Saturday 26 September 2015

Spits, Guns and "I have to do what?"


Well what a great mooring this is, we were really pleased that there was a space available for us.

This morning I walked up that stonking great hill here.  Last year on our two day flit up the Thames from Reading to Oxford after visiting the K&A David walked up here and recounted to me the lovely views.

Here they are;




This is Didcot Power Station, or part of it..... Look here for another bit.   HERE




So here is WaL, Days Lock is amongst the trees in the centre.

The owner of my two favourite dogs.

NB Yarwood just up the road from us.  Really like the front lawns here.

Frightfully big ditch.


So this is the top section of Whittington Clump, alongs which is another adjoining hill on top of which has lumps and bumps that Lesley and I reckon was an Iron Age Fortification.    HERE    Oh look we were right!!!!

Quite a dramatic ditch still remains even after all these centuries.  Amazing views across Oxfordshire.

After this sojourn we three piled into the handily placed car and nipped off to a pub that David and I had discovered days earlier The Black Horse at Checkendon.  This is an amazing place on its own in the darkest depths of Oxfordshire.  Its soooo off the beaten track that I am surprised the staff find their way in the mornings.  Even the lane it was on didn't show up on our Sat Nav.
Its a untouched by human hands sort of place, well not since about 1890 I should think.  We could so imagine a sports car full of Spitfire pilots roll up and pile in from the 1940's.   There is nothing modern about it.  A great place, I can imagine it would be in an episode of Foyle's War.
Nice beer too.


See the centre gable window?
Scuttling home again we had the pleasure of the last (Well we think its the last) Barbie Queue of the season.  

I had gone into a spectacular Pill Box to take these shots.  Much bigger than the one I saw in a bush on the Thames a few days ago


Jamie Oliver at work, he's a top bloke.

These groves in the ground make me think they had a pretty gun in here, or the place to put one at least.

Massive outlook all up the river here.


 .

There was a challenge for our companions afterwards.... When it became chilly we cleared up quick and adjourned to WaL for coffee and Cribbage.  My mum has relearnt to play this at her Friday Gambling Club, she plays with a ninety six year old who has taught her all she knows!  She heard that Lesley and Joe are Fiends and Sharks respectively and wanted David and I to learn too.

This face illustrates perfectly how I felt.

3 comments:

  1. It's obviously a type 28a pillbox probably for a 2 pounder anti tank gun. I'm so surprised that you didn't know that!
    http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/psgwordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/041-1.jpg

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  2. Actually Reader you won't be surprised to hear that both Mr Yarwood and I looked up WW2 Pillboxes on the Thames, maybe not too many folk do that.... even fewer people might admit to it.

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