Martin's Mag.

…being at the school before the children come out.

Frome has an interesting industrial history dating back to Saxon times. It was listed in the Domesday Book, and became famous for woollen products and later paper making and printing. The central cobbled streets are very attractive and the town is now home to tourism and food outlets.

But we like a walk, so we took a tour of Victorian industrialisation in the wider area of the town and surrounding countryside. We hadn’t realised, though, that almost all the points of interest mentioned were where the location had been, not where it is today. So our exercise was spent viewing, mostly, modern housing estates which had once been the sites of manufacturing glory.

But Frome centre still retains its charm.

We squeezed in a few days in East Devon. Including time on the spectacular beach and cliffs at Exmouth, the lively little town of Budleigh Salterton and the lower reaches and estuary of the River Otter.

…was busy today, and I happened to have a camera with me.

Deerhurst in north Gloucestershire, a few miles south of Tewkesbury, dates back to Saxon times. The small village, which lies on the banks of the River Severn, is remarkable in having two well-preserved pre-Norman conquest buildings so close to one another – the Priory Church of St. Mary and Odda’s Chapel.

After exploring the village (with it’s spookey “angel” etched in the church wall) we walked down the river to Apperley, which we visited a couple of years ago, then back over mostly low-lying lanes and farmland.

We hope not, but it’s Autumn and the very first day of school tomorrow.

Along the partially disused Thames and Severn canal, here parallel with the river Frome, east of Stroud in Gloucestershire.

A very attractive, quiet, Cotswold village built in a valley below a prehistoric, later Roman, fort. Best known (to me, at least) for its brewery.

We’re in the general area of Bristol’s “floating” harbour quite often, either walking or visiting the pubs and museums, etc. Something is always different. This time Pero’s Footbridge had become impassable due to an accident during “testing”.

It looked like the last good-weather (i.e. rainless with parched lawns and complaining farmers) day for a week or so, and we were lucky to have organised our family picnic while Rosie is still here from Madrid. All went well. The children always seem to enjoy meeting each other. Well, and the adults, of course. [Pictures by those present]