1st July 2005 – And finally, Warwick and Kenilworth
Today we started our last day of the trip, dedicating more than six hours to our final two locations; Warwick and Kenilworth. We didn’t leave until late-morning – during our time at the campsite, we were starred at by a man owning the nearest tent. Later, he went off to sit in his car – probably to get out of the sun. Finishing today meant that we would be one week ahead of schedule and that was fine with us. It gave us time to relax over the weekend, something probably well due after the travelling we had managed.
Warwick Castle and Beauchamp Chapel were on the list, both of which we found with ease. The Castle seemed like it would be fun to explore but when we got to the main entrance we found that it cost £14.95 to get in. £14.95?!? Ridiculous – they must have been aiming it at the American tourists who would clearly pay anything to have a look, and not give a second thought to the home people whose heritage it is anyway. And that is what Nav based his motive operandi on – he wanted to see his heritage and he would get in, without paying.
So we scouted around the edge of the Castle grounds looking for potentially scaleable fencing. We found that most of it had barbed wire along the top of a high fence. Whilst walking, we passed a large group of American tourists and also a load of posh school children (they must only have been about 8yrs or so and they were wearing ties! And wearing them properly too! And white hats with rims like those of cricket players!)
We eventually found something that looked promising: a very high gate with spikes on the top with further such fencing along the side. It can be found coming in through the big archway entrance, at the end of the pathway (the one which is tunnelled through mounds of earth) and at the point when you have to climb some steps. Through the gate you can see the Castle grounds. We sat around on the corner, waiting for people to leave and when I gave Nav the all-clear, he stepped onto the low brick wall, hiked his left foot high up to his waist and put it onto the nearest tree branch, lurched upwards and did the same with his right foot, stepped onto the metal spiked fencing (it had curved upward-pointing parts to make the top slightly wider), swung to his left to make his right-side go over the fence, and with a final twist to his right shifted his left-side over the fence and hopped down ten feet to the soft ground. It was done in seconds and was pretty Jason Bourne-esque. A quick dust down and Nav then took my camera. I said that I wasn’t nearly agile enough for that (Nav’s a bit of a tree climber and has been wanting to do some climbing ever since the beginning of the trip), plus I had my backpack with me so there was no way I could follow. Nav took a load of photos, so here are some of them:
Turned out Nav had made it just in time too as a family group came around the corner on the pathway and a couple of others from the steps above. So for Nav, his reward for his efforts was free entry to look at his heritage. Later, he tells me that his punishment for beating the system was to be surrounded by a load of American tourists. I didn’t get any pictures so there’s no proof that he broke in – maybe that’s a good thing. I decided that I would head towards Beauchamp Chapel instead, although managed to divert into town centre. It is an incredibly small town centre and managed to walk through it without noticing. I stepped into the local WHSmiths and browses through a couple of magazines to while away the time before moving onto the Chapel.
Beauchamp Chapel was located within the St. Mary Church, although there it was only a single room of which could not be entered. There was some sort of music festival/show to be held in the church (they were practicing when we arrived) and I don’t know if this was part of the reason for the Chapel not to be open. However, you could more or less see everything within.
I also had a look around the church. There was some artwork from the local school children – some of whom were quite incredibly talented – and the occasional burst of music from the instruments, but the rest of the church was as normal. Nav had joined me later on (because he was still in Warwick Castle) and telling me that he “just wanted to get in to see the church and chapel”, he replied a ‘no’ and ‘yes’ grunt to the old lady at reception asking “Are you hear to see the music?” [grunt-no], “You’re here to see the church then?” [grunt-yes]. I think that the lady assumed Nav was not a native Englishman and so asked if an English tour guide sheet would suffice! Not only that, but it turned out that she had given Nav a sheet that had larger font and less (and probably more basic) information – ha de ha ha!
This time, we found our car without a problem and set off for a short drive north for Kenilworth. It was about 4pm and Kenilworth Castle (or the ruins of) and the surrounding grounds were empty bar two or three other people. We tried to stroll in through the entrance, but were stopped and told that there was a fee. We said that we’d look around the outside of the ground and decide. Having toured around the ruins, we managed to both get student discounts on the tickets (Nav had lost his student card) because the lady at reception said “just because you came back”.
Either way, we were going to have a look at Kenilworth Castle because it was our final location. And it was worth seeing too. Most of it had been destroyed; the wooden roofs gone making the larger rooms open-air, parts of wall blown up during the Civil War, suspended floors gone revealing the empty shell of the building. But some of it still stood; stone window frames, spiral steps to different levels, cooking areas and ovens of the kitchen denoted by the use of slate, outlines of the numberous buildings making up the Castle.
It was nice to find that the information boards dotted around, all of which had sketches and detailed info to provide a mental image of what could have been. There is one particular ruin of a building that can be climbed to provide a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside (which was once an area of water with islands) and also to overview the Castle remains.
There was also a keep with 8-foot thick walls, one of which had been blown apart (during the Civil War), revealing the haphazard placement of stones within the regular design of the exposed sides. It was all good fun and much better to be explored first hand, as it will sound like any other castle ruin (even though it is but each should be visited in its own respect).
And so it came; about 5:40pm we decided to leave as the Castle grounds started to shut-shop, the end of the journey was nigh and would happen as soon as we stepped out of Kenilworth Castle grounds. And that we did.
It was a strange feeling; Nav and I discussed the places that we had been and what the experience of travelling around England had brought to us. To me, during the travelling, it never felt like it but we probably were ‘in search of England’ and I think we found England in lots of different places. Being able to mentally visualise a county when someone talks about it, knowing where cities, towns and villages are with respect to one another and in England, being able to juxtapose different places and compare and contrast them – all of this was gained over the 19-days of travelling.
We both felt that it was well worth the effort, sleeping rough for 17 of the 19 days, eating at odd times and in odd places, getting lost on numerous occasions, setting up the tent and dinner in the dark – the list goes on, I just can’t remember it all. But the experience I will.
-- steven
Warwick Castle and Beauchamp Chapel were on the list, both of which we found with ease. The Castle seemed like it would be fun to explore but when we got to the main entrance we found that it cost £14.95 to get in. £14.95?!? Ridiculous – they must have been aiming it at the American tourists who would clearly pay anything to have a look, and not give a second thought to the home people whose heritage it is anyway. And that is what Nav based his motive operandi on – he wanted to see his heritage and he would get in, without paying.
So we scouted around the edge of the Castle grounds looking for potentially scaleable fencing. We found that most of it had barbed wire along the top of a high fence. Whilst walking, we passed a large group of American tourists and also a load of posh school children (they must only have been about 8yrs or so and they were wearing ties! And wearing them properly too! And white hats with rims like those of cricket players!)
We eventually found something that looked promising: a very high gate with spikes on the top with further such fencing along the side. It can be found coming in through the big archway entrance, at the end of the pathway (the one which is tunnelled through mounds of earth) and at the point when you have to climb some steps. Through the gate you can see the Castle grounds. We sat around on the corner, waiting for people to leave and when I gave Nav the all-clear, he stepped onto the low brick wall, hiked his left foot high up to his waist and put it onto the nearest tree branch, lurched upwards and did the same with his right foot, stepped onto the metal spiked fencing (it had curved upward-pointing parts to make the top slightly wider), swung to his left to make his right-side go over the fence, and with a final twist to his right shifted his left-side over the fence and hopped down ten feet to the soft ground. It was done in seconds and was pretty Jason Bourne-esque. A quick dust down and Nav then took my camera. I said that I wasn’t nearly agile enough for that (Nav’s a bit of a tree climber and has been wanting to do some climbing ever since the beginning of the trip), plus I had my backpack with me so there was no way I could follow. Nav took a load of photos, so here are some of them:
Turned out Nav had made it just in time too as a family group came around the corner on the pathway and a couple of others from the steps above. So for Nav, his reward for his efforts was free entry to look at his heritage. Later, he tells me that his punishment for beating the system was to be surrounded by a load of American tourists. I didn’t get any pictures so there’s no proof that he broke in – maybe that’s a good thing. I decided that I would head towards Beauchamp Chapel instead, although managed to divert into town centre. It is an incredibly small town centre and managed to walk through it without noticing. I stepped into the local WHSmiths and browses through a couple of magazines to while away the time before moving onto the Chapel.
Beauchamp Chapel was located within the St. Mary Church, although there it was only a single room of which could not be entered. There was some sort of music festival/show to be held in the church (they were practicing when we arrived) and I don’t know if this was part of the reason for the Chapel not to be open. However, you could more or less see everything within.
I also had a look around the church. There was some artwork from the local school children – some of whom were quite incredibly talented – and the occasional burst of music from the instruments, but the rest of the church was as normal. Nav had joined me later on (because he was still in Warwick Castle) and telling me that he “just wanted to get in to see the church and chapel”, he replied a ‘no’ and ‘yes’ grunt to the old lady at reception asking “Are you hear to see the music?” [grunt-no], “You’re here to see the church then?” [grunt-yes]. I think that the lady assumed Nav was not a native Englishman and so asked if an English tour guide sheet would suffice! Not only that, but it turned out that she had given Nav a sheet that had larger font and less (and probably more basic) information – ha de ha ha!
This time, we found our car without a problem and set off for a short drive north for Kenilworth. It was about 4pm and Kenilworth Castle (or the ruins of) and the surrounding grounds were empty bar two or three other people. We tried to stroll in through the entrance, but were stopped and told that there was a fee. We said that we’d look around the outside of the ground and decide. Having toured around the ruins, we managed to both get student discounts on the tickets (Nav had lost his student card) because the lady at reception said “just because you came back”.
Either way, we were going to have a look at Kenilworth Castle because it was our final location. And it was worth seeing too. Most of it had been destroyed; the wooden roofs gone making the larger rooms open-air, parts of wall blown up during the Civil War, suspended floors gone revealing the empty shell of the building. But some of it still stood; stone window frames, spiral steps to different levels, cooking areas and ovens of the kitchen denoted by the use of slate, outlines of the numberous buildings making up the Castle.
It was nice to find that the information boards dotted around, all of which had sketches and detailed info to provide a mental image of what could have been. There is one particular ruin of a building that can be climbed to provide a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside (which was once an area of water with islands) and also to overview the Castle remains.
There was also a keep with 8-foot thick walls, one of which had been blown apart (during the Civil War), revealing the haphazard placement of stones within the regular design of the exposed sides. It was all good fun and much better to be explored first hand, as it will sound like any other castle ruin (even though it is but each should be visited in its own respect).
And so it came; about 5:40pm we decided to leave as the Castle grounds started to shut-shop, the end of the journey was nigh and would happen as soon as we stepped out of Kenilworth Castle grounds. And that we did.
It was a strange feeling; Nav and I discussed the places that we had been and what the experience of travelling around England had brought to us. To me, during the travelling, it never felt like it but we probably were ‘in search of England’ and I think we found England in lots of different places. Being able to mentally visualise a county when someone talks about it, knowing where cities, towns and villages are with respect to one another and in England, being able to juxtapose different places and compare and contrast them – all of this was gained over the 19-days of travelling.
We both felt that it was well worth the effort, sleeping rough for 17 of the 19 days, eating at odd times and in odd places, getting lost on numerous occasions, setting up the tent and dinner in the dark – the list goes on, I just can’t remember it all. But the experience I will.
-- steven
posted by Steven | 2:11 am
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