Seeing in the new year with a few bargains

Just so you don't all fall asleep reading about our Cotswold Christmas break, I thought I would do a quick round up of the bargains I have had in the past few weeks.  

Up first, a couple of purchases in the run up to Christmas, a gorgeous Betty Barclay fully lined wool skirt and a cracking pair of high waist jeans

The skirt was £2.49 and I have ummed and ahhed about cutting it off at knee level but have decided to leave it long.  I wore a lot of long wool skirts to work in the 90's so wonder if this is of that age.

Lee Cooper branded jeans now, these were 50p (yay!) and did fit before Christmas

They are a little tight now, due to an overindulgence of alcohol and chocolates.  But hey, 50p jeans!

OH treated me to this extra Christmas present in Burford when we went down to our holiday cottage, and stopped off for a mooch.

It does have a few issues that we were told about, you can only wind forward, so if the watch is 5 minutes fast you have to wind it on 11 hours and 55 minutes!  Cost £3 and the money went to breast cancer care, but I love these 60's 70's bark effect wind up cocktail watches and have a gold one which I bought as part of a job lot from ebay years ago.

I keep looking at throws and ponchos and wondering if I could tolerate wearing one, as I hate fussy clothing and things I have to keep adjusting.  This was a cheap way of finding out.  This camel coloured poncho was in a charity shop in Broadway on our way home from our holiday, half price at £1.75

  Lastly, my first chazza buy of 2017, a fab hippy Gringos top for £3.50, I'm already in love!

I'm working on the last Cotswold post as we speak, but brace yourselves, it's a long one.

I've also just sent off for a rather large M&S voucher, courtesy of my voucherback credit card, can't wait to get into a proper shop and pick up things for free! 

Have you had any good charity shop bargains so far this year?

Cotswolds part 2: ...and a pheasant in an Oak tree

Boxing Day morning was clear and cold.

  We wanted to travel down to Bibury, a village with an ancient row of pretty cottages, and home of William Morris.   

Bibury was gridlocked, we later found out they have a duck race along the river on Boxing Day (one to avoid in future)

No matter, onwards to Cirencester to find the Roman amphitheatre I had spotted on the map.  

Just outside the city walls the amphitheatre is now just a series of deeply sloping mounds, man made and where wooden seating would have been placed to hold the 8000 spectators.

 As you can see with OH for scale, it is quite big, I made a run for it up the slopes but didn't get far

With nowhere pretty nearby to stop for lunch, we turned back towards Bibury, where we found a parking space and had a look around.

I love Arlington Row, constantly being photographed by a myriad of tourists it is difficult to get a clear shot of the pretty 14th century wool store (converted to these weaver's cottages in the 17th century).

  Traditional view, I even managed to get the controversial yellow Corsa in the shot without realising it

My preferred view is looking the other way, what do you think?

William Morris lived opposite Arlington Row and his house is now a B+B, the adjoining house is a tea room where we sampled tea and cake, although it felt a little like Acorn Antiques (in a good way), with the clatter of cutlery hitting the floor every time a tray was taken into the kitchen 

 Despite the wobbly service, which just added to the charm of the place, the tea and cake was lovely, and it was nice to find somewhere open on Boxing Day

 Note the mismatched china, and every table had a different teapot

The sideboard at the end displays all the available cakes 

Well worth a visit if you are ever in Bibury

Outside and heading back to the car we noticed the evil black swan approaching down the river

He doesn't get on with the other waterfowl, and spits a lot

The following day was frosty, we had two morning visitors before we set out for the day, a pheasant in an oak tree

and a muntjac deer

We decided to set off for Bourton on the Water, another favourite place of mine, with the intention of visiting the miniature village there.  

Miniature Bourton, I'm outside Lloyds Bank

OH, by the miniature river

Real Bourton, almost the same place

Miniature Bourton again

Real Bourton again

We had a great time in the miniature village, spending almost an hour wandering round and round, it was a lovely place to visit and well worth the £3.60 entrance fee.

 The miniature version of the entrance to the miniature village

 Every shop is duplicated in miniature

There's a miniature village in the miniature village...

 and a miniature village in the miniature village in the miniature village!

Gulliver moment!

After an enjoyable stroll around the village, we were in need of lunch and so headed off to Stow on the Wold for something to eat.

Seems we were first into the dining room

 I love the wallpaper and thoughtfully appropriate Christmas decor

Lunch arrived, OH had a wild boar burger and I had a venison burger.  I'm not a big meat eater and at home sit in my comfort zone as far as food is concerned, but when we go out I like to push my boundaries and try different things

The short days of an English Winter meant it was soon time to head back to our holiday cottage, where the sunset was in full flow, complete with fog rolling in

One more post to come from our Cotswold Christmas holiday! 

Cotswold adventures part 1: Minster Lovell Hall

Attempting an escape from the over commercial ridiculousness that is Christmas in the 21st Century, we set off for the Cotswolds on 23rd December, meandering gently down the country to our holiday cottage for the week, in Oxfordshire.

We stopped in Broadway, Stow on the Wold and Burford along the way.

Burford, a small town on a steep hill with the usual selection of ancient golden Cotswold stone buildings leaning against each other, proved an interesting stop in the rain.

   

We quickly found ourselves in the basement of a grand building, mooching through stalls of new goods and second hand bric-a-brac, when I heard the strains of the Coventry Carol, and was drawn to a side room, where tables laid with jewellery and other trinkets were being sold to raise money for a breast cancer charity.  

    

I spotted this watch and was surprised to find it was for sale for just £3, it does have some issues that are not obvious but overall is in good condition.  I love watches in general rather than jewellery and especially non battery ones. I'm particularly partial to 60's and 70's cocktail watches, and have a gold colour one I bought on ebay many years ago.  It was a must have and the OH bought it for me!

We carried on to our holiday cottage for the week, an old converted barn in a very small village, but with a fabulous view.

The following day, Christmas Eve, we decided to head out to a nearby Medieval manor house, via a Roman villa, North Leigh.

North Leigh is the remains of a two thousand year old villa which had underfloor heating in 11 of its 16 rooms.  It is a free to enter site managed by English Heritage.  Not much remains of the building from above ground, but the footprint is clearly visible as you approach downhill towards it.

I can imagine what those Italian natives must have thought as I stood there in the biting December wind. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention.

The pillars holding the floors up and allowing the hot air to circulate are still obvious, two millennia later.

The villa was abandoned when the Romans withdrew from Britain in the 5th century.  The building you see on the right in the photo above was constructed to protect the original mosaic tiled floor from the elements.

 The information board gives a better idea of the overall look of the floor

As the building was locked, I pressed the camera up against the window and was surprised to get such clear shots

A last walk around and a look at the clearly defined rooms

We drove further in to the countryside, along single track roads with few passing places and finally came upon the village of Minster Lovell.  Through the churchyard we found the hall, it was quite a surprise to see it was so big, as again, it was free to enter.

 Original cobbled pathway 

Minster Lovell hall as you see it today is the remains of a medieval manor house built around 1430 by William, Baron of Lovell, after his return from the French wars.  

At the time William was one of the richest men in England thanks to good fortune and good marriage. 

William's son John was a servant of Henry VI and a prominent supporter of the Lancastrians and duly rewarded with the position of master forester in the nearby Royal forest. 

His own son Francis, was a favourite and ally of the Yorkist Richard III, and King Richard visited Minster Lovell frequently during his short reign. Francis Lovell attended the coronation of Richard III and was made a Viscount by the new king.

However, he was so close to the king that resentment grew in court towards him and two other favourites. Following the death of Richard III at Bosworth, the whereabouts of Viscount Lovell remain unknown to this day.

After Bosworth, the house was forfeited to the crown under Henry VII and used by the Tudors to house noblemen until it was sold in 1603 to a lawyer, Sir Edward Coke.

The river Windrush passes close by.

Descendants of Coke lived in the property until it was abandoned and part dismantled in the mid 1700's

39 feet high walls in the hall, complete with patchy plasterwork

Walking in the footsteps of a king.

It's my birthday tomorrow, the 3rd and I am 51 (eek!), so we are off out for a meal somewhere, and I have requested a day of chazzing, can't wait!

Join me soon for more tales from the Cotswolds.