Wiltshire...

 ... another perfect week at Jasmine Cottage in Steeple Ashton....

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 'pocket cathedral' - St Mary's Steeple Ashton ..

 

 

 

 

 

Cley Hill, near Warminster, where there are bronze age bowl barrows, an iron age hillfort and strip lynchets from the middle ages, a beacon proclaimed the Spanish Armada from the summit....

 

 

 

 

..... and magnificent views in all directions ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...Bratton Camp revisited (one of my favourite places).....

 

 

 

My favourite white horse.... Westbury

 

 

.... this reminds me, I need to make an appointment with my stylist!

 

 

 

 

The Fovant Badges .... a series of regimental insignia have over the years been cut into the steep hillside of Fovant Down.  The first badges and emblems were cut during the First World War when soldiers were camped locally.  Some of the early figures - including a map of Australia and a kangaroo cut by Australian troops - have sadly not survived, however, the remaining ones can be seen from the A30 (source:- Wiltshire by Richard Sale).

 

 

 

I think he was as surprised to see a Townie as I was to see him ..

 

 

Chislebury Camp is round here somewheres....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next mission, should we decide to accept it (I'm showing my age now ... 'Mission Impossible' days!), will be to find it on our next trip to Wiltshire (along with Battlesbury Camp ... goodness knows where they've put it!).

 

Wilton was once the capital of Wessex.  This is the old St Mary's church, built in the 15th century, it is now redundant and maintained by the Churches' Conservation Trust....

 

 

 

In 1845 a new church, St Mary and St Nicholas was built which meant curtains for poor OLD St Mary's. 

 

But, what a building the new one is....!!   I had to blink a couple of times as I couldn't believe I was in leafy Wiltshire rather than Tuscany!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pixie thinks the only good cat is a stone cat ....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St John's Priory Chapel ...

 

 

 

 

 

Barbury Castle, another hillfort (I'm glad to say I'm obsessed) and is where Cynric is said to have defeated the Britons in 556 AD, it is on The Ridgeway which linked East Anglia with Wessex (completely understandable why folks from Suffolk have always wanted to visit Wiltshire!).......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hackpen Hill, on the Ridgeway .....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pepperbox Hill near Salisbury.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sir Robert Eyre the Lord Chief Justice an early owner of The Newhouse at Redlynch is responsible for the Pepper Box.....

 

 

 

Figsbury Ring .... an unusually designed iron age hillfort with a central Neolithic enclosure, there are fab views over Salisbury Plain, Old Sarum and Salisbury cathedral. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's always one isn't there .......

 

 

.... and off to Glastonbury again!  The Isle of Avalon...

 

 

 

A gentleman taking his cute goat for a walk, he said this was the goat's first trip out and he was taking it all in his stride, and posing very well for the photo .....

I want one!

 

 

What a fab place!