From the hire base two or perhaps three boats were being prepared fore their new arrivals this afternoon.
Walking down we passed several of the scattered buildings that form Brooke House College, a private school that has, since 2008, specialised in preparation for a career as a professional footballer. It takes both boys and girls from the age of 12. Overall it maintains a strong academic objective and most of its students go on to university.
The main house dates back some time - its website traces the history of the property from 1708 and for most of its life it was known as The Elms.It had numerous owners including the Symington family who owned a successful corset making business in the town. At the start of the 20C it may have been used by a group of nuns for a school but in 1920 it was converted into a hostel for training young girls to 'go into service' in Australia. In 1959 another school in the town moved into The Elms and re-badged itself as Brooke House, It had mixed, if not poor, financial success and was eventually bought by a young graduate Don Williams. It is his family that still operate the college at this time. Its most well-known former student is the actor Nigel Havers,
After going down the main street we passed the parish church, alongside which is the Old Grammar School. Originally built in 1614. It has seen extensive re-modelling and repair over the centuries since then. In 2017 is was restored to its present condition with a ,lot of the structure needing work doing on it.
We also spotted the Symington Building- but neither its history or its current use was very apparent from outside so we had to look it up later. Originally this was the factory where the Symington family made their successful corsets (they introduced the Liberty Bodice) until that business went out of fashion. Subsequently the building was taken over in the 1980's by the local authority mainly for council offices as well as the local museum and library. It also provides space for other organisations such as Citizens Advice. It was extensively renovated in 2014.
We were a little disappointed by the covered market - and we only bought a couple of pies for lunches and some soft fruit. There were no vegetables available.
On the way back up the hill we called at the Co-Op for most of the remaining heavy food items. Back at the boat it was time for lunch - which we felt we deserved!
After Christine had cleaned through we set off down town once more, On the way we spotted this former red telephone box - currently containing a display as a reminder of the suffragettes.
We wire particularly in search of a good bluetooth speaker as our previous one was no longer working (or so it seemed) At present, as part of other investigations. te radio is disconnected so we have not had good access to music at times when the tv is unavailable.
We knew that Argos stocked such items but on our way to B & M (for the small cans of coconut milk that they stock) we saw a small electrical goods shop. A very helpful chap showed us his better option. We opted to think further on the excuse that we wanted to pick up items from the furthest point first and then return. In the end, after looking elsewhere, we concludes that this was the best offer available and went back after having most of the rest of the shopping.
And that was it for the day's excitement! A little more cleaning was needed, this blog to write and then our evening meal to prepare. We also really must get down to deciding what we are doing for the next two weeks as we will have to sort out a marina mooring for our return home that is also within range for our solar panel fitting.
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