Last year's nostalgia trip.
I visited my brother last year and I stopped at a couple of places on the way that brought back childhood memories of journeys from Lincolnshire to Somerset and back during school holidays.
Banbury was one of Dad's favourite stopping places to use the loos and buy Banbury cakes from one of the many cake shops there. Alas I didn't find any on this trip. (Cakes that is). I did find the (most peculiar) single person gentlemen's urinals though.
A Fine Lady from (one of several versions of) the eighteenth century rhyme. Nobody is quite sure whether she was a member of the local Fiennes family, or represented the Queen of the May who would lead Pagan May Day processions.
Banbury Cross, but not the one from the rhyme because this one was built about a century after the rhyme first appeared.
King George the 5th (I think). He lives at the base of the cross along with King Ted the 7th and Queen Adelaide (aka Queen Vic).
Taken in the late fifties, Dad's delux four door limousine parked roughly where I parked on my journey, with the cross in the background. There were four of us plus luggage and it took us about nine hours in those pre-motorway days to get to Granny's house. Such fun!
The splendid dome of Saint Mary's church.
Another view of the church tower showing the imposing entrance.
Two hephalumps at a nearby restaurant. Presumably the poor things are chained up so they can't wander off.
Bill the Bard. I thought he was much taller.
Next stop, Waltham where my brother and I grew up and went to school. For those of you who are fans of Strictly, it is the village where Kevin and Joanne Clifton grew up as well.
The windmill lost a sail in a gale during WW1. The one the other side was removed to balance it and it ran as a four sailed mill for decades. The badge of the junior school I went to showed the mill with four sails.
The mill was later restored to full working order with six sails and the school badge was changed accordingly.
During WW2 the mill was used as a Home Guard lookout tower. Then the air ministry turned up with sledgehammers and axes because they thought it was a hazard to the (very) nearby bomber airbase. The farmer saw them off with threats of violence and a shotgun. The airfiled is now long gone, but the mill still remains.
On reflection, I prefer her with six sails. Windmills, like ships, are always referred to as female.
The local All Saints church, diagonally opposite from where my family and I lived. We never got a lie-in on a Sundegg morning once the bell-ringers started to perform their craft.
I once went up onto the roof of the tower during a school trip.
One of the locals enjoying a day off.
Memory lane. There used to be several air raid shelters along here where my friends and I would play.
After that I headed north to York where my big brother now lives.