And Now For Something Completely Different!
I thought I'd give you a quick whistle-stop tour of where I live. In an attempt to get a bit fitter this year and lose some of the weight I have put on as a result of the last few years of ill health, I have started to take regular walks each day. There is so much to see and a lot of history attached to the town I live in.
Warning - picture heavy post
Pronounced 'Toaster', Towcester is on the Roman Road The Watling Street/A5 and is one of the oldest established settlements in Northamptonshire.
This is what you see when you turn right at the top of my drive
We start walking down the old Northampton Road
The wall you can see is the boundary of Easton Neston Estate, once the home of Lord Hesketh, owner of Hesketh Racing, the last privately owned Formula 1 racing team (James Hunt was their driver) to win a F1 Grand Prix.
Sir Henry St George was the Chief Herald who lived at Easton Neston and designed the Union Jack in 1801
This is one of a pair of Gatehouses that mark the entrances of the estate.
At the end of the Northampton Road we turn left onto Watling Street
and you can see The Saracen's Head Inn. This is the very inn that Mr Pickwick stayed in in Charles Dickens' Novel, Pickwick Papers!
The 'Pickled Pig' that you can see on the right of this picture was 'The Pickwick Tea Rooms' until about 4 years ago and local rumour has it that Dickens wrote part of Pickwick Papers there. He also stayed regularly at The Saracens Head.
St Lawrence Church was built in the 12th Century and is thought to occupy the site of a substantial Roman public building. It also has the largest peal of bells in the country (12 for all you campanologists out there).
Pope Boniface VIII (1235-1303) - Benedict Cajetan, was Rector of St. Lawrence's Towcester until he became Pope in 1294.
The Town Hall was also the Corn Exchange and sits on the Market Square. One of the banks was also opened by a local wool and silk merchant
This is looking back up through the town centre.
Towcester also had it's own cinema built by the first Lord Hesketh in 1939. Sadly it was demolished in the 1980's and replaced by sheltered housing.
Well you'll all sleep better tonight for reading this!
Normal knitting posts will be resumed shortly...
Warning - picture heavy post
Pronounced 'Toaster', Towcester is on the Roman Road The Watling Street/A5 and is one of the oldest established settlements in Northamptonshire.
This is what you see when you turn right at the top of my drive
We start walking down the old Northampton Road
The wall you can see is the boundary of Easton Neston Estate, once the home of Lord Hesketh, owner of Hesketh Racing, the last privately owned Formula 1 racing team (James Hunt was their driver) to win a F1 Grand Prix.
Sir Henry St George was the Chief Herald who lived at Easton Neston and designed the Union Jack in 1801
This is one of a pair of Gatehouses that mark the entrances of the estate.
At the end of the Northampton Road we turn left onto Watling Street
and you can see The Saracen's Head Inn. This is the very inn that Mr Pickwick stayed in in Charles Dickens' Novel, Pickwick Papers!
The 'Pickled Pig' that you can see on the right of this picture was 'The Pickwick Tea Rooms' until about 4 years ago and local rumour has it that Dickens wrote part of Pickwick Papers there. He also stayed regularly at The Saracens Head.
St Lawrence Church was built in the 12th Century and is thought to occupy the site of a substantial Roman public building. It also has the largest peal of bells in the country (12 for all you campanologists out there).
Pope Boniface VIII (1235-1303) - Benedict Cajetan, was Rector of St. Lawrence's Towcester until he became Pope in 1294.
The Town Hall was also the Corn Exchange and sits on the Market Square. One of the banks was also opened by a local wool and silk merchant
This is looking back up through the town centre.
Towcester also had it's own cinema built by the first Lord Hesketh in 1939. Sadly it was demolished in the 1980's and replaced by sheltered housing.
Well you'll all sleep better tonight for reading this!
Normal knitting posts will be resumed shortly...
posted by Knitting@number9 at Wednesday, January 10, 2007
4 Comments:
thanks for the virtual walk! ahving been stuck inside all day, this is a lovely treat to come home to.
Towcester looks lovely...I shall have to look up some of it's history. It is my resolution to walk more too .
Thank you for the history lesson, I love all the history Europe has and the little towns..
Thank you for the tour! I love how the internet allows me to visit from rural USA places I can only dream of going! (Sorry if this appears twice... I am not loving the new blogger way of commenting...)
Post a Comment
<< Home