UK Roadtrip ~ Day 5 – Farham -> Andover

Farham was a lot bigger than I had thought and so it took me most of the morning to walk around an explore, I also had to make a few pit stops to find an international adaptor because, clever me, I left mine plugged into the wall socket at Stanhill Court Hotel where it would come in very handy for nobody really… anyway, finally found one at good old Wilkos for a 5 pounder

M27 – today I drove along one of the main motorways down south, I have been driving along the smaller A and B roads so far (which is what i enjoy as it passes by many smaller villages and towns etc) but I have to say that im really impressed by these motorways! they are free and easy to drive on, nicely signed up and easy to navigate, they seem to be better than our ones back home, we have to pay for the privilege of using our own roads which our taxes have paid for anyways, so go figure lol

DAY 5 ITINERARY

A – Fareham – Hampshire
B – Portchester Castle – Hampshire
C – Titchfield Abbey – Hampshire
D – Netley Abbey – Hampshire
E – Romsey – Hampshire
F – Stockbridge – Hampshire

G – Andover – Hampshire

PORCHESTER CASTLE

District – Portchester
County – Hampshire

Easy and quick drive from Farham, but had to leg it backwards as I missed out on seeing this yesterday, luckily not too far away so fit it into today – got there around 11am and it was pretty quiet, once it hit 12pm the car park was full and people were everywhere! Mainly all British people out and about with their pets and kids

Had a good old chat to the local guide who worked there, his name was Bob and he was nearly as old as the castle (well, he was 90) and he was from Ireland and shared a lot of history with me around the castle as well as his own life, I had to remind him that my parking was going to run out, but it was such a great conversation to get an insight into how life has changed to this day – they dont make them like they used to!

The Roman fort here was around in the early medieval times from AD 490 to the norman conquest 1066

In 12th c the castle was rebuilt in stone and the first stage of the great keep of the castle – Porchester became a royal castle in 1154 and owned by the crown until 1632

The stairs leading from the ground floor all the way to the top roof area

The Priory of Augustinian canons was founded in the far corner of the outer bailey in 1128 and is now the local parish church called St Marys

From 1819 its been open to the public and now owned by English Heritage

The stairs were my fav part, I love the old, steep and narrow stair wells of mediecal castles and churches

TITCHFIELD ABBEY

District – Titchfield
County – Hampshire

Arrived 1:40pm beautiful and sunny! Cant believe its england!?

This Abbey was a 13th c Abbey later converted to a mansion by the Tudor earls of Southampton.

It was later called Place House and was a grand mansion and royal visitors were entertained here including shakespeare who also performed some of his plays here

On the death of the 4th earl it was passed through several families and wventualled dismantles in 1781

NETLEY ABBEY

District – Netley
County – Hampshire

This abbey is the most complete surviving Cistercian monastery in southern england

The front of the Abbey – such a shame places like this have gone to ruin

The Abbey was once a monastic house and a mansion house and then later fell into ruin

Peter des Roches, the bishop of Winchester, founded the abbey in 1238 – 15 monks and 30 ly brothers and servants lived here at one stage

At the suppression of the monasteries in 1536, it was transformed inot a tudor house

The abbots lodging – leader of the monastery stayed here and had his own private chapel

The back part of the Abbey, its much larger than it looks! Popular place as there were heaps of people around playing soccer and hanging out

NETLEY CHURCH

St Edward The Confessor church near the Abbey

The nearby castle (from googlemaps) I really wanted to see it but its private property grrrr 😫

The castle by drone so many tall trees in the area cant really see anything!

ROMSEY

District – Test Valley
Country – Hampshire

I ended up driving through Southampton and got stuck in some really nasty city traffic, reminded me of being back in Sydney actually!

Went over Itchen Bridge which had an old school toll bridge where you throw in 70 pence to get across – I love how old school the UK is!

There was a wedding happening at the Abbey all the guests were drinking and milling around – really nice vibe here! Easy going and relaxed

STOCKBRIDGE

District – Test Valley
County – Hampshire

Stockbridge is one of the smallest towns in the United Kingdom with a population of 592

I did, however, meet the biggest dog ive ever seen in my life in the smallest town ive been to in the UK! … but seriously, I thought it was a horse!

The water is so nice and clear and trickles as it flows through

Some ducks with their cute little bums in the air

streams like this flowed all through this town

Its so cute as it has little clean streams running through the village and ducks and birds all twittering about, it really was so beautiful walking around this one street town! The main street crosses

ANDOVER

District – Test Valley
COuntry – Hampshire

The sun was slowly lowering as I was exploring Stockbridge, so I hurried it up and jumped on the road again for last leg of the day to my accomodation in Andover

Did sneak in my exploration of this town quickly before the sun went daown totally, there was a beautoful red sunset over town

As you can see there are more than the average pubs in a small sized town like this, ive noticed this place has a lot more young people and they were out and about

Andovers largest employer is the Ministry of Defence. RAF Andover was opened on Andover Airfield, to the south of the town, during the First World War and became the site of the RAF Staff College.