Day 41 - Bedknobs and teeth!

Not the best start to the morning as I managed to break the bed in the caravan (Comments not allowed), followed by breaking a tooth whilst eating breakfast, then my shoelaces broke! One of things about caravaning is most things are simple to repair, so 4 screws later and a good amount of "no more nails" glue the bed was quickly repaired. It took slightly longer to sort out my teeth problem as I had to wait until the afternoon to get my tooth or as it turned out teeth sorted with an emergency filling. These don't come cheap especially as it is a short term solution and will need doing properly on our return but I like to ensure that Brad our normal dentist can continue to afford his annual holiday each year which I seem to fund. As for the shoe laces in all of the excitement of being able to eat again, I forgot to pick up a pair, so I have adopted a John Cleese (Monty Python - ministry of silly walks) style of walk whilst trying to keep one shoe on! If I don't get a pair of laces tomorrow will revert to the "Gaffer Tape" solution.
Today's exciting adventure took us to Paxton House, with a bit of skillful negotiation, I manged to get the  admission fee down to under half price, and could of reduced it further when they asked if Anne was a "concession" - I didn't think I could get away with it, with Anne if I replied "of course".
We had a excellent guided tour of the house led by "Richard" who I had met whilst negotiating the entrance fee, we seem to be kindred spirits. The 18th century Georgian  house is full of Chippendale furniture - the Ikea flat-pack of the period. Did you know that the Chippendale factory in London made all its large furniture in sections and then had assembled on site including 4 poster beds by using nuts and bolts? They also produced wall paper and soft furnishings - the complete Ikea store.
We also enjoyed the gardens, Anne now has a list of plants for our new manse in Bristol

After visiting the dentist - did I mention the broken tooth? - we visited Berwick Parish Church, Unique because it was only one of two churches in the whole of the country that was built during the

Puritan times and this is reflected in its style and appearance. There is no altar, steeple, chancel, bells, font. Originally it wouldn't have had any stained glass or organ, although today the church has both - notice the position of the organ.The church was funded by collecting money throughout England, and it was consecrated on 6th July 1662 by the Bishop of Durham, however the Vicar Rev Luke Ogle at the time was unable to accepted the Act of Uniformity and was required to leave.

Berwick Lighthouse from Spittal Beach
this evening