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20:25:00 o'clock BST
Feeling Determined
One more step
Jacqueline Sybil Williams Kennedy 1961-2008
AGood Evening Friends.
Before I begin tonight’s journal I would just like to tell you how comforting you’re many comments and emails have been to me over the past devastating days. As you know we are a very strong family whose support and love we probably take for granted. What we hadn’t fully realised was how much the strengh of the fellowship of the special circle of friends we are so fortunate to have would uphold us all in this time of great sorrow. A young friend wrote, “Grief is happiness running backwards. It hurts so much because the happiness was so good” and the current pain is worth having for the joy that Jacqueline brought us. The family will go on. Not ever quite the same.but heartened by the memories and love you have shared with us. Thank you.
As you can imagine writing a journal has been far from my mind these last couple of weeks but I suppose life must go on and a friend has been asking me to start writing again. It would be too hard to write about the last two weeks so I got to thinking what I could write about and decided that perhaps I hadn’t told you a little about the area surrounding where I live in this lovely area of Wiltshire. So come on a short stroll with me to CORSHAM a small market town some 4 miles along the road from us here in BOX.
Strolling along the picturesque High Street of Corsham with its historic buildings and peacocks strutting by, it is difficult to believe that Britain could have been governed from here in the event of an all out nuclear war. Not far from the charming buildings that line each side of the street, but from a quarry one hundred feet below the Wiltshire countryside. Here a radiation proof bunker was installed some 40 years ago. Inside a replica of Whitehall had been built with a main street running through and every ministerial department represented. For many years the government denied its existence although local people had been working on its construction. But have now admitted it after questions in the freedom of Information Act. There is nothing there now except for a telephone exchange. Everything else has been taken out. Many local people bought some of the office equipment etc. still wrapped in its original wrappings. Now that is what lies below Corsham…what would you find in the town? Remarkably for such a small place Corsham has a large number of historical and architecturally interesting buildings, almost standing cheek by cheek with each other. The high street itself looks like an architectural museum. The elegant Methuen Arms Hotel with it’s impressive portico stands proudly at one end (it was here that the Duke of Edinburgh played skittles while stationed nearby during the war) Reminders of the cloth industry can be seen further along the street in the 17th century weavers cottages. They were home to Flemish weavers who fled persecution and brought their skills to Wiltshire. Nearby is the 17th cent. Hungerford Almshouses and Schoolroom. The latter that doubled as a chapel still has the original desk and the master’s chair built into the pulpit. The town’s piece de resistance has to be the beautiful Corsham Court, a stately home just of the high street. The house built on the site of the Saxon Royal Manor and based on Elizabethan designs from 1582. The Methuen family has owned it since 1745. Corsham Court has a grand collection of Old Masters as well as Georgian furniture and porcelain. The court’ exquisite gardens, built under Capability Brown, have there own unusual attraction not least being a muster of beautiful peacocks. There are about 20 of them and they often wander freely down the high street. The traffic comes to a halt. They are a well-known feature. Soon I will have a wander down the high street with the camera and try to capture some of these lovely buildings to share with you.
Goodnight. And don’t ever forget to
LOVE ONE ANOTHER
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So good to see you full of life! And those crop circles? They actually WERE man-made, using just a piece of wood and a string! xoxo CATHY
http:/journals.aol.com//luddie343/DARETOTHINK/ -
hello sybil, thank-you for the walk it was lovely. I know a little of wiltshire, my husband had family there, it's a lovely county. I hope that the pain is starting to ease a little. take care mrs t xxx
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I have only just returned from holiday so have only just heard your sad news. I am so sorry for you and hope that the passing time will make it easier. A tall order I know as I lost my father 4 years ago yesterday and the day was still tough to get through.
Where you live is an area I must visit, it is not so far from me, but when I come into Wilstshire it is usually Salisbury, so I must venture a little further.
Mary
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glad you writing again sybil. what a lovely picture a great and tragic loss for you and all the family. a great entry, really interesting. you take care thanks for all your kind comments on mine. mort xx
30/06/08 12:49
hugs
Sherry
http://journals.aol.com/shrbr