For the last few weeks Barnaby Bear has been having a change of scenery from the offices of Barbers Estate Agents and hanging out with Lorna.
Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been that great so they didn’t get out much locally but did manage to walk round the Flash in Telford, Shropshire, England.
Barnaby enjoyed meeting the local wildlife and made friends with a coot. He didn’t want to walk much so made the most of being cosy in Lorna’s fleece.
As neither Barnaby or Lorna wanted to get cold or wet they decided that for the rest of the time they would concentrate on indoor pastimes. He now knows how to cross stitch and helped her create some Christmas cards.
He also enjoyed modelling the scarf Lorna made him knowing he would soon be off to a windy coastal climate in the south east of the country.
It also turns out that Barnaby, although part of a large loving family, did not know his family background. When Lorna collected him one of his colleagues accidentally let the cat (sorry bear) out of the bag and so they have started work on creating his family tree.
After this revelation and learning more about genealogy and local history he was then excited to accompany her on a trip to Kent, England for the week. The weather on the drive down was horrible so there was no point stopping for travel selfies on the 230 mile trip.
Having met Lorna’s family he then joined them on Stir Up Sunday to help in preparing the Christmas Puddings from a recipe handed down the generations.
The weather actually turned out better than expected for the most part and so they were able to go exploring. In Dover, Kent, England they explored various spots around the town including seeing a North Downs Way marker and going past the Maison Dieu which has just been renovated.
After seeing Dover Castle from a distance and checking out property prices Lorna took Barnaby to see the statue of Captain Matthew Webb who was from Dawley, Shropshire, England on the seafront. Barnaby decided against going for a paddle.
There are also some other points of interest from all different times through history. The White Horse pub is a very old one and it became the place where cross channel swimmers over the years have gone and signed their names. The church next door to the pub was damaged in both World Wars and is now just a ruin.
Then they went to Hythe, Kent, England where it actually turned out nice enough to get off the bus for a walk along the front before checking out the Royal Military Canal. It did not feel like November and the scarf was not needed much of the day.
Lunch was really nice at the Butt of Sherry and involved a small alcoholic tipple. It turns out that Thomas Pilcher BEAR became licensee of the pub in 1934 and so perhaps Barnaby also has relations in Kent?!
Special thanks are due to Wards of Kent the Estate Agents for letting Barnaby pop in to say hello. He knows that Ward is a well known surname in Shropshire and that this is the moniker connects Lorna to the county.
Looking into the company’s history there doesn’t seem to be a connection but perhaps more investigation will uncover one. Definitely looks like Barnaby will also be kept busy with family history research when not exploring the globe.
On the way back there was a stop at the Battle of Britain Memorial in Capel-le-Ferne, Kent, England. Lorna was there in 1993 when the Queen Mother opened it and has seen many additions over the years. It luckily didn’t live up to the nickname Capel-le-Fog on this day.
It was not that blowy up on top of the cliffs but Barnaby could not really see the coast of France clearly. After this he was tired so they returned to base and watched an interesting talk by Dr Helen Fry on The White Lady.
The next day Barnaby had another excursion and this time to Canterbury, Kent, England. He got to visit the grounds of Canterbury Cathedral which looks lovely from the outside since it has been cleaned up. Whilst in the city he picked up a postcard to send back to the office.
He then got to explore the village of Tilmanstone, Kent, England. Lorna’s roots are known to go back in this place to 1740 and Barnaby willingly joined her for a bit of research and learnt about the Invicta sign of the county. He didn’t like the stocks outside the church but did pay his respects at the grave of one set of her great grandparents.
He also got to find another historic location marker, that is not well known, which is the Whitfield Airfield. This is where Harriet Quimby took off from in 1912 as the first woman to fly across the English Channel.
Sadly these are fairly hidden in the grounds of a hotel and not even where the airfield actually was situated which is quite a bit further over in the village. Having found the evidence they went in for a drink. Louis Bleriot’s memorial is more prominent by Dover Castle.
Due to the logistical issue of getting Barnaby returned to his fold he stayed with Lorna a bit longer and so also joined her and friends at a pub quiz. Clearly his assistance helped as they came in third and won a bottle of wine.
Overall Barnaby and Lorna had a fun time exploring and as he was so well behaved he is welcome to go down to Kent and hang out with her friends and family any time.
Currently though he is attempting to sneak into another colleague’s luggage for a trip away this coming weekend. Will have to see if he manages it and if so may be coming back with a winter tan.
Update: He didn’t manage to get into a suitcase so came back to Lorna for the weekend. Such nasty wind and rain that is making him very anti exploring so snuggling down on the sofa to watch Christmas Films will be the plan.
