Midlands Holiday - Day 3
We couldn’t really visit Nottinghamshire without visiting Sherwood Forest. So we toddled off to the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre for a mooch around the forest. We were a bit disappointed to find we were a few days too early for the Robin Hood Festival, but there were plenty of folk wearing little green hats to make up for it. We wandered down to the Major Oak, an 800 year old oak reputed to be the home of Robin Hood’s band. It’s certainly a huge tree, so huge it has to be supported by ironwork which look’s a bit strange.
We then visited the Southwell Workhouse, a National Trust property. I’d never visited a workhouse before, and to be perfectly honest the audio tour was almost as monotonous as life in the workhouse must have been, but perhaps this is the effect they were going for. It’s well worth a visit though – apparently 4/5 folk in the UK have an ancestor that at one point or another was forced into the workhouse so it’s important to understand this aspect of our history. It must have been immensely degrading.
Southwell Minster was an unexpected bonus of our visit since we hadn’t realised it existed until we drove past it. Of course after a visit to the church we toddled off to the Saracen’s Head pub for a pint!
It was then time to head off to the Travelodge in Nuneaton-Bedworth. Once we’d arrived we had dinner at the local Beefeater (attached to a Premier Inn) which was very good, and apparently once the home of the author George Eliot. Mark had been watching Marco’s Great British Feast about puddings earlier in the week and was after a supreme pudding to celebrate his childhood. Oh boy did we find it. We had a double Chocolate Brownie Sundae to share – it was enormous. Think about the size of a Knickerbocker Glory when you were six – well the sundae glass was that size, about the same size as a bucket in fact. It was quite glorious, if a little embarrassing!