Lower Slaughter

I like driving and I like visiting little villages in the middle of nowhere. Lower Slaughter is one of those villages you could spend all day in.
Lower Slaughter is a village in the English county of Gloucestershire, located in the Cotswold district, 4 miles (6.4 km) south west of the town of Stow-on-the-Wold.
The village is built on both banks of the River Eye, which also flows through Upper Slaughter. At the west end of the village there is a 19th-century water mill with an undershot waterwheel and a chimney for additional steam power. There is a ford where the river widens in the village and several small stone footbridges join the two sides of the community. While the mill is built of red brick most of the 16th and 17th century homes in the village use Cotswold sandstone and are adorned with mullioned windows and often with other embellishments such as projecting gables.
Records exist showing that Lower Slaughter has been inhabited for over 1000 years. The Domesday Book entry has the village name as "Sclostre". It further notes that in 1066 and 1086 that the manor was in the sheriff's hands.^[1]
Lower Slaughter Manor, a Grade-II listed 17th-century house, was granted to Sir George Whitmore in 1611 and remained in his family until 1964.
The 13th century Anglican parish church is dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin. Much of the current structure was built in 1866; however, the spire and peal of six bells was recently restored.^[2]
In May 2013 it was reported in the national news that the Parish Council were fiercely opposed to the presence of an icebox tricycle selling ice creams for seven days a week, six months of the year, citing that the trading times were excessive, increased footfall would prevent the grass from growing and that children could climb on the trike and fall into the nearby river.^[3]

Amberley Castle and Village

Recently I went on a visit to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu (see previous post) I stayed down south and made a visit to Amberley Castle where I spent the night. Also had a pleasant walk into the local village of Amberley.

Amberley is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England.
Amberley is situated at the foot of the South Downs. Its neighbours are Storrington, West Chiltington and Arundel. The village is noted for its many thatched cottages. The house named "The Thatched House" is one of the village's few non-thatched houses.
One of the attractions in Amberley is Amberley Working Museum.
Amberley has its own railway station on the Arun Valley Line, with regular services to Bognor Regis, Portsmouth and London.
To the north of the village is the tidal plain of the River Arun, known as Amberley Wild Brooks. This wetland area is a Site of Special Scientific Interest which floods in winter and is known for its wildfowl. Good views can be had from the Sportsman Pub at the east end of the village, known as crossgates. The Black Horse in the centre of the village often has Morris Dancing in Summer. Amberley also has a castle, which is now a Hotel. The 'castle' is in fact a fortified manor House next to which is a Norman Church, the Parish Church of St Michael.

The Pepper Papers (1899–1978) give an insight into Amberley's history as a producer of Lime, with 1904 correspondence between Peppers and companies interested in shipping Amberley chalk to North America. In 1929-35, a campaign tried to prevent the despoilation of Amberley by the erection of pylons and overhead power cables, looking at the financing of the alternative scheme of laying low tension underground cables. Frank Pepper had regular correspondence with Arthur Rackham who had lived nearby, and John Galsworthy from Bury, West Sussex regarding the campaign to save Bury Coombe. Letters between 1926 and 1959 document claims to a public right of way over a footpath through the Amberley Castle grounds.

Here are a few photos of the castle (hotel) and of the local village.

National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.

A visit to the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, Hampshire.

The museum was founded in 1952 by Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, as a tribute to his father, who was one of the great pioneers of motoring in the United Kingdom, being the first person to drive a motor car into the yard of the Houses of Parliament, and having introduced King Edward VII (then the Prince of Wales) to motoring during the 1890s.
At first the museum consisted of just five cars and a small collection of automobilia displayed in the front hall of Lord Montagu's ancestral home, Palace House, but such was the popularity of this small display that the collection soon outgrew its home and was transferred to wooden sheds in the grounds of the house. The reputation and popularity of the Beaulieu collection continued to grow: during 1959 the museum's "attendance figures" reached 296,909.^[1]
By 1964, annual attendance exceeded half a million and a decision was taken to create a purpose-built museum building in the grounds of the Beaulieu estate.^[2] A design committee chaired by the architect Sir Hugh Casson was created to drive the project, and the architect Leonard Manasseh was given the contract for the design of the building.^[2]
By 1972, the collection exceeded 300 exhibits.^[3] In a ceremony performed by the Duke of Kent the new purpose-built museum building in the parkland surrounding Palace House was opened on 4 July 1972:^[4] the name was changed to the National Motor Museum, reflecting a change of status from a private collection to a charitable trust and highlighting Montagu's stated aim to provide Britain with a National Motor Museum "worthy of the great achievements of its motor industry".^[4] The opening of the museum coincided with the UK launch of the Jaguar XJ12 which made it an appropriate week for celebrating the UK motor industry.^[4] The museum is run by the National Motor Museum Trust Ltd, a registered charity.^[5]
Today, in addition to around 250 vehicles manufactured since the late-19th century, the museum has a collection of motoring books, journals, photographs, films, and automobilia of the world and is affiliated to the British Motorcycle Charitable Trust.^[6]
An exhibition of James Bond vehicles appeared in 2012.
The "On Screen Cars" exhibit has a display of TV and film cars including Del Boy’s Reliant Regal as featured in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses and Mr. Bean’s lime green Mini.
The exhibit "World of Top Gear" has cars created by Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.
The museum also hosts a collection of the well-known Rolls-Royce radiator mascot - the Spirit of Ecstasy - also known as the Flying Lady. The collection includes The Whisper, a figurine commissioned by John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, the 2nd Baron to his friend Charles Robinson Sykes who sculpted a personal mascot for the bonnet of his Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. Sykes originally crafted a figurine of a female model, Eleanor Thornton, in fluttering robes, pressing a finger against her lips - to symbolise the secret of the love between John and Eleanor, his secretary. The figurine was consequently named The Whisper.