We are staying in a lovely stately home (sounds so pretentious – and it is). Beautiful hotel in beautiful gardens. But as with many of these places…staff are condescending.

We took some great advice from Sally and headed at to Castle Combe and Lacock Abbey.

Castle Comb is a village in Wiltshire, England, about 5 miles from Chippenham. The village takes its name from the 12th century castle which was nearby. The area thrived as a mill in the 15th century. Very quaint stone buildings and bridges, with a beautiful old manor house as the main hotel. The village was also used for scenes in Downton Abbey and a number of scenes foe the movie Warhorse were filmed here.

From there we headed off to Lacock Abbey, which was founded in the early 13th century by Ela- Countess of Salisbury as a nunnery. The abbey remained a nunnery until Henry vIII began his suppression of the catholic church in the 16th century. it was then sold to a knight who converted the convent into a residence. The house later passed into the hands of the Talbot family, and during the 19th century was the residence of William Henry Talbot. In 1835 he made what may be the earliest surviving photographic camera negative, an image of one of the windows.

Early evening saw a stroll around our hotel gardens and dinner.

The next day we headed out to the beautiful Gloucester Cathedral and Berkeley castle. The cathedral has amazing history attached to it. Formally it was known as the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, it is located in the north of the city near the River Severn. It originated in 678 or 679 with the foundation of an abbey dedicated to Saint Peter (dissolved by Henry VIII – he did so much damage to buildings and the churches especially). Edward II’s body is interred here…and it was for that reason only that Henry allowed it to stand.

Unfortunately….England won the CWC- I was rooting for New Zealand. Novak won Wimbledon…a brilliant game of tennis. Although I was rooting for Rodger….appreciate Novak’s game.

Last night saw another packing of suitcase, ready for the trip south to Devon.