Castle Combe

After our long walk at Symonds Yat yesterday we had a bit of a slow start to Sunday. We just don't bounce back as quickly as we would like. It was the end of daylight saving which means we are now 13 hours behind New Zealand, we were in mourning with all other Wellington rugby fans and it had rained heavily all night - so there wasn't much incentive to get up early (an endurance race in the Lake District was stopped due to floods, winds and hypothermic temperatures apparently all 2000 runners were o.k. by the end of the day). In the afternoon we took a drive to Castle Combe (home of a car race track) but also we had been told a cute little village (described by many as the 'prettiest village in the Cotswolds' - I'm not so sure - Bradford on Avon would be my winner). We wandered the main street of the town (which started out as a wool making and weaving town (the mill sat by the little river at the bottom of the main road which we crossed using a little stone bridge), after driving through lanes of trees covered in autumn leaves, and ventured to the hotel (and golf course). All the buildings appear to be around 15th Century - and quite posh - afternoon tea at the hotel was £9 per person - besides the cost we did think that track pants and leg warmers weren't quite the attire for the occasion. We enjoyed wandering around the hotel garden (deck chairs, sun umbrellas were out in the hope of some sunshine which did come a bit later) and the little church that sat alongside the mansion. The church had a working clock in it - one of the first - and put in the church they reckon around 15th Century when the church tower was built. A few years ago they bought the clock down so that everyone could see it. It has no face, and on the hour a large bell chimed to let those working in the field know when dinner time, going home time and 'get to work in the morning' time. Electricity does the winding now but before 1984 a man climbed daily to the top of the tower to wind it. The other interesting fact was that Sir John Eldon Gorst was buried in the church and he was amongst other things Civil Commissioner to the Waikato (yes that one in NZ) in 1861-63.

On the economy side the worsening financial crisis continues to hit the news. GDP fell by 0.5% in the September quarter - which means that England is either officially in or heading for a recession - worse than the 1990's they reckon. House prices have plummetted 40% in a few months which means many people have mortgages far greater than their house is worth (how can banks lend up to 120% of the value of the house I wonder). Anyway, we saw some lovely little houses in Castle Combe, which somehow I think will not fall as greatly due to their history and character (crooked roof lines, exposed wooden beams, stable doors opening onto the road). I was fascinated to read that in 1960 Dr Dolittle was filmed in Castle Combe and in the nearby village, Lacton, Pride and Prejudice was filmed.



The Castle Combe race track is well known, but today there were no car races in sight but a novel sport we had not seen before. Roller skiing. We watched a couple of races, thought it would be a good sport for skiers to keep fit during summer and decided it looked like hard work. Originally the racetrack was an airfield. After World War Two it was converted to a racetrack where people such as Stirling Moss (known as 'the greatest driver never to win the world championships') and John Surtees (the only person to have won world championships on both two and four wheels) raced. In 1997 Nigel Greensall drove a new lap record of 130.93 miles per hour (that is faster than the Peregrine we read about yesterday). During that time trial a spectator was killed and the owners decided to install chicanes to slow cars down. However Formula Three continued to race there until 2005 when it was issued with a noise nuisance order and now only local championships are held and a yearly Formula Ford Carnival.