Day eight, our last full day in Chipping Campden, turned out to be cloudy but dry. We decided on a light day of activities, so we could pack up later and enjoy a quiet evening at home. In the morning we visited the French bakery in town and bought the ingredients for the evening meal. More about that later.
In late morning we headed for Evesham, which I mistakenly thought was a quiet little town with a church and a museum and not much else. Well, got that wrong. It’s a bustling and busy place teaming with traffic. No worries, we found a car park and set out on foot to find our first (and only) destination.
The Almonry Heritage Center is an eclectic museum located adjacent to the local tourist office. Unlike the town, the museum was quiet – we were basically the only visitors. Remember Charles Wade, the owner at Snowshill who liked to collect “stuff? Well, he would have loved the Almonry which is chockablock full of “stuff” from the history of Evesham. Tools, typewriters, and what all. The twelve rooms of stuff were strangely compelling. It’s all in an impressive looking old timbered building right next to Evesham Abbey.
After a tour at the museum, we headed to Bretforton just five miles down the road where I had reserved a table at noon for lunch at the Fleece Inn Pub. Bretforton is the quiet village that I expected. We popped in at the village church, St. Leonard’s, after lunch.
Built in the time of Chaucer, the Fleece Inn has many stories to tell. It houses one of England’s oldest collections of Pewter amongst many other traditional features such as the open fire places and a medieval thatched barn where weddings and functions are often held. The Inn was originally a medieval farm house, with farm animals occupying one end of the building and the yeoman family living at the other. It became a village inn in 1848, a role it still fulfills.
Bequeathed to the National Trust by Lola Taplin in 1977, the last of the Byrd family who originally built the house centuries ago, the Fleece was almost lost in a tragic fire in 2004. A massive renovation of the building followed and the Fleece was restored to retain its integrity and traditional features.
Since Evesham is famous for asparagus (there’s a festival), we both had the soup of the day – asparagus, of course. It was delicious. I had a chicken, pork, and leek pie with chips. Elaine opted for more asparagus with hollandaise sauce. She had a lager beer; I had Pig’s Ear, a strong English ale brewed in the Cotswolds, a local specialty.
Then it was back to Campden Mews for naps, TV, packing, and, later on, drinks and dinner. Wine for Elaine; Absolut and cranberry for me. Dinner consisted of a French wheat sourdough baguette, duck and pepper pate, Brie cheese, an apple and a nice bottle of French wine – Beaujolais Villages. Tarte au framboises (raspberry tart) for desert.
Tomorrow is essentially a travel day – we have a 3-1/2 hour drive down to Bristol and then across Wales skirting Cardiff and Swansea on the way to the Irish Ferry terminal at Pembroke Dock. Our ferry sails at 2:45 PM. We’ll leave here early to allow for traffic issues and for a lunch near the ferry terminal.
Be safe travelling you two. Love CiCi
Where are you, did you miss the ferry? It’s Monday here in the USA.