Alrewas is a lovely little village with some very quaint houses and a lot of big and very expensive cars parked in the yards.
The view down from the canal bridge gave us a hint of what was to come.
One of the little croked houses
Originaly this building would have had the panels between the timber A frames filled with laths of willow dawbed with mud mixes with cow or horse hair and then finished of with a lime wash, a fairly light weight combination. Over time the lathe and mud has been replaced with brick which has probably contributed to a little movement!
Its next door neighbour looks more original.
This house is just over the road from the shops and also appears more or less original.
In addition to the normal shops the village also has a specialist butcher with a very good reputation. Unfortunatly as it was a sunday we were unable to sample any of his exotic offerings.
Not all the houses are timber framed, this red brick house with its lovley first floor bay window & door casment makes a very plesant addition to the streetscape. It’s a shame about the other windows being in plastic.
We had seen referance to the National Memorial Arbiritum in varius tourist publications and locals had recomended we visit.
I was not overly keen but we took a day out and made the trip.
We drove but I think a bus would go there from Alrewas.
As the arberitum is located within a reclaimed gravel pit the Landscape Architect has had a free hand in molding both the planting and the landscape area into a homogenius hole, not an easy task when one compairs the different size monuments which have been accomodated.
Entry to the site is via a huge car park which has been designed to take choach parties and private cars.
The main pavilion contains a huge reception area so as to accept a large number of people arriving at the same time, a resturant, gift shop and all the usual facilities one would expect plus an option to hire a golf cart type vehical to help the less able access the site without two much effort.
We took the land train (which was not cheep) which provides trips round the grounds, one has the ability to alight at any time, but then you have to walk back to the pavilion.
We found this totally unsatisfactory as it had only just started its trip and I needed to get off. We would recommend the cart option as at the end of the day I ended up walking round and as the area is so vast I ended up not getting to a particuler area of personal significance.