Wiltshire Family Trip!

For a quick family trip, we stayed in a lovely cottage, went to see family in Holt, visited Bath, explored Lacock and ate out a lot!
Click here for the vlog or watch below. 
After an early morning and a long drive, we were all very pleased to arrive safe and sound at our beautiful holiday cottage. It was so pretty, beautifully decorated and very modern. I've done a whole review on the accommodation so go ahead and read it here
Of course, for many people in the family, the first stop was the garden, cigarette in hand. I've come to realise over the years, that you can't change people. You can provide facts and encourage change, but ultimately, it's the individuals own responsibility to do so. Now I tend to take photos of the smoking habit and - especially my mum - hates photos like that, which only makes me want to do them more. Mwhaha! Rain or shine, they're out there. 
We went out for a nice meal on the way down, so after playing some dominoes, I finished my work, unpacked and then we all got an early night. The next morning, it was a little overcast but meant to be a nice day. I went with cropped trousers and a loose cami in the hopes that I wouldn't be too hot or too cold. 
The main reason we chose Wiltshire as a "holiday" destination, was to visit family and on my end, to learn about the family history. I tried to capture moments of learning and conversation on the vlog but I also tried to be mindful that it's a private story despite myself wanting to share. First up, we went to see my grandma's cousin. She now lives in the house my great great grand dad built in 1901. All of his children were born in the house, except his first, my great grandma who was born 2 years prior in 1899. It's such a surreal feeling to be able to explore the house that was built by family. Even the garden is special. It's beautiful but it also has chairs and benches that were welded by my great great uncle who was a welder.
Unfortunately, my grandma's cousin had an accident a little while ago so was stuck in a wheelchair, but it did mean that my grandma could use her mobility scooter which meant we could all go for a walk around the village. We saw some of the families other properties, alongside the old pub my ancestors ran and then also the diary farm.
Plus, we headed to see the graves where I learnt so much about our family names. Emily (my sister's middle name) happened to be one of my great great aunt's which was new to me. My Great Aunty Rachel is a wealth a knowledge and taught me all about my Great Great Uncle who died in the first world war having travelled to Canada and returned home to join the battle.
Before leaving, we enjoyed lunch at a lovely little pub down the road and the food was delicious.
On the way home we went to another little village called Bradford on Avon with tonnes of teeny old cottages and the prettiest river running through. It was so hilly!
There, we enjoyed desserts and some drinks in the afternoon sun. It was the perfect way to end the evening.
The next day, we headed to Bath. Bath is somewhere I have always wanted to go. I think it's well known for the healing baths and as much as I would have absolutely loved to have gone in to see them, for how long we had to explore, it wouldn't have been worth it, but also the queue to get in was huge. In the end we ended up getting grandma to a park as she was struggling to walk, and then the three of us explored a little before going shopping. My favourite shop was Apricot and I did a mini try on haul which you can see here.
 The architecture in Bath is defintely gorgeous. They're all so pretty and huge. It's so busy walking around and with so many buskers, it definitely reminds me a lot of London.
Finally, we joined the "oldies" in the gardens and as I walked around exploring the flower designs, we enjoyed coffee, lunch and cake before the brass band came on to play. I think everyone was a little disappointed in the end at it was just quartet but I enjoyed it and loved seeing my grandma dance.
The last day we spent in Lacock. Luckily, the National Trust had wheelchairs available so we pushed grandma around the village and gardens as we slowly plodded through the quaint buildings. Everything was so small and petite but as boring as I found it, I was fascinated to learn about all the filming that had taken place there. From Pride and Prejudice to Downtown Abbey in the big manor house, to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. 
 It was also surrounded by some beautiful scenery. The lakes and rivers were really pretty but my favourite was that one of them ran right over the main road to a couple of houses and houses still had people living in them.

I think the walking (and wheeling) tired everyone out because only Jess, mum and I ended up going out for a meal. It was at the local pub and they were also having a pub quiz that night. The pub quiz was so much fun and amazingly, we came second! Meaning we got a fun night of games for free, plus won back £7. I wasn't anticipating how much effort everyone was going to put in, especially in the art round with The Simpsons and an astronaut! We were all so shocked that we came second.
 I had a beautiful view from my bedroom, especially at sunset.
Despite being super tiring and really wearing at times, I'm so glad I managed to be able to get time off work and that my shifts turned out well with timings. It was a lovely few days and I'm so glad I got to learn more about my family history. 

Comments