re staying in the youth hostel, in the oldest continuously inhabited building in the town – built over 600 years ago.  Many original beams, floorboards, etc. are apparent – Gail says the showers were built for medieval people, so small are they.  Furthermore, the light switches for the shower is down the hall in the bathroom – despite the fact that there is a sign on the door to the bathroom saying not to switch the light off, someone did – leaving her in a coffin-sized shower with no ventilation and no light.  She shouted, and managed to get the person to turn it back on, but it was a long way from the restful experience a shower ought to be!  Now it’s my turn to check out the men’s! 

SW has a wonderful church, as well.  Walking around the town is a series of “Oh!”s and “Look at that!”s – it’s great fun.  It’s gotten warm all of a sudden in England, and the reports are that it will continue until Thursday, when it will begin to rain.  We’ll see.  Tomorrow, it’s Duxford (WWII airbase) and a grand local house.  Then Tuesday we’re off to Cambridge and on to the north.

Posted by on 07/09 at 03:03 PM

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