For this years Heritage Open Days, we visited a few places in Coventry and Kenilworth, choosing places we hadn't been to before. We went to a few places in Coventry on saturday. Although we had been to Kenilworth quite a few times, we had never actually been to Abbey Fields, so we went there on the sunday.
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The Charterhouse, the remains of a 14th century priory just outside Coventry city centre, was open to the public today. The Charterhouse Preservation Trust is trying to find a use for the building which keeps it available for the public. City College had tried to sell the building but when it was bequeathed to the city it was supposed to be used for public education. There is more info on the BBC News website from last year with an update from earlier this week.
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While we were in Asda they did the 2-minute silence over the shop tannoy, and I think everyone stood silently and observed it. It must have been strange for people coming into the shop and finding everyone standing silent and still, but fortunately nobody seemed to be confused by it. The only thing disturbing the silence was the self-checkout machines repeatedly asking for confirmation since the people checking out their shopping had temporarily stopped and the machines were getting confused by it.
We went to nearby Baginton for this years Heritage Open Day. Within a short distance there were several sites, including the Electric Train Museum and Bagot's Castle, neither of which are normally open to the public. We also visited Airbase, where they had a selection of vintage aircraft on display.
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Black Country Living Museum |
Story location: Home / Blog / birmingham / |
| 03/Sep/2011 |
We continued yesterday's theme of visiting somewhere new, this time we drove west to the Black Country Living Museum. This is similar to Blists Hill at Ironbridge with a similar range of displays and shops.
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Some photos from Wroxeter, near Shrewsbury.
A view of the roman baths.
A reconstruction of a roman villa.
Some photos from the Llywernog Lead Mine near Aberystwyth. There are two parts to the tour: a self-guided part where you walk around reading the information boards, and a guided tour underground. The underground part was very wet but very intersting.
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Some photos from this year's Festival of History.
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Birmingham Back to Backs |
Story location: Home / Blog / birmingham / |
| 22/Nov/2009 |
I was going to say that the Birmingham Back to Back houses were more interesting that I expected, but I didn't really know what to expect. The guided tour takes about an hour and you go through 4 different houses and one shop, decorated from different periods from the early 19th century through to the 1970s.
Walking from New Street station, we got to the houses much quicker than I was expecting. I recognised the stretch of Hurst Street but I didn't remember seeing the houses there before. I must have walked past them a dozen times without noticing them.
They were built when the surrounding area was still fields. None of the houses had running water - all the water had to come from the nearby 'Lady Well'. It isn't easy to imagine what the city was like back then but the short tour gave some interesting insights into the growth of the city.
Our only regret was that we missed out on visiting the sweet shop on the corner. It hadn't opened when we arrived, and was closed for lunch when we left.
Some photos from our day out to the Ironbridge Gorge Museums.
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A few photos from Warwick Castle, mainly falconry and some peacocks.
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Mainly photos of a man falling off a camel.
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