Today brought sunshine, this we were pleased with because we were going to Hadrains Wall at Vindolanda near Hexham. This is an ancient site of the Roman village of Vindolander which has been excavated in the past 40 years . Just in the last 5 years they have found many artificts from bones, jewellery to armour, and many roman sandals from children to adults. (Photos below)
What remains of the ancient roman fort of Vindolander
Water trench (aqueduct ) the romans used
From here we then went to the Roman Army Museum just a few miles away. Here we saw a unique 3 D film of where in this area the ruin's were found after doing a low flight over the area to mark out the forts etc. There are still today many areas that have not had any excavations done to them , due to the costing etc in this . It is mostly done voluntary in the summer with many people coming back on a regular basis to do this even as far away as NZ and Aussie.
We were lucky enough to find accommodation at a pub called The Old Black Bull just 13 miles north of York. The owners and staff were wonderful , made us most welcome and asked us to join in on there qiz night while we were there. This we did , we got 25 out of 35 with some help from the locals a great laugh. Here we meet Val and Lynn Scott from Christchurch, which helped make the evening more enjoyable as it then became the kiwi team.
25th August
Today brought rain. This we did not want as we are visiting York .
Once in the town of York we visited Yorkminster church . This is a very large cathedral built out of sandstone. A walk around the square seeing the different buildings and once again shops.
We had been told about a Viking village which was found underneath the streets of York. This dated back to 866AD. The Jorvik Viking Centre has the remains of 1,000 year old houses which are revealed beneath your feet from under a glass floor . Seeing where the layout etc was. In displays on the walls show objects that have been found since excavations started on the site. This started between 1976 -1981 archaeologists from York Archaeological Trust revealed the houses, workshops and backyards of the Viking age city of Jorvik as it stood 1,000 years ago.
You can see the blacksmith's furnace ,the amber worker , homes, and interesting a outside toilet no privacy here.
Taking photos here was very difficult as the chairs we were in moved very quickly .
We then walked up through a street called The Shambles . This was a very narrow street consisting of old buildings erected many century's ago. ( photos below )
This photo is of a shoe scraper which is placed outside many of the buildings for men to clear there mud of there boots.
Then we went to the Roman Bath a House. This too was found underneath a hotel when it was being renovated 10 years ago.
This armour was found down under the building also.
There is a stone wall that runs around most of the centre of York. This is the remnants of the stone wall that protected the city .
On our way back to Mansfield we called in to see Kathy and her mum Ada Moffitt at Colne. It was wonderful to spend extra time visiting them.
Marg with Ada Moffat (a friend who used to live in NZ)who just celebrated her 100 th birthday.
27th August
Mel, Marg, John and Peter out for dinner on our last night in England
The last two days here in Mansfield have been running around sorting out last minute things. We have had a wonderful time in England ,Scotland, Wales, and Ireland and met some interesting people on our way. Many thanks everyone for making it that way, especially Mel and Peter for your hospitality and loaning us a car to have a look around. All in all we did just under 5000 miles.
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