The Annual Garden Show

Garden Shows are being held at this time

of the year organised by local garden associations

where gardeners can submit their produce 

to be judged as best in show.  There are different

categories so plenty of opportunity to be a successful winner.

As well as the vegetable categories there were

those for flowers, fruit, preserves, baking and

crafts as well as flower arranging and photography.

I admired the flower arranging exhibits.

It's a skill that I would love to learn

along with mastering knitting patterns.

So little time....

Baking is more my thing.

I'm not sure whether I would like to

have my cakes officially judged.

 The local school children received awards

for the herbs they had grown and for the

garden related pictures and samples

of felt butterfly pin cushions they had sewn

and decorated which was a small part

of a learning-through-activity project,

which is ongoing through the seasons.

Of course, a late Summer garden show

is not complete without the judging of the largest

sunflower head and the ceremony of handing out

the trophies, a cup of tea and home-made cake and chat

about gardening matters.

Mapledurham Mill

I found this old photo of Mapledurham House in my collection of local history papers about Berkshire and Oxfordshire.  It was taken in 1880.  There's also a quote from John Betjeman (1906-1984), one of my favourite poets, who said:

'Oh the peace I find as I walk in the charming village of Mapledurham, with its quaint old buildings

that take us down to the banks of the river Thames which gives a stillness that one cannot find today in many places.'

As you can see the mill hasn't changed over the years and indeed the basic framework structure of the 15th century mill still stands.  There is a sense of timelessness about the place even though there were many people there on the afternoon of our visit.  

Before the late 1600s the mill had one set of waterwheels and provided for the village community and neighbourhood in this rural backwater.  The water was fast flowing at this point by the weir and there would have been wooden bridges over channels further upstream to bring the corn across to the mill.  Later on a new channel was cut on the other side of the mill and a second wheel installed driving another pair of mill stones. The mill began to serve a wider community and a barn on raised 'straddle stones' was built on the bank of the upper millpond to hold flour for loading onto barges.  

Today Mapledurham Watermill is the last working corn and grist mill on the River Thames and is grinding flour with the old millstones that are turned by one of the waterwheels, electrically operated. Whole wheat and other varieties of flour can be bought in the shop on site. 

The wooden hub encases the grinding stones. The bell on a rope is an interesting and essential part of the system as it rings when the grain has reached a certain low level in the hopper. The system will then be switched off and the two grind stones will come to a halt. Friction between the stones without any grain to grind would damage them and also could cause a spark and fire which would be a disastrous situation in a building with so much wood.  (The wooden beams, for example, are part of the original building).

Coming down the ladder stairs you can see the water channel below and the water rushing over the wheel.

  

We bought some 'Miller's Mix' (a blend of semolina and bran)

After our tour and talk by the miller we wandered past the village church and back to the stable block courtyard of Mapledurham House where we had our cream tea with scones made with flour from the mill.

The tea room in the stable block which has an exhibition model
of the village as used in the movie The Eagle has Landed

In 1976 the movie The Eagle Has Landed was filmed in the village, in the church and by the mill starring Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Larry Hagman and Rober Duvall. 

Part of the model in the stable block showing a dramatic scene from The Eagle Has Landed.

  

A weekend by the river (2)

We had booked to take a boat trip on the River Thames as part of an afternoon visiting Mapledurham which is a village situated in Oxfordshire not far from Reading where there's an Elizabethan country house and working corn mill.

We waited on the bank of the river for the boat to arrive, but due to a steering problem which happened as the boat came into its mooring our trip upstream had to be cancelled. We're able to re- book for a day in the future when we can get together again and the extra time enabled us to take a leisurely stroll to the house and then back to the corn mill before enjoying a cream tea.

Mapledurham Weir

Mapledurham has belonged to the Blount family since 1490 and the present house was built between 1588 and 1609 by Sir Michael Blount.

The gardens were laid out and the great cedar tree planted about 1740. The parkland is designed in a naturalistic style due to the influence of the poet, Alexander Pope, who was a frequent visitor to the estate because of his friendship with two sisters, Martha and Theresa Blount.

A statue of Father Thames and huge fish (dolphin?) on the back lawn looked old and weathered and in the distance is an 18th century brick and flint fern house.

In the same area is an 18th century copy of The Pedlar by Giovanni da Bologna.

On either side of the front porch are magnolia grandiflora trees said to be the oldest pair in England and two stone urns (not shown) that had been designed and made for Pope's Twickenham garden.

Another tree of interest is a cedar growing in the parkland that was planted by the Queen Mother when she visited the house and on the day Prince William was born.

It was not possible to take photos inside the house which has many interesting items and 16th, 17th and 18th century portraits of the Blounts and their social circles and a chapel designed in a style of architecture known as the Strawberry Hill Gothick. The Blounts kept their allegiance to Roman Catholicism secret in times of persecution when Mapledurham was a safe house for fugitive priests. A priest hole where someone could be hidden was only just discovered in 2002. In fact, Mapledurham is in quite an isolated spot and even today there's only a long winding lane through the countryside to get to it and the present estate. The river would have been an alternative and better access or departure route.  Safe houses would have a secret sign somewhere on the building and at Mapledurham there's a small gable which is covered in oyster shells. It's so high up it can be seen from the river and it's the one in between the two tall chimneys in the photo below.

After our tour around the house we returned to the mill to hear a talk about its function today as a working enterprise.

Kenneth Graham, the author of Wind in the Willows lived in Pangbourne which is the next village located upstream on the River Thames. It's believed that Mapledurham House and Mill were the inspiration for Toad Hall in the book and the Wood is based on one nearby. More about the mill and our cream tea in the stable block next time!

A weekend by the river (1)

The weekend before this last one was an opportunity to spend time by the River Thames on two stretches of that beautiful river. On the Saturday afternoon we were in Kingston-upon-Thames to see a company from the National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) performing a new musical interpretation of Charles Dicken's Great Expectations and our twelve-year-old grandson was involved as one of the main characters. Kingston-on-Thames is an interesting Royal London Borough with the road bridge taking traffic over to the Hampton Court Park area across on the other bank of the river. Once there were only a few crossing places with a bridge over the river, but Kingston had one as it was an important Saxon settlement. I was interested to learn that many 10th century kings were crowned there including King Athelstan. Recently I read a novel set in Tudor times that includes a mystery and legend about his lost crown (The Crown - Nancy Bilyeau) and watched a documentary about him so I was intrigued to learn about the Kingston connection. The area is certainly an interesting one and maybe one day I shall return and explore further?

Across on the other bank is Hampton Court Park and a small tributary of the River Thames, the River Hogsmill meanders through Kingston and flows out into surrounding areas.  There are cafes, bars, restaurants, and smart apartments along the Charter Quay.

The Rose Theatre is to the extreme right

The River Hogsmill flows under the 13th century Clatten Bridge (Claterynbrugge)

This last photo was taken after the performance which we had very much enjoyed.