A Tale of One House: London (sans kids) Day 1

Thanks to a lot of planning and some really really great friends I was able to fly up to London and meet Trent for the last few days of his work training. We had such a great trip! Besides being alone in Paris for 1 day before we joined my mom & sister, this was the first time we'd been alone together since he'd returned from deployment. So we took advantage and it was wonderful!

Trent picked me up from the airport really late on Wednesday night. The flight was fine, very uneventful, but the wait to get through customs was killer! My flight arrived at like 10:30pm and then I stood in the customs line for another 2 hours. It was rotten, and Trent was beginning to freak out that I'd missed my flight. In fact, when I finally came out of the doors I couldn't find him. Turns out he was tucked away on the computer checking his email and anything he could think of to see if I'd been on the flight. Anyhew...we found each other and our hotel and got some much needed shut eye.

The following morning we put on our sleuth hats to try and uncover the location of my families (The Wright's) ancestral home in Essex. As we drove through the countryside I immediately fell in love. It was everything it was supposed to be! I even got a little teared up...and by the end of the day was ready to purchase whatever I could get my hands on! It's too bad I can't think of a way to talk Trent into relocating to England....like 4EVER!

Ok, I'm getting off track. We took off through the English country side, in the rain, of course their was rain! It took us a couple of tries, but we finally found the "Wright" house (pun totally intended).

We got a kick out of this sign. It's a good thing it's in brown and I'm assuming that has the same meaning as in the States, you know that it's a historical marker. Otherwise I hate to to be the bearer of bad news, but I think the secret might be out and we could have a big problem!

driving through the countryside

gorgeousness...love the daffodils growing wild all over

Trent loved this monstrous sized chess game.....he made me take this picture

Nursery Song Myth Revealed...Caution...Spoiler ALERT...Old McDonald really does have a farm!

More crazy signage...this one was too cute to pass up!

This is the church of St. Nicholas in Kelvedon Hatch

Courtesy of Wikipedia:
First mentioned in the Doomsday Book, the main estate building of the village was Kelvedon Hall. The manor was sold to John Wright a yeoman from South Weald in 1538 and it remained in the family until the early 20th century; the manor house was rebuilt in the 18th century by the seventh John Wright. St Nicholas’ Church adjacent to the manor, dated back to 1372 and may have existed prior to that – the church was abandoned in 1895 in favor of a church in the main village. Other mansions in the area of Kelvedon Hatch are Brizes, originally built in the late 15th century with the current building on the site dating back to the 1720’s; and Great Myles, named for Miles de Muntenay, dating back to the Doomsday Book but was largely demolished in 1837 although a few subsidiary buildings remain today.

The gate to Kelvendon Hall. It was locked. That should have deterred us, I deterred me, but Trent was persistent and wanted to investigate a near by road in hopes that we might at least get a view.

And, persistence pays off!! We found a side gate completely open and we did what any self respecting American would do in the situation...we trespassed! Can you say GORGEOUS meadow!!

Our first view of the house. I was getting a little nervous and feeling a bit sheepish that we'd trespassed.

But our illegal behavior paid off and we got the glimpse we were hoping for!

Ok. So we were ready to jet at this point. If we'd arrived 10 minutes later this would have been all we saw. And I would have been satisfied. But as luck would have it as we were retracing our steps back down the driveway to the open gate we were passed by a vehicle. It drove about 20 feet past us and then stopped and started backing up. I was sweating it a bit at the point...feeling really nervous and embarrassed. But a friendly lady, who turned out to be the wife of the current owner, rolled down the window to greet us. When we told her why we were there she was overjoyed. She told us to go to the door and knock because her husband, Lord so and so (she actually called him by his title, strange to hear) has a guest book for relatives of the house to sign. So of course, to the door we went. All I could think was that my mom was gonna die when she found out we got to go in!!

So in we went. We signed the guest book, talked a tiny bit about the history and which Wright brother we descended from. I snapped a few photos of the main entry and study. All the trimmings and colors are original. It really is a beautiful house.

After speaking with the owner, he gave us permission to walk where ever we wanted. He also gave us a token for that massive gate...the one that deterred us from such a wonderful discovery.

Originally the church and cemetery were located here, but the church is long since abandoned and is now no more than a ruin. The cemetery has been moved to St. Nicholas church in town and these old head stones are all that remain. And I don't think they'll be there much longer it seemed to us like the current owner is cleaning the area up.

view of the house

view from the house. it's so picturesque, we wanted to get into the rowboat and take a ride around the pond.

the out buildings. the place is still a working estate. we saw people all over. inside staff, outside staff, i think they may even board horses there?? not sure.

they like to garden too...maybe this is where my mom gets it?

After the success of our little sleuthing adventure we had to say good bye for the night and part ways. Trent still had 1 more day of his training to complete and I had a train to catch! I rode into London and found our hotel. I had the next day and a half to myself and I was giddy with anticipation! I enjoyed the views from the train. Especially all the rape seed fields...field after field of YELLOW, it was so pretty!

After I found the hotel I headed out into town for a walk along the bank of the Thames. I walked from London bridge up to the parliament buildings and Big Ben. I took my time and wandered a bit, stopping at the Tate Modern museum to see a few paintings and then meandering on again.