Day 6 Family History & Stonehenge
Today was spectacular! After we left Weymouth in Dorset, we headed north to Charminster. This is the place where we know that our immigrant ancestor, Richard Norman, originated from. He came over around 1625 and settled in Massachusetts. So I figured that the oldest church in town, St. Mary's Church, might have been the church he attended, and made plans to visit there.
The church was built in the late 1100's. Incredible. We walked around outside for a bit first, and then I went up to the door just to see if it would open. If it did, then I would look around inside for someone to get permission from to look around. Well, it opened. And nobody was inside. So we got our own private tour. It was absolutely incredible. (see the video tour in the link below)
We walked around in the cemetery outside, too, but did not find any Normans buried there. Most of the headstones were actually from the 1800's, but I did find a couple from the 1700s. The earliest one was for someone who died in 1729.
After we finished at the church, we went on another explore. This time, it was to find Wolveton House. Charmaine had read on Wikipedia this morning that one of the early owners was Richard Norman before he immigrated to the U.S. So we set out to find the old house on foot from the church.
As it turned out, we did find it. And after knocking loudly on the huge front door a couple times, and no answer, I decided to just walk around taking a few pictures. It's a house that is regularly open to the public for tours, so I figured it wouldn't be a huge shocker to wander a bit outside. As we were heading back the way we came, I noticed an older man walking from an outbuilding toward the house. I stopped off to talk to him for a bit. His name is Nigel Thimbleby. He was hard of hearing, but is the current owner of the house. He was able to recite all the owners of the house down to the present day, and according to him, Richard Norman was not on the list. So that was disappointing. But we had a lovely visit with him.
We trekked back to our car and then headed north up to Stonehenge. The address that our tickets had on it is the address we used for the GPS. Well, it actually took us PAST the turnoff for Stonehenge, and as we continued on the highway we could actually SEE Stonehenge from the road! So we took a few pictures as we drove on by, and then had to find a place at the next town to turn around and head back. Ha Ha. Silly GPS and incorrect address!
But we made it there okay, so no worries. It was an incredible photographic opportunity this afternoon. Lots of storm clouds, and lighting peeking through at times, that made for some beautiful photos. TONS of people there from all over the world. And when I was purchasing a few items in the gift shop, the lady at the register commented on how quiet it was today. I said, "Wow. It sure seems busy to me!" She explained how summer is their busy season and during those days they will service 10,000 people EACH DAY!! So today seemed quiet and manageable to her. WOW. They get 1.5 MILLION visitors each year. Pretty impressive!
Then we drove on to Bath, where we will be for a couple of days. It is incredible here. We've only been here a few hours, but I can tell this will be a really FAB place to explore. It's huge, but we are right next to the downtown and the Pulteney Bridge. It's literally about a 2 minute walk from our Air BnB apartment. Our host, John, is super nice and was very helpful with getting us all situated.
Highlights of the day:
Quietly wandering around St. Mary's Church and feeling connected to the past
Stonehenge - and thinking about how old some things really are on this planet
Being done driving for a couple of days (here we will walk everywhere we need to go)
Laughing at some of the signs we saw today
Here is a link to the album:
Tomorrow: seeing the old Roman Baths, stand up paddle boarding at Pulteney Bridge, and NOT DRIVING!!
Love,
Michele
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