Charlecote Park Part One

Charlecote Park is a 16th century country house surrounded by it's own deer park standing on the bank of the river Avon. It has been in the same Lucy family most of that time and Elizabeth 1st stayed there. The National Trust has administered the building since 1946.

My wife surprised me with this visit but I was pleased she did

The entrance gates to Charlecote Park which I'm afraid you don't use, the entrance is through a small gate about 100 meters to the right

 You do get to walk down the drive to the gatehouse though

That takes you through to the main house

Going back to the gatehouse you can see some nice features

Like the coat of arms

 and stonework in the arch as you walk through

Viewing it looking back reminds me of the Tower of London

not far away is the orangery which is now a restaurant where you can get a cup of tea or coffee and cake 

 and get a nice view of the house

 Across the other side of the house you get to the laundry which is through this door

All mod cons for it's time

 See the Boiler on the  left here well I remember my next door neighbor having one like it and doing her washing in it every Monday, mind you that was 50 years ago
On the right is a cheese press, she did not have one of those

Go through a further door and you see the brew house

One of the boiling cauldrons 

 It's the best example I have seen so far

 

 Outside in the stable yard is a hand pump

The stables have now been converted to keep the old coaches in 

These were state of the art in their time and the thing to be seen in

 This is the old stable yard

and not far away is the  Deer Park

 I turned round to get this shot of the house

The deer would have to swim across the Avon here

or try and cross the weir

much simpler to cross the bridge which I might add has a gate which you can go through to walk round the Deer park

I just tried to take a few with my camera

 The duck though I would give it some food but went off dissapointed

Mind you the deer did not seem to want to get much closer either








 

I did manage a few zoomed in shots though

 Couple of Stags

Elegant  looking stag

Thought we would head off and walked past the place they used to get on their horses

Another view of the front. The stables are through the gate over on the right there

These steps lead to the Orangery 

and if you go to the to of the steps you will see this

Go round the back of the hose to see these beautiful layed out gardens

 They are quite something else

so well laid out

and I'm glad to say when we were looking there were few people around

Time to head off as I wanted to visit the nearby church. I did not show any of the inside of the house, as you can see that in Part 2
  For more information and if you would like to visit go to the National Trust Website

Bailey Pursuit 430-4 vs Bailey Pegasus Modena.

A caravan might seem a bit of an odd thing for me to blog about  but a lot of my explorations have been done from our caravan. Call it a review if you like but in this blog I will show a few differences between two very similar caravans made by the same company.

In this blog I have used some of the Bailey website photo's as well as my own.

This is our Persuit which we have has for a around 18 months, It's not the first caravan we have had but one we like and suits us very much. It's what you could call the entry level model and when we bought it we were told by Lewis at Oxford Caravan Center that it was very popular with couples because of the fixed bed in the back. The caravan is a four berth which is not a lot bigger that a 2 berth. When we bought it my wife & I commented that it would be superb if Bailey brought it out in the next range up which had a little more luxury about them. A few moths ago they did just that with the Pegasus Modena. We eagerly waited when they would get one in at Oxford Caravans and when the day came we went along for a look with high hopes. We came away very disappointed, I was so disappointed I thought I would write a review blog showing the difference between the two. I'll start with the layouts which I down loaded from the Bailey website.

This is a view of the layout of the Persuit as you can see it is a four berth with a rear bathroom kitchen and seating area

The Mondena is very similar though looking at the bathroom it looks a little bigger.

 This photo I downloaded from the Bailey site shows the interior of the Persuit 430-4 like ours

This photo from the Bailey website shows the Mondena which as you can see is very similar. The seating is much more comfortable I might add.

 The kitchen area on the Persuit which is functional  with three burner hob and combined oven & grill.
We have no problem with this and my wife has cooked a roast in it many times. Under the oven is a cutlery draw and a cupboard under it with the gas taps. Beside the cooker is a fridge with sink over the top. You can see a microwave over the top which we have used on occasion ourselves
Over in the corner are a couple of 13amp power outlets which we use in our for the kettle

This is the Mondena kitchen which is similar in looks to the Pursuit though this one has a proper cooker with four hobs three gas hobs and one electric which is another feature my wife likes.  The power points have moved and they added the hot water & heater controls.There is also a separate grill &  oven bit have you noticed what my wife & I did. Well there is no cutlery draw which is something I think is needed. Where are you supposed to keep cutlery, in a bag on the side. I personally think this is a big problem and the one thing that will stop me upgrading to the Mondena.

This is what Bailey think is an important feature a poxy cupboard to keep a couple of bottles in and a shelf for a few tins. Sorry I can do with out that I would rather have someplace to keep my kitchen utensils. I might add every manufacturer seems to thing we need some where to keep our wine personally I could put the space to better use like keeping cutlery in.

The storage in the bed area in the Modena is new with more cupboards to use and the corner space smaller

compared  to the Persuit

but when you open the cupboard in the Modena you find a shelf which restricts what you store and enough space under it for a couple of magazines

the Persuit on the other hand has no shelf so more storage

You find the same in the lounge area with a nice cupboard and stereo

but there is that shelf again and a smaller space than the Persuit. We store all our pans in ours but could not in this one. The stereo from what I can see is the same cheap unit used in all models. When are Bailey going to get a bit more up to date with one which has bluetooth or a USB connector. I'm sure you use a Iphone or pod. People use them and would like to connect to listen to music.

In the Modena bathroom you have a new unit and self and cupboard on the wall. The shelves serve little purpose other that take up room

The Persuit has more room and the same unit, the cupboard is in the corner which is a better place IMO, you also have more room by the loo.
One bonus with the Modina is the new shelf in the shower which is more use that the one in the Persuit. BTW it would be nice if a shave outlet was supplied

This is the front layout in the Persuit and one I like with the sunroof, there is also useful storage. You can also see the cupboard on the left is bigger than the one below

the Modena on the other hand has a full length window and less storage but then this is the same on the Unicorn as well

Externally the Persuit & Modena as more or less the same

but on this side it's a little different. The battery box is there like in the first photo but the added two flaps near the wheel, one has a 13 amp outlet the other for the 16amp plug to power the caravan and charge the battery. Not a good point IMO as it it can be knocked. The battery is now in the caravan and accessed by a trapdoor in the floor. Just what you need to struggle through the van and trip getting it out the door. There are a few other minor differences you can see when you look round the two caravans but no real show stoppers. I would like to see a satellite point added as most people use a satellite and have to hang the cable out the window. When I queried Bailey on the changes I was told caravans were a compromise between the vans but it seems to me you are compromised more in upgrading from the Persuit to the Pegasus when all you need is to make one a little more comfortable.

As a foot note I will add that after haveing the Pegasus not even a year we gave up on it and bought a Swift Eccles with an Island bed, the bathroom is also much more to our liking. We have had it now for two years and are much happier with it. Funny thing is we gave up on Bailey before after we thought we had bought an inprovement and went to Swift. 

A Derelict Mine

My wife and I went out for a drive through the upper Elan Valley a few weeks ago and finally stopped off on the roadside for  a cup of coffee and a bight to eat it.

From where we parked you could see all the way down the valley

the other way was a little hazy

behind me was the Cwmystwyth  disused mine

 the sign tells you the place is of scientific interest

the walls of this processing building were long gone

as was much of this one further up

further along you could see more buildings

inside one you could see  the chutes which the ore & water came down

 The  pattern on the wall is from the safety grating above but you can still see the wooden chute

 and the wooden sides of what was underneath

Doorways in the walls

and the processing building base

 above the skeleton of the remaining buildings 

 All that remain now are the ghosts of the past. I'm told there are underground parts of this mine that can be accessed but I did not go on this visit. I don't think my wife would approve of me getting lost underground.