Brighton
Brighton was the first on our trip outside of London and where our Grandparents on our mothers side lived until they both passed. We took in the street where they lived and a couple of the local attractions.
Brighton is a lovely beach town with its Pier and pebble beach. Lots of people where out and about taking in the lovely sunny weather. The hotel we were staying in, The Grand, was buit in 1864 and an icon of its era.
The Pier was a nice place to walk along and check out the coastline, or you coukd go on the rides offered, or you could sit down and enjoy a drink or cocktail! We also booked tickets to the i360 which takes you up 450ft in the air in a space like pod for some wonderful views.
Plymouth
Plymouth was next on our list of places to visit. No family ties for this one, just a place to visit on our trek around the UK.
While here we checked out Cotohele – a National Hertitage Estate and Buckland Abbey – which was once owned by Sir Francis Drake. Also, close to where we were staying was The Hoe and the Smeaton’s Tower which was a lovely place to wander around.
Somerset
Somerset was home to many of our family on our father’s side of the family. We centred ourselves in Yeovil for this overnight stay and checked out both Yeovil and Crewkerne. Of particular interest to us was checking out St Bartholemew’s in Crewkerne, where our 5th Great Grandfather Charles Churchill is actually buried (unfortunately we didn’t find his grave as all the ones surrounding the church were just too old and some didn’t have names and some you just couldn’t read). Many other family members were baptised or married in the church over time as well. The church was actually open so we were even able to go inside.
The other place of interest was the church St Michaels and All Angels in Yeovil – our parents were married here and our eldest sister was baptised here as well. So this was great to see. Unfortunately we could not see inside.
Crewkerne was a small town and settled with narrow roads amongst a hilly terraine. It was easy to walk around once we found parking but hard to navigate by car during its busy periods.
Yeovil was larger and our accommodation for the night was in a very central location that was close to town. It was also very close to a Cenotaph that has been erected in Yeovil to commemorate th soldiers who faught in WW1 and WW2 – our Grandfather is recorded on the list of WW2 soldiers which was rather surreal to see!
Bath
Bath – what can we say but WOW! There is just no way to describe Bath that would give you the indication of the size of Bath and its stone buidlings, There are just rows, upon rows, upon rows, of huge stone buidlings – mostly made from the yellowy coloured bath stone. They cover the whole area and go up and along the hills surround the city. It truly is magnificent and our favourite place so far.
In Bath itself, we visited the Circus, Pulteney Bridge, Bath Abbey, The Roman Baths and took in the view from the Bath Lookout at Alexandra Park- all of these were great to check out as was just walking around Bath itself.
Stonehenge
Approx 1 hour away is Stonehenge, and while we were meant to do the VIP tour, both bookings that were made were cancelled on us so we endd up just doing the normal day time visit. With this visit you cannot go inside the stone circle but you do walk around the perimieter of the circle. While disappointing we couldn’t attend the VIP access as we wanted, it was still a great place to visit.
