Off to Lincoln this afternoon to see the castle and cathedral. The castle was good, although perhaps not the quite worth the admission fee as basically you have access to a nice garden, the old castle wall and the old prison. Whilst the gardens are simple but nice and the view from the castle wall is great, the main things to see here are originals of the the Magna Carta and Rules of the Forest, both dating back to 1215 and one of only 4 originals left. Next ont...

Finally got to Newstead Abbey and like the Air and Railway Museums it is another gem of a place to visit. The Abbey is the home of the Byrons ie Lord Byron the romantic poet and part of the in crowd with Mary Shelly of Frankenstein fame. The house itself has much original decoration and furniture still inside that dates back to Byron and the guide tour was worth the money, especially given the guide was very easy to listen too. Aside from the house the main reaso...

Southwell Ploughing Show is on today which I am sure Dad and Lynsey would have loved to have seen. The Shire Horse ploughing teams looked fantastic and the old tractors would have had Dad reminiscing for hours. Other than that it was a typical rural show with looks of tents flogging local produce, machinery ones selling tractors and everything in between. They did have a group of riders doing a jousting show which was entertaining and the riders had great riding ...

Finally off to do the Robin Hood thing today with a trip to Sherwood Forest and Major Oak. Again the forest is huge with walk and bridle trails everywhere. We took the short route and went straight tot he Major Oak, expected to be over a 1000 years old. It's certainly is a wizened old looking tree with lots of bracing around to stop it falling appart. Not sure how much longer it will last as it struck me that one good blow would bring lots of it crashing down. Sa...

When had planned to visit Newstead Abbey but it given in was raining when we got there and that the Abbey itself is only open on Sunday we ended up at Wollaton Hall. Whilst the hall houses a small collection of natural history items, and was used in the filming of the recent Batman movie people go there mainly for the parklands. They are huge with herds of Fallow and Red deer roaming around. The 3 Red stags we saw near the entrance were magnificent, especially gi...