Travels: The drive south - Strathaven to Wellington

Wednesday August 12, 2009

The Scottish potion of our trip is over and it is time to head south and take Mum home. Goodbyes are always so difficult. We all had such a wonderful time in Scotland since crossing the border last Wednesday, many memories have been created and many pictures taken to remind us of those memories.

Once again it was raining and the wind was blowing - all the windmills we passed around Strathaven and alongside the M74 were working and producing green electricity - the day was dreary and the skies were grey. The weather brightened as we neared the Scottish border so we decided to turn off at Gretna Green and buy a Scottish map to add to the maps on the walls of Patricia’s garage. The old Blacksmith’s shop where English runaways used to get married has been turned into a tourist attraction. There is now a café and a restaurant and half a dozen shops selling all manner of Scottish items ranging from kilts to Arran sweaters to Scotch whisky and a large number of tourist must-haves like fridge magnets, playing cards, decals and pins with Gretna Green or Scotland proudly displayed. A convenience store sold the map we were looking for and a small supermarket designed primarily to help feed the tourists in RVs and campers sold us milk and cheese and sausage for tomorrow’s breakfast.

The sun was now out and we decided to take a small detour to explore part of Hadrian’s wall, the fortifications built by the Romans in AD120 to keep the Scots out of the territory south of the wall controlled by the Romans. The wall took five years to construct. It was 79 miles long and 12 feet high, running from the North Sea coast just north of Newcastle to the Irish Sea coast just west of Carlisle. Much of the wall was plundered for building materials in the 1000 years following the collapse of the Roman empire in AD400, but some sections remain as wall in fields and some of the forts have been rediscovered and have been surveyed by archeologists.

We followed the directions Andy gave us and came to a part of the wall called Birdoswald Roman Fort, one of ten forts built by the Romans along the wall. An interesting visitors center gave us much history of the wall and the fort and provided a map so we could walk through the remains of the fort and the many changes that were made by subsequent occupiers of the buildings. An interesting place, well worth diverting off the main road to see.

Back on the road again heading south we again encountered rain and drizzle outside Manchester and the Potteries. We pulled off the motorway at Stafford to drive the 20 miles or so cross country to Wellington. In the village of Gnosall we stopped at a pub called the Navigation Inn for dinner. The Inn’s name presumably comes from its location on the Shropshire Union Canal. Tourists in the Long boats plying the canal often stop at the Navigation for lunch or supper or just for a drink to break the journey. We ate Country Fare Pie, a “special” pie we were told was made by the chef this morning from many different meats and drank a Bank’s cask ale called Reverend James. The pie – served with fries and vegetables - was excellent after we asked for gravy as a complement.

Thirty minutes after finishing dinner we arrived at Mum’s, weary from the journey and glad to be home. When we were comfortably settled in Mum’s living room she gave me her birthday present – an original painting she had commissioned of the Wrekin. A lovely reminder of the place I spent most of my childhood, it will look great in the library at home.