Bath to Conwy - Harry Potter and Family History

Gloucester Cathedral * Stock-on-Trent * Maccelsfield

Driving around England is gorgeous and green, the distances are further than I expected, partly because the country is large and once we get off the freeway the streets are small and wind through the countryside.  Often times we are only going 30 mph.

We took our time today traveling from Bath to Conwy making a few stops.  Our first was Gloucester Cathedral where we sent the kids on a Harry Potter scavenger hunt (Eric and I waited in the car).  3 Harry Potter movies were filmed here and we gave the kids clues to where some scenes were filmed - their mission was to figure out which scenes were filmed in each place. They did pretty good (scored about 75%) and it was a good diversion from driving.

Out next stop was a small city called Trentham just outside Stoke-on-Trent.  In 1840 Richard Brough was the first Brough to join the church in this city and we visited the church were he is buried and the address (now a police station) where he lived as a married man.  Richard Brough is my G-G-G-G grandfather and his granddaughter Mary Brough married William Rex Jr.  We didn't find his gravesite, but we did find a distant relative of his listed on the outside of the church in a memorial to those killed in WWI.

After Trentham, we stopped by Maccelsfield, a really nice town from where the Maxfield's originated way back in the 1500s.  We visited the church which had a Maxfield coat or arms and a medieval staircase and then wandered around the pedestrian only area of the main town.  I love all the happy walking towns we've visited on this trip.  We need more of that in the USA.

We arrived in Conwy (yes - there is no A in this word) to find our apartment just inside the old city walls (cool).  A short walk and we are up on the ramparts looking down at the entire city (small - today only 4000 people).  Just beyond is a cool castle that we'll visit later.  At the grocery store tonight I had a moment realizing how much I miss the Italian and French food.  There was no fresh baked bread, only about 2 kinds of cheese, very average looking fruits and vegetables, no good chocolate, and no yummy hams or prociuto.  The poor English - I guess it'll just be fish and chips (actually we made omelets).

If I thought Basque was bad in northern Spain or Catalan bad in southern Spain, Welsh is just as bad.  I haven't run into anyone yet that is actually speaking Welsh, but all the sign are first in Welsh and then English and there are no similarities!

Trentham Church where Richard Brough was burried

Maxfield coat of arms

running up the stairs behind Maccelsfied cathedral