Downton Abbey

We had barely landed in England when Hawkeye H spotted an event celebrating (?) the 100th anniversary of the start of World War 1. As it was held at a long term bucket list trip we found ourselves at Downton Abbey the day after landing.

The castle and grounds can only be described as grand and despite many thousands of visitors it was only crowded next to the food outlets.

There were all sorts of displays including the Reading Scottish band.

Churchill and Montgomery (OK it was not limited to just WW1)

And some of the light horse brigade which were beautifully turned out – just look at the mane.

A WWII radio – even the box of spare valves was 5 times thicker than today’s iPhone.

However, a large part of the day was about flight. Even the youngest could imagine defying the ground with a little help from a grandparent.

Up in the sky was a team flying Tiger Moths. These had no starter motors or brakes (hence the expression “chocks away” when setting off). Most of these pilots flew commercial aircraft (A320 etc) so this was really a high flying busman’s holiday.

There were two Sopworth Triplanes – they seemed so slow that a bow and arrow might be a suitable Anti-Aircraft defence.

And the last plane was (I think) some sort of German Fokker. It will be up to the personal quality of the blog readers as to how this is interpreted.

One of the lasting memories was however, not allowed to be photographed. In the basement and at the risk of disappointing many followers, there is not the kitchen of Dowton Abbey fame but an Egyptian display. The castle is owned by the Earl of Carnarvon. His grandfather undertook many expeditions to Egypt seeking out treasures and after some 15 years of limited success and on the verge of giving up, he and a long term friend Carter, found the Tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. When the tomb was opened apparently the lights in Cairo went out, and even more eerily that year Lord Carnarvon died of an infection due to a cut when shaving. The gold on the mask of Tutankhamun was  strangely thin at the same location as his cut……….