Heading west

About a fortnight ago now, we headed west to pay a visit to the Royal Lion at Lyme Regis. The Royal Lion of the Oak Room, last noticed at reference 1.

M25 and M3 clear, despite dark mutterings from BH about the merits of country routes. Turned off for Salisbury around Andover, thus clocking up Wellingtonia 48 and Wellingtonia 49. This last at a place called Winterbourne Earls. Where I think the church is a Victorian building, built at the time of the amalgamation of the old parishes of Winterbourne Dauntsey and Winterbourne Earles, with the ground plan of the new church modelled on that of the former, right in the snap above.

A large, handsome space, but one which was oddly cold inside and was probably far too large for the present level of business. The bright lights from the windows disturbed photography, and the rather handsome glass in the east windows, the three slits in the snap above, failed to photograph at all.

The old font, presumably moved from one of the churches that the present church replaced.

The handsome new tower.

With which we were off to Salisbury and from onto Blandford Forum and Dorchester. The weather turned a bit grey and some of the country was pretty bleak. No doubt cold in the winter. Pit stop at a M&S in Blandford Forum.

From Dorchester to Bridport, where there was petrol for sale but where I got impatient and pulled out of the forecourt without getting any. Which did not turn out to matter as the petrol panic did not seemed to have gripped the stolid West Country as much as it had gripped the feverish Home Counties.

And so onto the Royal Lion at Lyme Regis where we found a middle aged couple who had bothered to put on their whites to play ping-pong. Shorts in the case of the gent.

We dined in the bar on this occasion, even though the giant fireplace was not then in operation. A very pale soup which was rather good. Adequate fish and chips. A respectable bread pudding. I wondered why it was that places of this sort often carried a large choice of whisky and rather a poor choice of wine. I suppose now that it is simply a matter of demand. More people bang on about their whisky than bang on about their wine.

PS: recent tweet post notwithstanding, we did see a kestrel hovering over the side of the road at some point.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/10/birthday-choc.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/10/wellingtonia-49.html.