My
BRIT 2012 mile blog; sharing encounters and memories from every county of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland throughout 2012
2012 BRIT miles with a spinal cord injury; the equivalent of
310 marathon distances in 330 days to support young people post-trauma
Thanks
to everyone for supporting me on my toughest challenge
This month’s BRIT 2012 mile walk is November in the West Midlands
Day 288 - Luton Hoo Hotel to
Stevenage and on to Coombe Country Park & Coombe Abbey Hotel, Rugby
A busy day of traveling today, so
I woke early and walked within the beautiful grounds of the Luton Hoo Hotel http://www.lutonhoo.co.uk/
on a gloriously crisp and sunny morning before setting off for Stevenage. Luton Hoo straddles the Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire borders between the towns of Harpenden
and Luton.
The unusual name "Hoo" is a Saxon word meaning the spur of a hill, and is
more commonly associated with East Anglia.
 |
| The Luton Hoo Hotel now |
Luton Hoo is not mentioned in the Domesday book, but a family called de Hoo occupied a manor house on the site for four centuries, until the
death of Lord Thomas Hoo
in 1455.
Successive houses on the site seem to have changed hands several times
until in 1762 the then owner, Francis Hearne (MP for Bedford),
sold the estate for £94,700 to John Stuart, 3rd Earl of
Bute. Following an unhappy period as Prime Minister from 1762 to 1763, Bute decided to
concentrate his energies on his Bedfordshire estate at Luton Hoo.
 |
| Luton Hoo in 1829 |
The present house was built for the 3rd Earl of Bute by the neoclassical architect Robert Adam. Work commenced in 1767. The original plan
had been for a grand and magnificent new house. However, this plan was never
fully executed and much of the work was a remodeling of the older house.
Building work was interrupted by a fire in 1771, but by 1774 the house, though
incomplete, was inhabited.
Luton Hoo was one of the largest houses for which Adam was wholly
responsible. While Adam was working on the mansion the landscape gardener Capability Brown was enlarging and redesigning the
park; formerly approximately 300 acres it was now enlarged to 1,200 acres.
Luton Hoo has appeared in many films including A Shot in the Dark, Never Say Never Again, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Eyes Wide Shut, The Secret Garden, Princess Caraboo, Wilde, The World Is Not Enough, Quills,
Enigma, De-Lovely
and Bright Young Things and War Horse.
My thanks to all the staff at the Luton Hoo Hotel for supporting my BRIT
2012 mile walk and for making me feel so welcome.
I arrived in Stevenage at
lunchtime to meet Chantrey Vellacott DFK http://www.cvdfk.com/ the BRIT Chartered Accountants.
Chantrey Vellacott DFK is a long
established provider of accounting, taxation and related advisory services.
Their roots go back to 1788, making them one of the oldest firms of chartered
accountants in the United Kingdom.
I wanted to meet the team at Stevenage
who look after BRIT and I to say thank you for all their guidance and support;
particularly as they have been so patient and understanding this year whilst I
have been away for such long periods. My sincere thanks to Barbara, Helen,
Derrick and Jeremy for providing such super professional assistance and service
in such an important area of BRIT governance and administration.
I am also very grateful to Trudy
Baxter at Chichester College who is very kindly gifting and volunteering her
time to fulfill a role within BRIT to control all our financial matters and
support me by coordinating the governance of BRIT and all our annual returns.
Trudy is an absolute star and her support is vital to make sure our administration
is compliant and organised. Trudy, on behalf of the BRIT Trustees and I – thank
you!
 |
| The Warwickshire Coat of Arms |
From Stevenage I then set off for
Rugby in Warwickshire. Rugby is a market town in Warwickshire, England, located on the River Avon. Rugby is 13 miles east of Coventry,
on the eastern edge of Warwickshire, near the borders with Northamptonshire and Leicestershire.
 |
| The statue of William Webb Ellis at Rugby School |
Rugby is most famous for the invention of rugby football, which is played throughout the world.
The invention of the game is credited to William Webb Ellis whilst breaking the existing
rules of a football match played in 1823 at Rugby School, which is near the centre of Rugby.
 |
| The grounds at Rugby School where the rules of football were broken by William Webb Ellis to invent the game of Rugby football |
Rugby School is one of England's oldest and most prestigious public schools, and was the setting of Thomas Hughes's semi-autobiographical masterpiece Tom Brown's Schooldays.
 |
| The front cover of Tom Brown's School Days |
 |
| Stephen Fry, the star of the dramatisation of the novel |
A substantial part of the 2004 dramatisation of the novel, starring Stephen Fry http://www.stephenfry.com/
was filmed on location at Rugby School.
 |
| Sir Frank Whittle OM KBE CB FRS FRAeS |
Rugby is also a birthplace of the jet engine. In April 1937 Frank Whittle built the world's first prototype jet
engine at the British Thomson-Houston
works in Rugby, and between 1936-41 based himself at Brownsover Hall on the outskirts of the town, where he designed and
developed early prototype engines. Much of his work was also carried out at
nearby Lutterworth.
 |
| The W2/700 flew in the Gloster E.28/39,the first British aircraft to fly with a turbojet engine... |
 |
| ...and the Gloster Meteor |
My walk in Rugby will take place
tomorrow at Princethorpe College http://www.princethorpe.co.uk/ however I arrived this
afternoon at Coombe Abbey to complete today’s six miles.
 |
| The Coombe Abbey Hotel |
Coombe Abbey http://www.coombeabbey.com/
is a hotel which has been developed from an historic grade I listed building and former country house. It is located roughly midway between Coventry
and Brinklow in the countryside of Warwickshire, England.
The house's original grounds are now a country park known as Coombe Country Park and run by Coventry City Council.
 |
| Lake in Coombe Country Park |
Coombe Country Park http://www.coventry.gov.uk/info/2000675/coombe_country_park/498/coombe_country_park
now contains 500 acres of woodlands, formal gardens, arboretum, open grasslands
and lake.
It has a visitor centre equipped with a Cafe, Gift shop, Discovery Centre,
History room and Woodturners workshop. It also has a climbing forest, bird
hide, summer wild flower meadow and an extensive events program. It is a
stunning location and well worth visiting and exploring; a beautiful place to
complete today’s miles.
 |
| Coombe Abbey |
Coombe Abbey was founded as a monastery
in the 12th century. Following the Dissolution of the
Monasteries in the 16th century it became royal property.
 |
| Elizabeth Stuart, Queen consort of Bohemia |
Elizabeth of Bohemia, the daughter of King James I, was educated at Coombe Abbey in the
early 17th century. Had the Gunpowder Plot succeeded she was to have been
abducted from Coombe Abbey and proclaimed as Queen Elizabeth II.
 |
| A contemporary engraving of eight of the thirteen conspirators, by Crispijn van de Passe. Fawkes is third from the right. |
When Elizabeth was six years old, in 1603, Elizabeth I of England died, and
her father James succeeded to the thrones of England and Ireland. When she came
to England, her governess was the Countess of
Kildare, until she was consigned to the care of Lord
Harington, with whom she spent the years of her happy childhood at Coombe Abbey.
Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes,
the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics
who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
Part of the intent of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was to kidnap the nine-year-old Elizabeth and put
her onto the throne of England (and, presumably, Ireland and Scotland) as a
Catholic monarch, after assassinating her father and the
Protestant aristocracy. However, this never happened, as Guy Fawkes was caught by the King's soldiers before he
was able to ignite the powder.
The failure of the Gunpowder Plot has been commemorated in England since 5
November 1605 and I wish everyone a very safe evening on the “Guy Fawkes” /
“Bonfire Night” anniversary.
In 1682, the West Wing of Coombe Abbey was added by architect
Captain William Winde, who also designed Buckingham House,
which later became Buckingham Palace. In 1771, Lancelot 'Capability' Brown redesigned the
gardens, incorporating the Coombe Pool lake.
 |
| Coat of Arms of Coventry City Council |
For successive generations Coombe Abbey was owned by the Earls of Craven, in whose possession the estate
remained until 1923. In November 1964 Coventry City Council bought Coombe Abbey
with 150 acres of land. The park was opened to the public in 1966.
It has been a pleasure to be
welcomed by everyone at Coombe Abbey Hotel and I am grateful for all their
support to the BRIT 2012 mile walk and I.
Two very kind hotels in two
different counties both whose grounds were designed by Capability Brown, a walk
& stay at a James Bond film location on the 50th anniversary and
a timely night to be spent in a historic location that was part of the 5th
November Guy Fawkes plot - loving these connections!
I am finishing Day 288 with 218
miles to go.
On a personal note, I just want
to take this opportunity to wish the gorgeous daughter of my great friends,
Mike and Kate, a very happy birthday today. Happy Birthday Clemency! Lots of
Love, Uncle Phil. x
Best wishes,
Phil