Rutland Visit - Part One

Thursday evening was spent over at my brother’s place. We had a spaghetti dish washed down with wine. Friday morning we caught the 11.04 train from Brighton station to St. Pancras, and then transferred to an East Midlands train to Leicester, and finally a Cross Country train to Oakham. We then caught a taxi to Uppingham. Arrived at the Crown Inn at about 3pm.





Dinner was going to be at 7pm so i took the opportunity to go on a walkabout.

I popped into an Age UK charity shop which doubled-up as a coffee shop selling cakes ,teas and coffee.  I bought a book for £1 , Julian Barnes “Flaubert’s Parrot” (Picador). I then had a poke around the Loros secondhand bookshop opposite and picked up a copy of the Ian Fleming book “Casino Royale” (Penguin Modern Classics).



Afterwards, I had a beer at The Vaults, and one brewed by themselves., which was called Vaults Ale I think, about 3.6 %  ABV, hence a good session beer.



I took some photos around the compact little town, or offically a village, as it only has a population of 3,500. These will be n a separtae blo.

Before dinner, Mike and I had a few beers. Being an Everards tied house we started with the Tiger beer (4.8 % ABV). During dinner I had a pint of their Original (5.2% ABV).

They also had guest ales and thus i had  a pint of Castle Rock  Preservation Ale (4.4 % ABV). In total, including the one at the Vaults i had seven pints of beer that evening. I might have kept up up my borther a bit with my loud snoring when we retired to bed.

Rutland Visit - Part Two

On Saturday we took a taxi towards Rutland Water for the Birdfair. Beforehand we had a full English breakfast with Lincolnshire sausages, well I did, as Mike does not like herby sausages.



It was a really hot and humid day over at the fair, and the marquees trapped the heat further, making it feel like you were sweating inside a sauna.. You were grateful for whatever little breezes that might have occurred. We was going to stay the six hours but could only manage four due to the heat.



Infact the coolest marquee was the one with all the optics in, and I presumed,it was due to the fact that the big companies such as Nikon, Zeiss, Swarovski, Leica, Wenger and Minox, had the expenditure to keep their employees cool. From that marquee you could look out acroos to Rutland Water and study the wildlife.




From one of the stands I purchased a book to obtain a free muslin bag. It was called “Tales Of A Tabloid Twitcher” by Stuart Winter (New Holland Publishers). I also picked up a T shirt for a quid as it was the last one on the Dutch Birding stand.



Other stands had second hand books and the other purchase I made was “Birdwatching In Kent” by Don Taylor (Meresborough Books).

Mike also bought a few books, a porcelain bird sculpture and an original wildlife painting. These paintings look so good that you would be mistaken for them as being phtographs.



My favourite was this one -




Back in Uppingham I went out again to take more photographs.These will be on part three.

Rutland Visit - Part Three

Rutland is the smallest county in England, and once got swallowed up by the redrawing of county lines into Leicestershire, much to the annoyance of the locals. But now its county status has been secured, and I for one welcome it. The locals are friendly and welcoming.






It used to have a branch line by rail from Seaton but closed down in 1964 when Beeching did his swingeing cuts. It is also famous for the independent Uppingham School which was founded in 1584.


Going towards Uppingham school.



Uppingham School.


Another fine old ale house just round the corner from the school.


The small Rutland bookshop along the High Street leading up to the school.


Another good shop to browsw around and I love the door message here -




Uppingham post office.


The High Street and The market Square


The High Street going towards the Crown Inn.


We left Uppingham just before midday to get to Oakham station for the return journey back to Brighton. The Sunday was just as hot and humid, made worse with the extra items we bought that we had to carry.Arrived at Brighton 4.15 pm.



Oakham station