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England
“Green
and pleasant land”
 Avebury Stone Circle
Land of my birth. I didn’t actually
begin to know England until I was in my teens and went there for summer
vacation work. I worked in we were being accommodated by a gruff
trucker in
his rig. Right on top of the Pennines there was a truck on
fire…burning rather vigorously. It was carrying a load of
Queen Anne whisky! There were police everywhere…attempting
to deter the many spectators (mainly truckers) from making off with
cases of whisky. I was very amused to note that, while most of the
police were engaged in this activity, another was stashing a number of
cases in the trunk of his police car! Later, in the 70’s I
was to spend 6 years living outside Grimsby
for Bird’s Eye frozen foods picking peas, canned strawberries
in Lincolnshire,
and picked hops in Kent.
When the strawberries started to tail off, I went on to Jersey
in the Channel
Islands and did hotel work. This was the early to mid
60’s. I had a ball! I also had a quick sortie in 1964 when a
friend and I hitch-hiked from Glasgow
down to Newbury
overnight. (He lived there) En route we had an unforgettable
experience. As we crossed the Pennines between Penrith
and Scotch
CornerSwindon
where I worked as a psych. Nurse in the Royal Air Force. During this 6
year period my wife and I traveled around the West Country when we
could get away at weekends. We also ‘did the London
thing’ a couple of times. Since our families were in Scotland
and Ireland, most of our holidays were spent visiting them. We would
have liked to see more of England and Wales as we had fallen in love
with rural England. In recent years I have had the opportunity to spend
a bit of time in England and Wales, but there is much I would still
like to see. (Wiltshire)    Let me give you a quick overview of England. First-off…there is just so much of everything there! So much history, culture, scenery and activities of every kind that it would take volumes and years to cover it all. Vibrant cities like London, Bristol, Oxford, Cambridge, Birmingham, Manchester, Chester, Liverpool, York, Durham and Newcastle have all been spending billions on renewal of their city centres and dock areas. They teem with life and history. More my scene is rural England, which has generally managed against the odds to preserve the ethos of quiet country life. I love the little villages and country lanes. My idea of excitement is to sit outside an English village pub supping a pint of real ale and sucking on a sandwich of fresh bread and locally made cheese while chatting to the locals. England has an abundance of scenic areas and national parks. Starting in the south there is Dartmoor, Exmoor, the New Forest, the Cotswolds, the Downs, Norfolk Broads, Peak District of Derbyshire, Yorkshire’s North and South Moors, the Yorkshire Dales, the Lake District and Northumberland National Park. That was straight off the top of my head and I probably missed some others! Then there are the coastal areas…each area different from the others. Rivers, canals and railways criss-cross the landscape everywhere. Castles, cathedrals, stately homes at every turn. Little roads laugh at their motorway cousins and pretty cottages smile gracefully at their city tenement siblings. What more can I say? England has something for everyone and an abundance of most of the good things in life. Hey! This is an Irishman extolling the virtues of the old enemy! You gotta believe it! (For more
detailed
information on England, please go to ENGLAND Top 10 page.)
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