Bradford on Avon

On our way today to Beckington, where we'll spend 3 days, we drove through Bradford on Avon. It was a lovely old community, hilly and winding, with a river running through its lowest points. We saw barge rides full of happy families on the Avon.

We had driven through countless communities before B-on-A, but we were on the M4 for those stretches: endless gray highway. Victor was prompted to sing a snatch of a Robyn Hitchcock song, about dreaming of trains, by road signs on the M4 ("Basingstoke, or Reading"). Other road signs of interest: Caution, Hump. Adverse Camber. Keep apart 2 chevrons. (British road signs tend to be in positive, polite language, i.e., 'Keep to your lane' instead of 'Do not pass.')

At one point I told Victor that it was odd that, if your car was 6'6", then you had to stay in the rightmost lane wherever roadwork was taking place. After the third set of signs indicating 6'6" in the right lane, came a sign that said, "Straddle 2 leftmost lanes if car 9'6" or WIDER." Living in MA, with all the limited-height overpasses, I completely misunderstood what dimension was referenced. Do we even tend to know the width in feet of our vehicles? British roads (and cars) are sooo narrow.

Anyway, Victor loved the street sign for "The Shambles," and I was intrigued by The Castle Inn, which stated on the storefront that it was "A Flatcappers Freehouse"--??












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Location:Beckington