Antiquing Trip to England: Day 8, Rochester

The city of Rochester was built on the site of earlier Neolithic, Celtic, and Roman settlements along the river Medway. Needless to say, it is rich in history. England's second-oldest cathedral is here, founded in 604 AD, right alongside an atmospheric ruin, a Norman castle dating to 1127.

Rochester Cathedral

This cathedral was filled with particularly beautiful and interesting doors. Here is a sampling:

An intriguing passageway in the Cathedral.

Rochester Castle, like its cousin in Lewes, suddenly pops up between two buildings in the shopping district:

 Rochester Castle

Unlike Dover Castle, which is in good repair and was used militarily until recent times, Rochester Castle is a spooky ruin, open to the elements:

A tea break with more scones was followed by a visit to a dollhouse miniatures shop, where I got a tiny tea cake stand filled with itty bitty pastries, the perfect thing to bring home to my dollhouse residents.

Real tea cakes.

Don't they both look delicious?

Not real tea cakes.

A second-hand bookshop had a wonderful surprise inside. In one corner, shelves, cabinets, and cases were filled with small items dug up from local river banks, Victorian outhouse sites and rubbish dumps, and old cellars, the places where people disposed of things in the days before trash pickup services. (The centuries-old clay pipes mentioned in an earlier post came from this riverside.) The shop had shelves and shelves full of dug up old stoneware beer bottles, Victorian quack medicine containers, and even poison bottles! I got a handful of miniature china doll heads and a dollhouse chamber pot here, all locally excavated.

Everything seen here was dug up locally. 

Note the "Poison Bottle" sign on the top middle shelf, 

and "Victorian Quack Cures" below.

Dug up dollies, all miniatures.

 A dug up dollhouse doll head and chamber pot.

Rochester had a number of antique shops, and this one turned up two wonderful vintage teddy bears well-spotted by tour leaders Terry and Doris, who pointed me to the store. (Thank you Terry and Doris!)

 I got this 1950s Chad Valley ted with lovely curly mohair,

and a characteristically goofy-looking 

Pedigree, made in Ireland.

Coming up next: Day 9, Faversham (our last day in England.)

Antiquing Trip to England: Day 7, Eastbourne

Our seventh day in England was spent at the seaside, in the Victorian resort town of Eastbourne, which lies along the southeastern coast between Brighton and Hastings (as in The Battle of Hastings, 1066).

In 1859, local landowner the Duke of Devonshire hired an architect to redesign the town, creating a resort "built by gentlemen for gentlemen." Fortunately, Eastbourne is no longer so exclusive, but still retains its genteel atmosphere.

Eastbourne's seaside has been thoughtfully kept clear of development, so the beachfront is open to the public. A beautiful pier built in 1866 stretches 1000 feet out into the ocean, and hosts a Victorian Tea Room, souvenir stores, a dance hall, sweet shops, and a camera obscura.

 Eastbourne Pier.

 A view along the Pier.

The Pier's Victorian Tea Room.

Eastbourne didn't seem to have many antique stores, but it was rich in souvenir and charity shops. I bought snowglobes, tea towels, magnets, postcards, keychains, miniature tea sets, and other assorted bric-a-brac in the store below.

 A colorful souvenir shop.

And in a charity shop, I found these two homemade bears. During WWII, when mohair was scarce and teddy bear factories were converted to supply the war effort, British mothers excelled at crafting teds from whatever materials they could find, and some especially talented mums even knit bears for their little ones. These two teds are not so old, but I thought they were still rather charming. 

Coming up next: Day Eight, Rochester, with a cathedral and a castle, and lots of dug-up treasures (literally!)

Antiquing Trip to England: Day 6, Canterbury

Our day in Canterbury was one of my favorites, as it included a tour of a teddy bear factory. Canterbury Bears has been making uniquely English teds for 32 years, sending them to collectors all over the world from their workshop just outside the ancient city.

The workshop may look quietly unassuming from the outside...

...but inside, it's a riot of bears, parts of bears, piles of mohair, shelves of trims, boxes of eyes, intriguing machines, and friendly ladies stitching teddy bear smiles.

 Colorfully dyed mohair waits to be cut into bear parts.

 Metal dies for cutting out bear parts.

The machine that stamps out the bear parts, 

using the dies like a cookie cutter.

 A box full of newly stamped out bear parts.

The stuffing machine. The nozzle (just touching the chair back) is inserted into a bear, then the machine blows it full of stuffing.
We were told the bears' eyes are not sewn on until after this step,
"so they can't see what's being done to them."

Speaking of eyes, here are some of the varieties:

Hand-sewing the eyes, nose, and mouth on a nearly-finished bear.

 After a tour of the workshop, we were invited to browse the shelves and purchase bears to take home. We got to see prototypes and archival pieces too, and it was lots of fun to poke around.

I got this little ted, whom I absolutely adore.

A shelf of bears. The little white one was 

a never produced prototype

that went home with a very lucky tour guest.

After our factory visit was over, we headed into Canterbury. The skyline of the medieval walled city is dominated by the famous cathedral, which looms over everything:

The cathedral's origins lie all the way back in 597 AD, but the oldest remaining section, the crypt, is from the 11th century.

A particularly beautiful corner in the cathedral's cloisters.

The cathedral is full of monumental stained glass windows; the oldest is this, the Adam Window (so named for the figure of Adam, digging with a spade, in the bottom row, third from the left) which dates from 1176!

No scones today: instead I tried something new, a Bakewell Tart. It was a pastry shell filled with raspberry jam and almond sponge cake, with a shortbread star on top. Completely delicious.

Speaking of delicious things: we saw fabulous candy shops in every town we visited. They had an almost magical quality, like the candy store in the Harry Potter books. This one, The Sugar Boy, was one of my favorites.

There were surprisingly few antique stores in Canterbury; in fact, we were told by the owner of the one we did find that it was pretty much the only one. Good thing we found it, too: it had a case full of old bears.

Repairs were ongoing at this old antique shop.

 Inside: a big, beautiful vintage bear greeted us. 

Sadly, he was too big and heavy to get home (42 inches!)
so as far as I know, he's still sitting there now.

At the back of the store, though, was this case
filled with smaller bears:
some old, some new, and all wonderful.

I got this unusual ted, which I think may be from Australia, made by Barton Waugh. In the case above, he's on the right side, back row, in the middle. Noseless. Below, he here is after his nosectomy:

Just before leaving Canterbury, we stopped by its Information Centre and loaded up on postcards. Sitting by the register was this great little Canterbury Bear I hadn't seen at the factory earlier: a small version of their Union Jack patterned bear, appropriately named...Jack. He is clearly very happy to have gone back to the States with me.

Coming up next: Day 7, the Victorian seaside resort of Eastbourne.

Antiquing Trip to England: Day Five, Tenterden & Pashley Manor Gardens

After the previous day's shopping extravaganza, it was nice to have a quieter day scheduled next on the tour. I'm sure my checking account enjoyed the respite as well.

First we stopped in the lovely town of Tenterden, which had just a few antique shops, mostly filled with china and silver. We took the opportunity to linger in Tenterden's lovely old churchyard. The church, St. Mildred's, dates from the 12th century, and the churchyard was just as picturesque, and looked just "as seen on TV" as this fan of British murder mysteries could hope.

St. Mildred's churchyard.

A lonely urn.

A tomb under the trees.

No trip to England would be complete without a visit to a classic English garden, and that was in fact the highlight of the day. Our tour guides found a beautiful one for us: Pashley Manor Gardens, a Tudor-period estate once owned, we were told, by the family of Anne Boleyn. Overflowing flower beds, neat and tidy kitchen gardens, carefully cultivated landscapes, numerous water features, and a small wood surround a 16th century manor house on the property.

 A beautiful view at the Gardens.

A Grecian folly, with duckies in the foreground.

The Gardens also have a lovely tea room which serves wonderful light meals, savories, and sweets. This was one of the finest meals we had on the whole tour: potato-leek soup, a cheese scone, slices of English cheddar, a fresh salad with carrot-ginger slaw, and a carmelized onion and goat cheese tart. Fabulous!

The Tea Room terrace at Pashley Manor Gardens.

Coming up next: Day 6, Canterbury, and a visit to a teddy bear factory!