Monday-Tuesday, 1st - 2nd May

We awoke to a light drizzly rain.  The plan was for us to go to Newark-on-Trent (the "On -Trent" was added so you wouldn't confuse it with New Jersey) to see a re-enactment of one of the major battles of the Civil War (for you not familiar with England's history - King Charles I lost and was beheaded in 1649).  The idea of standing in the rain to watch a re-enactment of battle that we didn't understand wasn't very exciting.  So, we changed the plan and went to see the Lincoln Castle.

For a brief history of the English Civil War click HERE

There are three major tourist attractions in Lincoln: Lincoln Castle, Lincoln Cathedral, and The Museum of Lincolnshire Life.  As a feature during the May Day Weekend the Museum of Lincolnshire Life was having a live steam display.  We also planned to have lunch out - all of us were hungry for Fish and Chips. We got to Lincoln and decided to do the Museum first.  As we approached the Museum we spotted a gigantic steam driven Steam Roller chugging down the road, billowing black smoke.  A glace into the courtyard showed all kinds of motion, smoke, steam, noise and coal/oil smells. For me it was like the circus had come to town.

Immediately inside the courtyard was a large diesel driven "steam shovel" moving dirt.  But the real prize was next in line - a genuine "steam shovel".  The steam shovel wasn't operational but all the pieces were there.  Next in line was a whole row of small engines.  Most of the small engines were running, even though they weren't connect to anything. (correction - some were attached to pumps)

The Museum had displays on three sides of the courtyard.  We started at the right wing and worked our way counter-clockwise.  The first exhibits were household rooms displaying 19th and 20th century artifacts.  This display gave way to several rooms dedicated to World War I.  The rooms featured uniforms, weapons and memorabilia from several of the locally based military units.

The prize of the fixed museum was the shed at the courtyard end -- a large room filled with equipment.  It started with wagons, carriages, a 1925 Morris and a horse draw military hearse for the coffin and family in one vehicle.  The next room featured tractors, more wagons, and farm equipment.  Of course, Nancy was drawn to the wool equipment.

We found one piece of equipment in the wool exhibit that we just couldn't figure out.  The piece of equipment in question is shown in the picture below.  The piece was a fairly lightweight iron frame with a hand crank and a gear train leading to a single spindle.  The last set in the gear train was a smooth face miter at the base of the spindle.  We called on the docents and they scratched their heads and admitted that they had no clue as to its function.  We left them muttering among themselves, poking and guessing.  Never did get an answer, but Nancy is pretty sure it was for spinning flax (linen after it is twisted).

The real prize of the whole museum was a World War I tank.  Lincolnshire claims to have invented track driven vehicles.  The track design was later imported to the US and named "caterpillar tracks".  I don't know about the veracity of the claims to having invented the caterpillar tractor but there is no question that the Tank was invented in Lincolnshire.  The British tank broke the stalemate of the war's trench warfare and since the Germans had no defense against the tank, ended World War I.

The tank as shown carried a crew of eight men.  The machine was hot, noisy, crowded, and rough riding.  But the biggest hazard was the carbon monoxide exhaust from the engine that led to the deaths of many of the military men who crewed it. We spent way too much time at the museum and by the time we left we were ready for lunch.  Finding a Fish and Chip stand in England is easy - except on a Bank Holiday.  We wandered about town and found several closed fish and chip places and then asked one of the locals.  He suggested that the "walking street" between the castle and the cathedral should have food even on a bank holiday. We headed in that direction and found a man handing out flyers for a restaurant that he claimed had the best fish and chips in England.  We tried the restaurant and their food was pretty good but the service was lousy.  Even with hors d'oeuvres of soup and rolls, by the time lunch finally came we were ready to eat the table.  And then to add insult to injury - we didn't have time enough left to visit the castle. We dithered a bit - to have come this far and just go home seemed out of the question.  The area around the castle and between the castle and the cathedral has been preserved as an old town - narrow cobblestone streets and a very steep hill down to a newer part of town.  We wandered around for a bit and found an old bookstore. All four of us love bookstores and this was a pip. It was crowded, narrow isles and piles of books, stacks of books and bookcases crammed with books.  We also found stacks of really old maps - fun stuff.

The Lincoln Cathedral is magnificent and is said to have been involved with the filming of the "Da Vinci Code".  The Castle was hidden from view by its ramparts.  The restaurant was up against the outer wall but that is as close as we got.  Our main interest in the Lincoln Castle was the Magna Carta.  King John was said to have signed the Magna Carta at Lincoln Castle and one of four originals is housed there.  Maybe we can go to the Lincoln Castle and Cathedral another time we visit with Bruce and Pam before they leave mid-June. On our way back to the car, we stumbled onto a site that hadn't been in any of our literature.  The "old town" of Lincoln had been built on the site of an old Roman town.  There is no way that anyone was willing to dig it up to explore those ruins.  The compromise was to leave the discovery site exposed and build a monument around it.  The hole exposes an ancient well built around the first or second century AD.

For more information on the Magna Carta click HERE

We headed home and spent a quiet eve.  Tuesday, we headed home to Bristol - the flat really does feel like home.  The drive to the train took over an hour, partly because of road construction and partly because of B&P's house is out in the "boonies".   B&P assured us that our choice of station was as good as could be done and they didn't mind. We got to Bristol about four o'clock to find that our normal bus home had been re-routed and got caught in a gridlock.  The new route takes the bus up the hill a couple of blocks from City Centre and then back down the hill two blocks later heading the wrong way - this  forces the bus to make a "U - turn" in the middle of the Centre square.  In addition, the route has been shortened by taking away the leg that went to Clifton.  We got home around five o'clock. It was about the same amount of time to get home from the train station that B&P had spent getting us to the station at the other end. The train ride was only two hours long.  Oh well - we're not in any hurry.

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