2024 England - April - Norfolk Trip - Day 01 - Clacton on Sea

 April 7, 2024

Today is the 7th of April.  It is a Sunday….conference Sunday.  We have completed half our mission serving in the temple.  It is really hard to believe.  But today is the first day that the temple is down for its two week maintenance.  I’ve been planning a trip along the south east portion of England up to the Norfolk area.  We are travelling with 3 other couples…Binghams, Nelsons and Thackeray’s.  We left at 9 AM which was early since the Saturday afternoon conference session begins at 9 pm here.  So we were up late.  Anyway, we set off to see some National Trust and English Heritage sites. 

Our first stop was at the Old Soar Manor, a National Trust site.  We had a very narrow road journey getting to this site and when we arrived, it said it was a private house.  I didn’t believe it.  So I went up and knocked.  Yes it was a private home that was attached to the manor.  The lady was very nice saying the manor was next door. And it was.  But it was attached to the private residence.  So the two buildings felt like they were one.  Very odd.

The manor was built in the 1200’s.  And the wood beams looked like it.  I’m always amazed that they let humans in some of these places!  It had multiple floors and was built in such a way that it was easily protected against those who would want to invade it.

We then travelled to an old fort….Fort Tilbury. It was pretty fascinating.  It was built in the 1600’s and used into the early 1900’s.  I found it interesting that people still live on site there.  It sits on the mouth of the River Thames as it dumps into the North Sea.  

After an hour so at the fort, we headed to our hotel for the first night, stopping at a gas station for some food.  Our hotel is at Clacton on Sea.  Our hotel is The Whitecliff Hotel.  It sits across from the sea.  Nice hotel and nice location.  Unfortunately it is a bit cold and really windy.  Nonetheless, we all went for an hour long walk before settling in to watch the Sunday morning session of conference.  

After watching conference, we all met in the restaurant in our hotel to have some dinner.  It was a bit late for me (7 PM) to eat too much.  So Denise and I split a curry dish.  It was yummy.  Service in England is slow by design.  They never want to hurry you.  We ended up paying our bill around 8:30 PM so we could retire to our rooms and watch the final session of conference there.

I am blessed to do such things.  But I’m so grateful to be alive when the fullness of the gospel is on the earth.  The gospel has and continues to bless my life in very deep ways.  This conference had a real feel to focus the lives of members of the church towards the temple.  It felt like King Benjamin’s day when they turned the doors of their tents towards the temple and King Benjamin to hear his counsel.  President Nelson concluded conference announcing 15 new temples…one in Scotland…which got the UK saints all emotional on social media.  I pray that the saints come more frequently to the House of the Lord in south England.  We stand ready to welcome them!

Some pictures….

Our travel mates!  Left to right…Tim, Denise, Doug Bingham, Kathy Bingham, Carol Nelson, Anna Thackeray, Scott Nelson & Dave Thackeray.  Wonderful friends they are.

The Old Soar Manor.  The name is correct…it is old.  And it lies in the village of Soar.

Some doors leading into the manor….

The main hall inside the manor.  It is on the 2nd story and you had to take a spiral staircase to get up into it…which was a defensive mechanism having a spiral staircase in those days.

A nice window in the manor…

Picture of Fort Tilbury.  It is quite large and sits right on the river Thames.  It protected the entrance to England via the Thames back in the day.

Spring is springing up all around with lots of pretty flowers wildly appearing.  Yellow is Denise’s favorite color and you can see fields of yellow flowers everywhere that we drive.

One of the gun stations that shot ammo that weighed over 200 pounds.  It took 10 men to arm the gun and it could only get 1 shot off every 2 minutes…which became a big problem as ships became faster.

Entry doors into one of the many buildings on the site of the Fort.

We are on a knoll looking over the river Thames.  In the background you can see a cruise ship.  Boy, did that make us trunky when we saw that!  We all wanted to go board and head out while dining at a buffet.

In England, all the beaches have these ‘sheds’ that are rented and\or purchased by individuals to be used while they are bathing in the sea.  They contain their beach supplies but are big enough to allow people to sit in them, rest in them, etc..  Some people make them fancy.

Enjoying the ‘warm’ water.  Denise, Carol and Kathy in the wind at the sea shore.

Denise enjoying the beach….with a sock hat on in April.

The Whitecliff Hotel, where we stayed at.  Really nice place right across from the beach.

Denise’s downtime activity now is creating small little animals like this one.  Is it a mouse or a cat,  you decide.  Our flat is full of these fury guys that she has made.  All different types of critters.   They are pretty cute, all of them.

One of the larger highways we traveled on today.  That’s our little red car taken by our friends behind us.  This was on the way to the Old Soar Manor.  You can see a car coming at me. Fortunately there was a pull out otherwise I’d be backing up a long ways as there is no room on these roads to pivot around.

This is the gatehouse to Fort Tilbury.

An example of one of the rooms where kegs of gun powder were stored.