Army Flying Museum
Full disclosure: this day, i.e. Wednesday September 24th, was the first day of our now re-routed trip. We were no longer going to be headed to Cornwall, choosing to head east and a little north, to end in St. Albans.
Our planned National Trust treat for the day was going to be Mottisfont, until we took a harder look at the description for the property and realized that we had already seen it on a previous trip! Seen it, and loved it, but… there are so many things to see that we haven’t yet seen, so, another pivot was called for.
A tiny speck on our map showed something called the “Army Flying Museum” in “Middle Wallop”. We assumed that it would be a few disused aircraft on a deserted airfield. In other words, we didn’t have high hopes. Boy were we wrong. “The Museum holds an extensive collection charting over 100 years of the British Army in the air. With over 35 fixed wing and rotary aircraft on display, the Museum is the perfect place to explore the fascinating history of British Army aviation. Beginning in 1878 and continuing through to today, the collections cover the five main branches of Army Aviation: the Royal Engineers, the Royal Flying Corps, the Glider Pilot Regiment, Air Observation Post Squadrons, and the current Army Air Corps.”
One particularly fascinating focus was the role of gliders, especially during WWII. The whole museum was a fascinating place to visit. We were amazed. We spent the night in a pub/inn in Littleton, “The Running Horse”.
Scroll down for Alton, and Jane Austen’s house!
Alton and Jane Austen’s House
Thursday morning, the 24th, we pushed on to our next new destination, “Alton”, which Patti was delighted to learn was where Jane Austen lived with her beloved sister Cassandra, and from where she wrote six of her novels. We had great weather again! but the route was very wet. At one point we came to an impassable shallow creek (10″ that would have put our bottoms in the drink, and the bike path was too narrow for the wide front wheelbases of our trikes, so we did a re-route adding only a few kilometres to the route).
We happened onto a massive watercress farm – more like a plantation! – as well as some sort of pheasant hunt/country walk complete with dogs, and gentlemen sporting kneelength knickers and woolen socks. It was all very Brit-ish.
We found our pub/inn for the night, parked the bikes, dumped the panniers and walked up the main street about 25 minutes for a timed-visit to Jane Austen’s house. Timed only because in the house, the rooms are very small, and the staff are very respectful of visitors’ need for time and space to absorb what is basically a carefully and lovingly tended shrine for Austen fans. It was a really enjoyable visit, made even more so by the work of a paper artist who had recreated Regency costumes, life-sized, of incredible detail.
Walking back to the inn, we nabbed an apple from a bushel at the end of someone’s drive (free! delicious! see the photo!), meandered our way back through town, grabbed a pub meal and called it a night.
We had had two very wonderful days of really different attractions, both of which I would highly, highly recommend.
You know I dated Jane’s second cousin when we were in university. I didn’t want to say anything at the time. Love the pics and stories you two have to write a book!!! Wes
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