The Waggon and Horses Hotel South Reston, Lincolnshire
St James's Church, Louth
View vertically down from the tower
The door down the steps.
Mick waving from the top of St James's Church, 4th opening on right
Mick self portrait. Lyn is sitting in the car way up the road on the left hand side.
12 times zoom picture of Lyn up the road
The spiral staircaseRain again overnight which woke Mick up because Lyn likes to sleep with the windows open. Nothing wakes Lyn up!
The rain had started to clear as we headed off up the A158 towards Grimsby, our next stop. Just south of the town of Louth we detoured down the A157 to South Reston to visit a pub that Mick's Dad used to take him to as a child.
Mick's dad was a friend of the Landlord, a chap called Fred Knaggs. Mick can't remember the details of why they used to go there as his Dad didn't drink much so it must have been to visit a friend. He used to drive there from Nottingham.
Fred had a Fox which he kept in a barn and allowed the young Mick to peer at it's eyes shining out of the dark of the barn.
He also remembers Joyce going with the family when they had just bought a new 1953 Austin A30 which they left out the back with the keys in it. Joyce thought it would be a good idea to have a drive while the parents where inside socialising. She ordered Mick to get into the passenger seat and started the car and put it in reverse at which point it roared off backwards heading towards the house. In fear of his life, Mick shouted for Joyce to stop but it was obviously totally out of control. He then shouted for her to put the brake on but she said she had already done that and noticed her heaving on the handbrake to no avail.
Inches before disaster, Joyce yanked the gear lever out of reverse and the little van stopped. Mick recalls them leaving it where it was afraid to start it again.
Sworn to secrecy by his sister, neither of them mentioned it to their parents.
When we arrived at the pub Mick was surprised that it was still called the Waggon and Horses and apart from some major extensions it was much as he remembered it.
We went inside and had a chat to the publican, Nigel, who knew of Fred Knaggs. He said that Fred Knaggs son lived in the next village.
After taking some pictures we headed back to the A16 and headed north taking another detour into the little village of Louth.
One of the first things we noticed when we entered the village was a beautiful spire belonging to St James's Church soaring into the sky. St James's is dated somewhere in the twelfth century and it has the tallest spire (295 feet) of any medieval parish church in the country.
Mick wanted to have a closer look but Lyn preferred to sit in the car and read the paper so he found a free (wow) park for 2 hours and headed off.
When he got to the church he found that the public could go in for free and for a small payment, climb the tower. So off he went through a medieval wooden door and up the spiral concrete steps (all 198 of them) to the top.
The view from up there was spectacular and to prove that he had climbed it, he rang Lyn on her mobile as he could see our car parked some distance away. She got out of the car and he said 'Look up to the top of the church spire.." and there was the old fool waving to her. Anyway, his heart must be OK as the notice on the door advised people not to attempt the climb if their heart was iffy. Joyce has been pestering Mick to have a heart stress test for years so Mick has now done it!
Unfortunately the story doesn't end there as when he was leaving the church having made a donation, he couldn't find his sunglasses and then remembered that he had hung them from a floodlight bracket at the top of the tower so that he could take pictures and had forgotten to pick them up. Now he had to decide whether to climb the tower again, another 396 steps up and down. Bearing in mind Mick does not buy expensive sunglasses, so we are not talking about a pair of Ray-Bans Did he do it or not?
Mick returned to the car and we headed off to our next digs, the St James Hotel in Grimsby which overlooks St James Square. ( After he had booked it (some days ago) he heard on the news the following night that someone had been stabbed in the park, great!) On arrival we found the park area full of young people playing up and our 3rd floor room overlooks the lawns of the park.
Since this is quite an old hotel there is no double glazing here so we are not looking forward to tonight.
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