Friday 17 May 2013

Short Break

At the beginning of this year i purchased a Groupon for a 1 night stay in a village on the Isle Of Sheppey,Kent.It cost me £49 (of which i have recieved casback as well from Topcashback)
This included accomodation for 2,2 course dinner and a bottle of wine and breakfast.
Time ran away with us and as it expired next week i got on and booked it for Yesterday.This also conicided with us having to pick our daughter up from the Gatwick.
So yesterday an alarm woke us up at 12.30 am,quick shower and up to Gatwick,home by 4.30 am back into bed and another alarm for 6 am to get up with my youngest whilst she got ready for school.
Getting up at 6 was really hard i wished i hadnt gone to bed again.

We dropped DD off and set off.M25 was definately alot busier than it had been earlier and a certain feeling of Deja vue .As per normal for the M25 an accident had closed 3 of the 4 lanes in the direction we were going so as soon as we heard we came off the motoway and joined the A roads.

Now the reason i have wanted to go to Kent was due to researching my family tree.
My maternal grandfather was quite old when my mum was born.He was born in a village in Kent called Plaxtol along with his sister Dora.
Dora married a gentleman called Frank and went on to have a child called Walter.
Walter was very famous so very easy to find information on.
Walter married  Mary Adelaide Somes Colyer-Ferguson and had a son Gilbert Walter Riversdale Monckton, 2nd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley CBOBEMC (3 November 1915 – 22 June 2006

The family home of Mary was Ightham Mote and this is where Gilbert was born ( are you still with me)

Monckton was the only son of Walter Monckton, 1st Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, created Viscount in 1957, and Mary Adelaide Somes Colyer-Ferguson. He was born at Ightham Mote, which was owned by his maternal grandfather, Sir Thomas Colyer-Fergusson. Monckton's sister, Valerie Goulding, founded the Irish Central Remedial Clinic and became a member of the Seanad Éireann. His father was a British lawyer and politician, and became chief legal advisor to King Edward VIII during the Abdication Crisis in 1936.

So this is my Great Aunts, grandson.
So for a long time i have wanted to visit Ightham mote as its now owned by the National Trust.
Its a beautiful house and well worth the visit and it was a lovely feeling to walk the floors that my ancestors had.








After our visit to the house we drove the short distance to Plaxtol to see where my Grandfather had come from.

We then drove to the Isle of Sheppey to our Hotel.We were given the Bridal suite which had a 4 poster bed and a Jacuzzi bath( oh the luxury of having a bath)
We loved our stay in the hotel and cant fault it or the staff.
Today after a hearty breakfast we left the Island and drove to a few different coastal resorts all 3 were very run down which was sad to see.We decided on our way home to stop in Canterbury which is a lovely place ,would have liked to have had more time to explore.We didn't pay to go into the Cathedral grounds but we could see it from various vantage points.

We had a lovely couple of days and got to see parts of our lovely country that neither of us had seen before.

4 comments:

  1. Wow how lovely to visit there. I didn't t know you could use top cashback with groupon? Must have a look as I do use groupon a bit.
    My parents live in Kent. It's true about the seaside resorts, they are really awful. Deal is about the only semi decent place and we don't bother going there really. Canterbury is lovely and I also really like Sandwich.
    Glad you had a good time.

    Much love
    FIB. X

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  2. Sounds like a real whirlwind of activity, but looks like you had a wonderful visit to your ancestral home.

    I always find that a couple of days break feels longer when you squeeze more into it, although you do need a day after to recover :-)

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  3. It looks as if you had a great time. How lovely to be able to combine some family history into the trip. Jx

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  4. Thank you for dropping in on me ... Looks like you had a great time too! Very interesting family history and what a great bargain ... After my extravagant weekend I need all the thrifty tips I can get!

    Going to have a browse through your blog if I may?

    Love Claire xxx (your new follower)

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