Rockaway to Round Tables & Rage Against the Museum
Wanderings in Deepest Wessex
So, 2nd of January and my plan to not really drink on New Year’s Day so as to be fresh for a drive down south did not go entirely according to plan. And so it is, feeling slightly jaded, that I set out for a long trek to the south coast. To add insult to injury, it has snowed overnight so the combination of slow moving traffic, low sun and salt spray make the journey an absolute delight.
No matter, I am off for a weekend of live music and quaffing with an old friend, so all is good. Destination: Bognor Regis (where I have never been before but, as my friend pointed out, has always been something of a joke name for us and hence the mere thought of visiting raises a smile) and specifically Butlins for the Rockaway Festival. The holiday camp festival is an interesting phenomenon but ideally suited to a more mature (?) audience who appreciate a bed to sleep in and exchanging of the mosh pit for comfortable seating at a stage-side table where a nice bottle of wine can be enjoyed.
The line up is a mixture of old and new bands but, although there are plenty of younger folk in attendance, the demographic is definitely skewed towards the more “seasoned” gig goers.
With just two main venues, there is no rushing from stage to stage, so the whole affair is very relaxed. Probably as a consequence of the demographic, it is also the politest festival I have ever been to. Add in good music, a lack of excessive standing and some nice restaurants in Bognor (which seems like a very pleasant town from what I saw) and it all makes for a fine weekend. Of course you can also make use of the fairground during the day but sub-zero go-karting holds little appeal.
Sadly I did have a minor OCD outbreak, whilst watching Softplay…
They will always be Goftplay to me. Wouldn’t dream of mentioning it of course as they seem like quite angry young men.
Now because I had travelled so far (and also in part because Amex were giving 10% cash back on stays in Wetherspoons hotels), I felt that it would be a shame to rush back and so decided to explore some history whilst I was in the centre of King Alfred’s Wessex. Also, I had never been to Winchester, so time to tick that off methinks.
A stop in Winchester McDonalds for a late breakfast and I couldn’t help but feel that this must have been what it was like in an earthy Saxon tavern in Alfred’s day, so I am instantly transported into the zone.
Main business of the day (besides seeing the Alfred statue of course) is to get to the Great Hall to see the actual round table of King Arthur. Well I say actual round table, but analysis has dated it to about 1250 or so. Darn pesky, meddling science! The theory seems to be that it was created by Edward I. Medieval kings were very keen to try and associate themselves with King Arthur and tap into the national love affair with Arthurian myths. I guess it was the medieval equivalent of populism.
It may be a faux table (well clearly it was actually a table, just not THE table), but is still an impressive beast, weighing in at about a ton or so. The Hall itself is also pretty grand and was used a law court for much of its history - including being the site of the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh for treason in 1603.
Then a few more museums to maximize my combined ticket…
Less said about the Westgate Museum the better - although mainly because access to the tower was blocked due to the weather.
The main City museum is pretty good. It shows the history of Winchester from neolithic times, though to the Roman settlement of Venta Belgarum and its decline once the Romans moved on and then into Saxon times and the eventual rise of Winchester as the capital of Wessex. I quite like the fact that they have avoided spicing things up with reference to the wildly popular Netflix series, “The Last Kingdom”. When I visited Bamburgh Castle a while back, they had no shame with regards to leveraging the connection.
After a little more wandering around the town and the cathedral (but not actually in the cathedral as £14 seemed a bit steep to see a shrine to Jane Austen and a box with possibly the bones of Cnut). I decide to head up to the St. Catherine’s Hill, the ancient hill fort which predated the Roman settlement.
From the car park, it didn’t look as though it was too much of a climb, so I eschewed putting on my walking boots or taking walking poles with me. This turned out not to be the smartest move as I headed up the clearly very popular path, now nicely trampled into compacted snow. Getting up was largely OK, but I must have cut an interesting figure on my way down with my micro-step shuffle and constant criss-crossing to the edges of the path where there was some limited grip.
Great view from the top though, although not much left of the hill fort other than a few mounds… and an odd little maze that had been constructed.
And so on to Salisbury and my hotel for the night. After New Year and a weekend festival, I was very much not in the market for any drinking and so my first ever stay at a Wetherspoons Hotel was marked by a pint of lemonade with my evening meal. Oh the shame.
Salisbury is a very attractive city and I spent some time wandering around it in the morning amidst the snow flurries. I had checked out of the hotel a little earlier than I needed to and so, had time to kill before the Salisbury Museum opened. I was quite keen to visit this as, from what I had read, it has some interesting Saxon collections and artifacts from Stonehenge.
Sadly it did not turn out that way. When I turned up at the museum, it was still closed. A chap opened the door, but just to tell me to go away and come back at 10. This was at 9:57 and I was stood in the snow. I felt that was a poor effort and I did not like the cut of his jib! Hence in a fit of stubbornness I decided that they did not deserve my patronage and instead headed off towards Woodhenge.
This turned out not to be the worst decision as it gave me more time to wander around the ancient landscape and the sun even appeared as I got there. My original intention had been to go to Woodhenge and Durrington Walls [This is the biggest henge in Europe and the site of the city where the people who built Stonehenge lived for the duration. Recent discoveries show more stone circles and ceremonial sites buried here, but it has not been excavated] and then walk across the landscape to Stonehenge.
After wandering around Durrington Walls for a while, I decided that it was chuffing cold and I would drive to Stonehenge. Now I do have English Heritage membership and so can get in via the visitor centre free, but today I wanted to just approach it from the landscape and so found myself driving through a military housing estate and along a fairly rough access road to see how close I could get. You can actually walk up pretty near to Stonehenge without having to pay to go in (basically paying just gets you one fence further in, but not to the stones obviously), although I had to park a ways back as there were quite a few trucks and caravans parked up along the road - I am assuming people who came for the winter solstice and hung around. I’m not sure I would have been up for camping in that weather. I did see that some hardy soul had pitched a tent in the woods near Woodhenge. Brrrr.
Anyway, always good to visit Stonehenge, even though I tend to prefer Avebury, it being more accessible and all. It was a pleasant stroll, only slightly marred by one of the traveler’s attack dogs taking a dislike to me.
Good to start the year with a mini trip. Since getting back I have been sucked into airline sales and trying to make use of air miles before they expire and so seem to have booked trips to Orkney, Tenerife and Atlantis the Azores so far.
I seem to be gearing up for “um ano de ilhas” (yes, I’ve been learning some Portuguese, get over it), randomly targeting small archipelagos. Not intentional of course, just following my usual guiding stars of spectacular scenery and ancient or weird stuff…
Let’s see what the year brings…