I was invited to spend the weekend in Epsom, Surrey (on the southern outskirts of London) to visit my Great Aunt Margaret.
We spent a nice afternoon on the Saturday catching up and telling stories about various members of my family before heading for a walk through Epsom. A real english countryside type town with cute little parks, cottages & country lanes. We ended up at the Epsom racecourse, a very prestigious course frequented by the queen, for a relaxing drink at the pub that sits in the middle of the beautiful course. That night after dinner we were enjoying a glass of wine and some more stories and Marg pulls out a video full of old imagery and one section of it was my grandparents wedding! Incredible.
On Sunday we headed out into the countryside and went to a local country estate called Clandon House. It has ties with NZ as one of the earls of the house was Governor General of NZ in the early 1900s. Around that time Lord Onslow (that was his name) bought and shipped a maori meeting house called Hinemihi from Lake Tarawera (where it had helped save lives during the eruption) to Clandon House. I must admit it was strange seeing this maori meeting house in the backyard of an english estate! Every year they hold a traditional maori performance and hangi at the meeting house, unfortunately we had just missed this years.
The house had beautiful NZ artifacts including a large rock of greenstone and a blanket made of kiwi fur that was given to Lord Onslow's son Huia. It was so nice to visit somewhere that had such a strong connection to NZ.
We spent a nice afternoon on the Saturday catching up and telling stories about various members of my family before heading for a walk through Epsom. A real english countryside type town with cute little parks, cottages & country lanes. We ended up at the Epsom racecourse, a very prestigious course frequented by the queen, for a relaxing drink at the pub that sits in the middle of the beautiful course. That night after dinner we were enjoying a glass of wine and some more stories and Marg pulls out a video full of old imagery and one section of it was my grandparents wedding! Incredible.
On Sunday we headed out into the countryside and went to a local country estate called Clandon House. It has ties with NZ as one of the earls of the house was Governor General of NZ in the early 1900s. Around that time Lord Onslow (that was his name) bought and shipped a maori meeting house called Hinemihi from Lake Tarawera (where it had helped save lives during the eruption) to Clandon House. I must admit it was strange seeing this maori meeting house in the backyard of an english estate! Every year they hold a traditional maori performance and hangi at the meeting house, unfortunately we had just missed this years.
The house had beautiful NZ artifacts including a large rock of greenstone and a blanket made of kiwi fur that was given to Lord Onslow's son Huia. It was so nice to visit somewhere that had such a strong connection to NZ.
1 comment:
Hi Rachel, Lovely to catch up with your 'doings' - refreshes my memory of places visited. Was in Glasgow myself a couple of weeks ago with a friend from New Zealand! We managed to cover Orkney in the north to the isle of wight at the bottom - quite a whirlwind. Glad to hear your beau is on his way - happy times ahead for you. lots of love, Great Auntie Marg.xx
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