The Hadhams
Tired of getting stuck in traffic no matter which route we head south on… to our old and familiar stamping grounds in Surrey and Sussex… but wanting to have a day in the Country we decide to head North thinking lunch in some delightful little pub in one of ‘The Hadham’s’ would make a nice day out, so off we set towards Bishop’s Stortford.
One of the first groups of people David introduced me to, just after we were married, were a group of people he’d met though an Aussie acquaintance friend, Justin! I remember staying at the beautiful home of these people and I also remember how much they looked down on us and made, me particularly, feel quite uncomfortable… (because we were ‘Colonials’ I guess) they talked about ‘The Hunt’, bitched about the locals and goodness knows what else… anyway we never saw them again thank goodness; in fact one of their group, one that we had both liked in fact, committed suicide about a year later.
We do remember they lived in Puckeridge a very beautiful part of the countryside so we headed that way via ‘The Hadhams’ driving thorough and admiring ‘Much Hadham’ then ‘Little Hadham’ both beautiful very old Villages on very narrow and in some cases one way streets and lanes with some houses made of old planks of timber, some with the upper storey rooms hanging over the footpath, (with no supports) plus some very beautiful Estates. We decided to have lunch in a Pub in Great Hadham so headed towards the sign that said ‘Great Hadham Golf Course’ it being the only sign to Great Hadham that we could find!! It’s a trick… there isn’t a Great Hadham!! There may have been at one stage but there is only a modern Golf Course now so we settled for a very comforting lunch in ‘The Bull’ in ‘Much Hadham’!
David almost caused me to have a heart attack when unexpectedly he sat up straight, hitting my leg and shouting out ‘Spellbrook’…
On the wall of our Family Room at home in Turramurra there is a Bus Stop sign with the destination ‘Spellbrook’ on it and no matter what reference guide or index David looked up he couldn’t find out what county ‘Spellbrook’ was in… so great excitement we’d found it hidden in the depths of Hertfordshire near ‘The Hadhams’. Spellbrook isn’t even a village but it did have a sort of very small and light industrial look about it… nothing to write home about really but there I go… I’ve done just that!!
Looking at the map we decided we had to head home via Essendon, we had to see what it was like for our Aussie friends Bonnie and Graeme from Bendigo who are the biggest Essendon fans we know (for Non Aussie readers… Essendon is a Victorian, Australian Rules Football Team… The Sydney Swannies are the 2005 Champs though! ) Wow! What a classy Village Essendon in Hertfordshire is!! I’ll bet there are a few London Stock Brokers living here… all in all a delightful day.
One of the first groups of people David introduced me to, just after we were married, were a group of people he’d met though an Aussie acquaintance friend, Justin! I remember staying at the beautiful home of these people and I also remember how much they looked down on us and made, me particularly, feel quite uncomfortable… (because we were ‘Colonials’ I guess) they talked about ‘The Hunt’, bitched about the locals and goodness knows what else… anyway we never saw them again thank goodness; in fact one of their group, one that we had both liked in fact, committed suicide about a year later.
We do remember they lived in Puckeridge a very beautiful part of the countryside so we headed that way via ‘The Hadhams’ driving thorough and admiring ‘Much Hadham’ then ‘Little Hadham’ both beautiful very old Villages on very narrow and in some cases one way streets and lanes with some houses made of old planks of timber, some with the upper storey rooms hanging over the footpath, (with no supports) plus some very beautiful Estates. We decided to have lunch in a Pub in Great Hadham so headed towards the sign that said ‘Great Hadham Golf Course’ it being the only sign to Great Hadham that we could find!! It’s a trick… there isn’t a Great Hadham!! There may have been at one stage but there is only a modern Golf Course now so we settled for a very comforting lunch in ‘The Bull’ in ‘Much Hadham’!
David almost caused me to have a heart attack when unexpectedly he sat up straight, hitting my leg and shouting out ‘Spellbrook’…
On the wall of our Family Room at home in Turramurra there is a Bus Stop sign with the destination ‘Spellbrook’ on it and no matter what reference guide or index David looked up he couldn’t find out what county ‘Spellbrook’ was in… so great excitement we’d found it hidden in the depths of Hertfordshire near ‘The Hadhams’. Spellbrook isn’t even a village but it did have a sort of very small and light industrial look about it… nothing to write home about really but there I go… I’ve done just that!!
Looking at the map we decided we had to head home via Essendon, we had to see what it was like for our Aussie friends Bonnie and Graeme from Bendigo who are the biggest Essendon fans we know (for Non Aussie readers… Essendon is a Victorian, Australian Rules Football Team… The Sydney Swannies are the 2005 Champs though! ) Wow! What a classy Village Essendon in Hertfordshire is!! I’ll bet there are a few London Stock Brokers living here… all in all a delightful day.
2 Comments:
Hello Pennie
I can rememebr being sent to detention in English Literature when in about year 7 or 8 (along with half the class) for laughing at a Poem by ANON which was called Fleas and here it is.....
Adam
Hadam
What I want to know is ,is there fleas in Haddam?Was my detention worthwhile?CAn I forgive the teacher (after 40 years) fro tthe only detention in my years at school?
Love Christine
Talking about fleas. The humidity is climbing here in Sydney. And we've had a few hot days and our first big thunderstorm.
That's the signal for us to bemoan that we've not given the cat a flea treatment for months, because they are jumping all around our joint and onto my ankles.
Someone once told me that the fleas which inhabit the cat are different to the ones which attack humans.
If they are the same ones, it seems to me that there is no point treating the cat with "Frontline" if it just causes the fleas to jump off the cat and on to me. Better to leave them on the cat.
Some exiting news from our garden. After 15 years we have our first kiwi fruit - 6 of them. They will no doubt be ripe enough to eat just after we've keft for our xmas holidays.
And we have a tawny frogmouth sitting on a nest 20 feet above our bedroom window in a gum tree I planted. It's been sitting on the nest for over four weeks now. Apparently both parents share nesting duties. We've never seen more than one bird so we've never seen the swap over. We don't know if there are nestlings. Tawny frogmouths make an eerie repetitive booming noise at about 2.00am ... and again at 3.00pm etc. Google tells me they are not true owls, but are related to the nightjar family which catch their prey with their mouths and not their talons.
The possums and cockatoos have failed to discover some of our passionfruit - yummie.
Sorry - I'm forgetting whose blog this is.
Peter S
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