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  • GeoGuessr – St. Osyth (The Village Sign)

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    The St. Osyth village (or town) sign, installed to mark the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. There are four items featured on the sign and I can’t work one of them out.

    TOP-LEFT is St. Osyth herself, also known as St. Osgyth, who was a saint who lived in the seventh century AD. There is a story that when she was beheaded she then picked up her own head before walking to a local convent and then collapsing there in safety. I say safety, but she was already dead, so there was perhaps little need to be safe.

    TOP-RIGHT is a bird. I have no idea why.

    BOTTOM-LEFT is one I had to think about for a while, but the key represents St. Peter and the sword represents St. Paul. This puzzled me until I remembered that the town’s church is dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul.

    BOTTOM-RIGHT is the town’s priory.

    I hope I work out that bird one, or perhaps Nathan knows since he was there, he was probably paying more attention to the clues that there were no doubt there to be solved.

  • GeoGuessr – St. Osyth (The White Hart)

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    This building looks as though it has been derelict for some time, but the White Hart has only been closed for around four years. Located on Mill Street in the town, this pub had an excellent reputation and it’s a real shame that this is another drinking house lost to the community. It certainly looks now that it’d be nearly impossible to viably return this into being a pub and I imagine that its future lies as a residential property.

    It’s known that the building was used as a pub from at least the 1760s, and likely much earlier. Some elements of the building date back to the 1500s, so there’s a lot of history which has been lost in terms of it being a building used by the community. It is though a listed building, so at least the structure of the property should be secure.

    The former pub is located near to a mill, and it’s also where the coroner’s inquiry into the death of a local man took place. On Monday 24 June 1878, William Codd, the Coroner for East Essex, looked into the death of the 16-year old George Carter, who had drowned in the mill’s pond. The death had taken place the day before and it was witnessed by a local butcher, Henry Carter, who was the deceased’s brother. They were both swimming in the pond, albeit without permission, when George got into difficulty.

    The decision in this case was one of “accidental drowning”, but it’s a reminder of the history that exists in locations such as this. Henry Carter walked into the White Hart to get help and he had to tell the landlord that his brother was dead. It’s hard to imagine what went through the mind of Henry Carter on that day, during the coroner’s inquiry and for the rest of his life.

    The Carter family lived on Colchester Road in St. Osyth, with the parents being Isaac and Harriott, and at the time of the 1871 census, the children were William (then aged 12), Henry (then aged 10), George (then aged 8), Isaac (then aged 6), Arthur (then aged 4) and David (then aged 2). That’s a lot of boys, and very evenly spread out.

  • GeoGuessr – St. Osyth (The Cage)

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    This brightly coloured building is The Cage, now a residential property, but formerly the town’s prison. It remained in use until 1908 and it’s one of only seven medieval cages which are still surviving in the country. Having written that though, I’m puzzled why this isn’t a listed building.

    The main door to the cage element of the property, which is now one of three rooms in the house. We were going to walk along what we thought was a footpath at the rear of the property, but Nathan saw something through the window and panicked. He said that it was someone in a kitchen, but I think he probably saw a ghost……

    An information board at the property gives a flavour of its history, noting Ursula Kemp’s link with the house. The house was sold earlier this year for £240,000 (or at least, that was what the property was marketed for) and it was mentioned by the estate agent that it would be ideal for a “paranormal holiday rent” cottage. They also called it the most haunted house in Essex, and perhaps in England, given the high level of paranormal activity. I, for one, certainly wouldn’t want to live there.

  • GeoGuessr – Location Number 2

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    We had reached our first random GeoGuessr location, in St. Osyth, and it was therefore time to get our second random location. So, standing in the rain, I looked on my phone and the above image is the location, and amazingly, it is by a pub. For anyone who wants to, they can try and work it out from the above photo, but I’ll post more clues later on (not that anyone is really going to be much bothered by this, but it amuses me….).

  • GeoGuessr – And We’ve Reached the Spot

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    So, this was the random location given to us by GeoGuessr that we said that we’d go and visit, wherever it was in England and Wales.

    I look ridiculous when looking straight at the camera….

    We did think about getting the exact angle by standing in the middle of the road, but it was a bit busy and so we thought this was sufficient….

    And, since we had reached our point, it was then time to select our next random location. More on which in the next post.

  • GeoGuessr – St. Osyth (Red Lion)

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    Just before we visited the point that GeoGuessr had randomly given us some weeks before, there was time for a stop in the local pub. Notable to me for being a pub which the Time Team had sat in to deliberate their findings on the episode filmed in the town. The pub itself has some history to it, it’s over two hundred years old and it’s a sizeable building which still offers accommodation.

    We sat at the rear of the pub, in what was primarily a dining area. It felt slightly old fashioned, but a modernisation wouldn’t have really suited the pub. It was though all clean and organised and the welcome at the bar was friendly and engaging. The pub was selling a house beer for £3 per pint and this was an acceptable choice for us.

    The food was very much comfort food, lots of pies and I must admit that they sounded tempting. But, alas, they weren’t doing food when we were there. And we’d already been to the Indian restaurant around the corner.

    I’m not sure I entirely liked that one entire room at the front of the pub was taken up with a pool table, but, if it works for them, that’s all to the good. The pub did have a community feel to it, in the most positive of ways, and it seems well reviewed by locals and visitors.

    I liked the pub’s sign in the male toilets. Unfortunately, we didn’t see a lion nearby during our visit (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-19388301). And neither of us suffered the misfortune that one of the locals succumbed to our visit, when they managed to fall down the step into the toilets (not literally into the toilet I’m pleased to report)….

    So, we went onwards then to go and look for our GeoGuessr location….

  • GeoGuessr – St. Osyth (King’s Arms – now closed)

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    We were aware that this pub had recently closed, but just in case, we checked just to see. Unfortunately, it’s still closed, and there are rumours that it’ll be turned into a house and other rumours that it’ll be re-opened as a pub. I’d have thought that re-opening this would be a challenge, as St. Osyth isn’t enormous and there is another pub down the road.

    The beer garden looked exciting and it’d be nice to think that one day it can re-open. The pub dates back to the late eighteenth century, so it’s a shame that this little slice of village history has come to an end.

  • GeoGuessr – St. Osyth (Longfields)

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    We noticed this easy to read and simple to digest sign when we were walking by, really useful for car drivers on their way past….

    They were less enthusiastic on the other side of the road.

  • GeoGuessr – Balti House

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    We were now safely in St. Osyth, but since our walk had taken longer than we had expected, we were now running late and we thought we’d better get food where we could as some of the locations stopped serving at 14:00. The Indian restaurant claimed it served until 14:30, so given that it was near enough to 14:00 we decided to try there.

    The welcome was friendly, with the waiter checking with the kitchen that they could still serve us. What appeared to be the manager came out and seemed happy for us to be there and although we said we’d be quick, he never rushed the service. So, we were relieved to be there, have food and get out of the rain.

    The menu.

    I love poppadoms!

    And the dips of course.

    The food arrived and the portion size of my chicken curry and Nathan’s mutton curry was generous, with a rice to share between us. The dishes were of an above average quality, plenty of tender chicken and the sauce had a depth of taste to it. The chicken curry was perhaps very slightly oily, but I was happy with the taste, temperature and presentation, all perfectly acceptable.

    Given the length of our adventure to get to this point, this was a really lovely meal in a quiet and peaceful restaurant. The owners have operated this restaurant for over twenty years, so they’re clearly doing something right.

    Although, having said that, one reviewer on TripAdvisor was livid:

    “Should have been a quiet, simple dinner with family & nearly ended up in a fight with a local over parking WHEN THEY HIT OUR CAR!!!

    The Bad…

    Terrible Location
    NO PARKING!
    Dirty & tatty on the outside, (the same inside).
    Expensive
    Stingy portions
    Limited selection
    Think the rice came in a packet, it was over cooked!
    Waiters mocking customers, (not in English)

    The Good…

    Nothing. Thankfully we didn’t order much to start with and made our excuses & left ASAP.”

    I love it when people go out looking for a good time and a positive experience, always looking for the best in a place. I’m not quite sure how the restaurant is responsible for the reviewer being involved in a car accident, and surely the portions would be limited if the reviewer “didn’t order much”. But each to their own.

    So, anyway, the restaurant was visited, now it was just the pub before we headed off to our GeoGuessr location.

     

  • GeoGuessr – Great Bentley to St. Osyth

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    Even though it was a little bit moist, we thought we should walk from Great Bentley to St. Osyth. The first section of the walk was perfectly acceptable, with a pavement stretching for some distance. We then had some road walking, before realising that there was a path running parallel to the road which we excitedly took.

    We were really impressed at our progress, with our estimated time of arrival (via Google Maps) changing from 13:48 to 13:29 because of the excellent pace that we were keeping. Richard would have been furious, but we were determined to get food at a reasonable time. I was surprised just how fast that Nathan could walk, it was pretty much at 4mph. LDWA walks are certainly something he will be taking part in….

    Things then went slightly askew, and although we remained brave, it was hard to see how we were ever going to get to St. Osyth. Irritatingly, we were fooled by a private no entry sign, which we discovered later in the day was completely misleading, it was actually the public footpath that we wanted.

    Anyway, we set off on what we thought was the only path open to us, but we asked a man walking his dogs for assistance, and he tells us that it was easy to walk to St. Osyth, but the path is now a building site. However, he was positive and he told us that we could still get access that way. It transpired that the route he showed us took just a little longer than ideal, but we happily march on and I also saw a deer which was rather lovely (and the snake sign).

    Anyway, the path was never bloody ending, and it seemed to loop us around St. Osyth. Fearing that we were going to miss lunch, we sped up a little, in the hope that a bit of energetic speed would help us forwards. Although we seemed to be heading towards the town’s creek at some pace. The surroundings were though beautiful, lots of, well, moist field.

     

    There was good news eventually, we ended up hitting the town’s former harbour (not literally). I have more historical information on this, mainly gleaned from the episode of Time Team which was filmed here, but that’s for another post. I will say that it was nice to get to the town, even though it was further to the south of it than we expected.

    What a lovely little house   🙂

    And that’s the end of this post, after one hour and ten minutes of walking, we reached the town centre. The next part of our mission was complete…