Tuesday was another wet day. I spent much of the day sorting out a list of things which need sorting out on the van and ordered all the parts I need.

Maintenance list – September 2022 – Caravan Ramblings

In the evening we ate at the “Royal China” restaurant in Sandown. The place was very busy and there was an enthusiastic core of repeat visitors. The food and service was in fact excellent.

Wednesday we drove to Appuldurcombe House, which is an English Heritage property but is in a state of disrepair and free to visit.

This English Baroque country house was the home of the Worsley family and actually started life as a priory in AD 1100 before becoming a convent.

The large Tudor mansion was bequeathed in 1690 to Sir Robert Worsley, 3rd Baronet who began planning a replacement. The house building was started in 1702 and the architect was John James. Alas, Sir Robert died in 1747 and he never saw the house fully completed.

The house was greatly extended by his great-nephew Sir Richard Worsley, the 7th Baronet of Appuldurcombe and Capability Brown was commissioned in 1779 to design the ornamental grounds at the same time as the extensions.

Presently, the house is now mainly a shell although the front section has been re-roofed and glazed and a small part of the interior recreated. The house has become well-known as one of the supposedly most haunted places on the Island.

Bembridge Winmdmill is only open to the public on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. We headed over to Bembridge on Thursday lunchtime, via the Island bus service!

The windmill is the last one remaining on the Island and whilst it is “run-up” every year or so, it isn’t working in so far as processing flour from grain. All four floors of the windmill are open to the public via some fairly tight staircases. Bembridge Windmill was built in the early 1700s when Bembridge was almost an island in its own right, cut off from the rest of the Isle of Wight.

Much of the machinery remaining in the mill is typical of the early 1700s.

The earliest positive date was found during restoration work when the steps between the first and second floor were replaced. Those steps had previously been reversed so that the runner against the wall had once been the outer runner, along which the inscription “E BEKER 1746 A C” had been carved. Other inscriptions have been found, one which could be 1701, but is not clear enough to give positive dating.

After a coffee in the village of Bembridge we headed to Shanklin and the Chine. It’s fairly pricey to enter the gorge but the ticket lasts a whole 7 days so we visited again later in the week after dark where there is a nice light show. After our first visit we had a reservation at the pub located at the bottom of the Chine – The Fisherman’s cottage. It’s a lovely setting but the place was lacking a warm and cosy atmosphere. We found better places to eat in the Old Village (more later!).

The weather has improved significantly over the last few days. The deluge of rain has stopped and the ground is starting to dry out. Days are sunny but there is now the chill of Autumn in the evenings and overnight.

Saturday we headed over to Carisbrooke Castle – another English Heritage monument. We’d already spent £40 to visit Osborne house and the castle was another £20. We were able to get an annual membership for £103 and I was refunded for the Osborne House visit. Just need to remember to cancel the Direct Debit! Plus we avoided the £3 parking charge.

The site of Carisbrooke castle may have been occupied in pre-Roman times as a ruined wall suggests that there was a building there in late Roman times. From 1100 the castle remained in the possession of Richard de Redvers family and over the next two centuries his descendants improved the castle with stone walls, towers and a keep. In 1293 the castle was sold to Edward I and from then on its governance was entrusted to wardens as representatives of the crown.

Charles I was imprisoned here for fourteen months before his execution in 1649 and afterwards his two youngest children were confined to the castle. From 1896 to 1944 it was the home of Princess Beatrice, daughter of Queen Victoria, as Governor of the Isle of Wight before becoming under the control of English Heritage.

In the evening we headed back to Shanklin for dinner at the Village Inn. This had been recommended by a lady we were chatting to on the IOW Steam Railway. This was everything the Fisherman’s Cottage wasn’t. A warm cosy bustling atmosphere; great beer and good food and a lovely table by the window. Only minor criticism was that the Chilli-con-carne was listed as being seriously fiery. It wasn’t. Other than that we had a great evening before heading through Shanklin Chine one last time – on this occasion after dark.

It’s now Sunday morning and we have Sunday lunch booked at the Pointer Inn in Newchurch. Then the final remnants of packing-up before we head off back to the mainland. The Queens funeral has meant we will spend Monday night at Charmouth as we don’t fancy moving the caravan around the tight streets of our East Devon coastal town on a Bank Holiday Monday

Saturday was a special event day at the Isle of Wight Steam Railway – Steam trains and a Cider / Cheese festival. We decided to stick with the theme of public transport and arrived after a couple of hours at the main steam railway station of Haverstreet.

The Isle of Wight seems to have a reasonable bus service and we caught the number 8 bus after a 10 minute walk from the campsite. At Sandown we switched to the regular railway and travelled the short distance to Smallbrook junction. This is at one end of the steam railway line and just a short walk from the mainline station to the steam railway.

Our first steam train of the day arrived a little later and took us (via a trip to the other end of the line, Wootton) to the main station at Havenstreet.

Entry to the Cider and Cheese festival was complimentary with a train ticket. A very nice choice of cheeses was available for the cheese platters.

There was a similar choice of Ciders although I made some pretty interesting choices. Maybe I’ll stick to Sandford Orchards “Devon Red” if there’s a next time! Service was disappointingly slow, given we only had a couple of hours at the festival.

On the journey back, we stopped at the Driftwood bar on the beach at Sandown and then ate Fish’n’Chips nearby in Lake.

*****

Sunday was a quiet day, with roast dinner at our local inn, The Pointer Inn. Highly recommended.

*****

Monday we drove to Ventnor and visited the Botanical gardens there. This has it’s own micro-climate which keeps the temperature some 5 degrees higher than should be expected. The gardens are well laid out and it was a lovely day to enjoy a picnic and wander around the botanical gardens. Weather was warm enough for a late afternoon BBQ.

Sunday morning and we hit the road bang on 8:00am for a two hour drive to the port of Southampton. We arrived shortly before 10:00am and were immediately offered a place on this crossing. We declined based upon our earliest arrival time at Southlands Caravan and Motorhome club site being noon.

Our 11:00am ferry left on time and it was a smooth crossing over to Ryde on the Isle of Wight. From Ryde it’s a short 15 minute or so drive to the site – be careful not to follow satnav – as Motorhome in front of us did. Finally arriving a good 10 minutes later than us at the campsite.

We had the choice of two hard standing pitches and manoeuvered the caravan into position. We then took a walk around the site and found some very nice grass pitches. In true CAMC “wacky races”, I left Moe guarding another pitch whilst I fetched the caravan!

This pitch is a lovely corner plot with lots of space and great flexibility in how to position the caravan, car and awning.

The only downside is that we have had some mega thunder, lightning and rain storms which at times have left the pitch looking like a paddling pool.

Monday we visited the village of Shanklin and took the following photograph. Moe has a vacuum forming of this location which she created during her relief map cartography days.

Tuesday we drove to Allum and Bay and the Needles. We walked to the Old and New Battery which given they are National Trust venues, we entered on Moe’s card.

Wednesday we headed to Mottistone, a National Trust property and gardens on the Isle of Wight.

On the way back we visited the pretty village of Godshill and noted the rather tame wildlife in the gardens.

Later in the afternoon, we walked over to Borthwood copse to see the Red Squirrels. The IOW is one of the few places which has a thriving colony of red squirrels and there are no grey squirrels present.

You can click on the image of the giant Oak tree above to try and locate the Red Squirrels. Can you see any?

No… neither could we. A disappointing excursion!

Thursday was a day off – well for Moe at least. I cleaned and polished the van which took up a large part of the day. We had made a reservation at the Pointer Inn during the evening and this turned out to be a really good choice. All the pubs round about seem to be reservation only and we have had little success in attempting a sameday reservation.

Osborne House was the holiday home for Queen Victoria and is now a property managed by English Heritage since 1986. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and designed by Prince Albert himself in the style of an Italian Renaissance.

Queen Victoria and her family stayed at Osborne house for lengthy periods each year; in the spring for Victoria’s birthday in May; in July and August when they celebrated Albert’s birthday; and just before Christmas. She was a frequent visitor to the Island and Osborne House until the death of her husband, Albert. After that her visits were less frequent although she did spend her final days here.

There are some nice walks to the Swiss cottage and beach, and finally a tour of the house itself. Some spectacular views from the house terrace across the water to Portsmouth. Queen Victoria must have felt a certain satisfaction observing her empire from Osborne House.

The internal collections in the house are interesting. There is even a billiard table (specially built at a comfortable height for Queen Victoria) which dates back to 1850.

Google maps showed a 185 mile trip from East Devon to the CAMC Site of Four Oaks at Henley-on-Thames. The CAMC Website says to avoid Reading if you don’t know the traffic systems. We do know Reading extremely well and it’s traffic routes but we still decided to take the rather circuitous route to M4 Junction 8/9 and then North on the A404 and finally West on the A4130. A bit further distance wise but certainly easier than dragging a caravan through the centre of Reading!

We arrived around 1:30pm and had quite a good choice of pitches – in the end choosing a grass one furthest away from the main road.

We have visited this campsite previously – Four Oaks CAMC site, Henley=on-Thames and did keep a diary of some of the things we did last time we stayed there. Henley-on-Thames 2021

There’s a decent bus service from outside the campsite (buses half hourly between High Wycombe and Reading) so Wednesday we caught the bus into Marlow. We walked along the River Thames footpath for a few miles and then ate lunch at one of the numerous cafes in the centre of Marlow town.

Marlow Bridge crosses the Thames just upstream of Marlow Lock, on the reach to Temple Lock. The bridge is a Grade I listed building. There have been a number of timber bridges at this location over the centuries but the current suspension bridge was designed by William Tierney Clark and was completed around 1832. The Szechenyi Chain bridge, spanning the River Danube in Budapest was also designed by William Tierney and is a larger version of the Marlow bridge

The remainder of the week was spent visiting friends and family in the area. Thursday evening we met Dave and Tracey at the Botanist in Reading and sampled the famous hanging kebabs. Given the heavens had opened after dinner (my excuse at least) we dashed the 20 or so metres to the Alehouse for a post-dinner pint. It’s always an “interesting” crowd at the Alehouse but a great selection of Real Ales.

Friday I met Ian for beers at lunchtime – the Wetherspoons (when the cost of living crisis means we can only afford the Wetherspoon’s experience, that’s the time I stop visiting pubs). After a beer there we walked to the Nags Head, which, like the Alehouse, has a very decent selection of Real Ales – although I made an interesting choice with one of the Pale Ales – it was like a soup!

Later on in the afternoon I met Moe at Lower Shiplake station and we walked the four odd miles back to the campsite at Henley-on-Thames – via a great butchers, Gabriel Machin. I think they even do BBQ packs delivered to the campsite. I can thoroughly recommend.

Saturday was a quiet day and an early night. Just as well as the alarm on my Fitbit didn’t work and we were late rising for the next leg of this post-summer trip…