We stayed at the Best Western Rose & Crown Hotel.  It is a 16th Century character hotel.  It is in the heart of Tonbridge and is full of old-world charm. Opposite Tonbridge Castle. The hotel retains the unique feel of the original building, you’ll be treated to oak beams and Jacobean panels which makes it’s unusual in that Kel had to duck to get into our room, number 19 up some narrow steps and hotch potch flooring levels.  The room slopes down and the floor is very uneven, made for interesting movement around it.

Moving on hopefully to see more around Kent, West Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire before making our way back towards Swindon and Aldbourne for the weekend.

Great day just checking out the countryside, bit misty and stayed overcast all day, welcome to England, typical.  Some of the hedges and flowers are out but not a lot, wonder what’s happened to spring. 

Stopped off at Wisborough Green and for those of you who know me well, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity of stopping at the old church and graveyard in Wisborough Green.  Some of the graves predated 1800, but were in pretty bad shape so I only hope that they have been transcribed already before further deterioration.  We saw a couple of tomb markers in the church dated early 1730.  The church is in spectacular condition and is obviously well loved by the community who look after it.  The Church of England parish church of St. Peter ad Vincula (St Peter in Chains) is what the church is called and is located on higher ground near a small pond with pollarded willow trees. Its unusual dedication is after the ancient Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome.  Around the large village green, used for playing cricket and football, there are two pubs, the Cricketers Arms and the Three Crowns, and a village shop. There is also a cricket pavilion on the green which doubles as a social club. Further out there is another pub, the Bat & Ball, near Fishers Farm, a farm adventure park.  Since Victorian times there has been a primary school in the village. The original building was closed in 1996 and was converted into a number of houses. Since then the whole school (reception to year 6) has been on the same site, opposite the old one.

Spending the night at Mercure between Colthrop and Midgham just west of Thatcham.

We’ve seen a lot of wildlife in the day, deer, badgers, deer, sheep, horses, pheasants, cows and squirrels.

We are in room 113 on the ground floor overlooking a field for a change, rather a pleasant change from looking at car parks or buildings.  Very misty and damp outside.  We managed to catch a couple of deer in the field, missed getting a photo of the pheasant though