Putting a boot into our original Easter plans… COMPLETED 5/3 - Page 9 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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We headed into the servants’ quarters, and this is only a small selection of the bells that they had. As I said to Mark, you had to be highly trained to work out which bell was going, rather than standing there, staring at them, trying to work it out.
On the other side, at about a similar height were a set of pegs and a volunteer explained to us that these would have had fire buckets on, as the servants were expected to put any fires out. They would have had poles to lift the fire buckets down. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, I would not like to have been a servant in years gone by.
We then made our way over to the shop, getting the obligatory fridge magnet, along with a coffee table book about the National Trust properties and a seat that also acts as a walking stick – perfect for me at the moment with my problems with my ankle and needed to sit with the chronic fatigue.
That done, we asked a member of staff to call the mobility buggy and went to wait for it. It was there in a couple of minutes and we had a very pleasant ride back with the same guy who’d brought us down. He was so lovely. When we got back to the visitor reception, there was a queue of people waiting to go down, so I was very glad we’d arrived early. The car park was also packed, so while people may not be visiting the house, they were at least visiting the property, which was good, especially given the not so great weather.
We set off and were due to be making our way to Stourhead. As we drove along, the rain came down more steadily and it became apparent the forecast was right, as it seemed as if this had set in for the day. Now, we were carefully avoiding the M3 motorway, as Google told us there was a problem there and the A303, which is partially dual carriageway and partially single carriageway, as that also had problems on. As we’d later learn at the hotel, that was a good plan, as both had hefty delays.
As we drove along, we kept seeing signs for Bombay Sapphire, so I looked it up and it was a visitor attraction with the opportunity to take a tour of where they make the drink. It turned out it would literally be right alongside the road we were travelling along, so we decided that we’d stop there.
It’s certainly a beautiful place with a lot of history to it. It’s called Laverstoke Mill and it’s been home to a mill on the site since at least 903 AD, but the first official records show it as a corn mill marked in the Doomsday Book of 1086. It was converted into a paper mill in 1719. By the mid 19th century, it was being used to produce money – Indian rupees, but within a couple of years, there was a robbery at the site, which led to a police officer being stationed there all the time. At the height of its work, the mill was making bank notes for over 100 countries and employed 500 people. Paper making ceased in 1963, after more than 200 years of such work at the site. It then became vacant and was eventually acquired for housing, before Bombay Sapphire came in and took it in. I wasn’t surprised to discover that a lot of these buildings are protected.
Every drop of Bombay Sapphire is produced here and is then exported worldwide. They moved into Laverstoke Mill in 2014 and took guidance on how to convert the mill from a world renowned designer.
There were displays even before we got to the visitor reception.
When we arrived, we were greeted by the most wonderful and enthusiastic member of staff. She asked if we had a reservation and I said and that we’d seen the signs, so we thought we’d come and visit. She said she wasn’t sure if she could fit us on to a tour, given it was a Bank Holiday, which I understood and, to be honest, we were prepared to just grab some food at the bar and then head off again, when she said “just the two of you? Oh I can fit you in on the 1:15pm tour”, which would be leaving in 10 minutes’ time. Yay!
She told me that I’d need a wheelchair for the tour of the distillery, as you couldn’t have open toed shoes in there and my protective boot was technically open toed. I was fine with that, given that I’d just been in a wheelchair.
Cool history of the mill. Where all the countries that had their money made there part of the British Commonwealth, or did they make money for other countries as well?
Glad she could fit you in for the tour!
Cool history of the mill. Where all the countries that had their money made there part of the British Commonwealth, or did they make money for other countries as well?
I couldn't come across any evidence in the research I did (we didn't listen to the audio tour while we were outside and it was raining, so they may have covered it then), but I suspect it was just the Commonwealth countries.
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Glad she could fit you in for the tour!
Oh so was I. I did find, during this trip, that people by and large, went out of their way to help me as soon as they saw the boot, which was so nice.
What a fun and spontaneous stop!! Can't wait to hear about it!!
I know - and it's so unlike us to be spontaneous like that, as usually we have everything so well planned out for a trip, so it was a nice change to just be able to decide to do something like this at the very last minute.
The mill sounds like an interesting place to visit. There's nothing wrong with being spontaneous sometimes. We've visited some interesting places at the spur of the moment.
Liz
Yay! Good start to the trip avoiding traffic.
It's crazy how some people live in their own little bubble. What's scary is the fact that they don't see the giant vehicles coming right at them. Using an ECV at WDW is very similar.
Were you taking photos from the chair? Or was Mark taking some for you from a standing position? Just curious as I'm guessing most are from your position! I only ask because I've always found it fun to give the (not expensive) camera to my kids when they were little to see what things looked like from their lower viewpoint in the stroller. And they took some strange photos too....
I can see the potential of the place in the stairway area. Amazing detail work, and yes, that will require a return trip! The chapel - wow!
I've seen Bombay Sapphire and didn't realize it was from that area. I don't know where I thought it was from... further north, maybe even near Scotland? Interesting! Awesome they could fit you in for a tour! Love little surprises like that on carefully planned trips.
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The mill sounds like an interesting place to visit. There's nothing wrong with being spontaneous sometimes. We've visited some interesting places at the spur of the moment.
Liz
Oh gosh no, there's nothing wrong with it at all. I just plan everything so meticulously, often I don't give us the chance to be spontaneous.
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Yay! Good start to the trip avoiding traffic.
It's crazy how some people live in their own little bubble. What's scary is the fact that they don't see the giant vehicles coming right at them. Using an ECV at WDW is very similar.
Yes, I remember seeing that with Laurie on occasions. I found it scary how few people would see her coming.
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Were you taking photos from the chair? Or was Mark taking some for you from a standing position? Just curious as I'm guessing most are from your position! I only ask because I've always found it fun to give the (not expensive) camera to my kids when they were little to see what things looked like from their lower viewpoint in the stroller. And they took some strange photos too....
Some were from the chair, but others I got up, as I wanted to see things close up. However, it was difficult to get in and out of the chair, so most of them were from sitting down.
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I can see the potential of the place in the stairway area. Amazing detail work, and yes, that will require a return trip! The chapel - wow!
I've seen Bombay Sapphire and didn't realize it was from that area. I don't know where I thought it was from... further north, maybe even near Scotland?
I had no clue it came from there and yes, if I thought about it (I didn't before I saw the signs), I'd probably have said Scotland as well.
Great luck with getting in on the tour as you were just stopping by to check the place out. Once again another fridge magnet for you! I can only imagine how many of these you have accumulated over the years with your many trips!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Great luck with getting in on the tour as you were just stopping by to check the place out. Once again another fridge magnet for you! I can only imagine how many of these you have accumulated over the years with your many trips!
Honestly? We're out of space. We have a double fridge/freezer that's full of them and two large magnetic boards and those are full as well. I must try and find another large magnetic board, as we have probably a dozen or so waiting to go somewhere.....
The Bombay Sapphire tour was partially self guided, except for the distillery bit. You were given maps that had QR codes that you could hold up at various points and learn more about the history of the distillery. Most of us stayed inside for the first one, while some people headed straight into the courtyard, where there were a couple more. We didn’t bother with these, as they were in the rain.
If you’ve not heard of Bombay Sapphire before, it’s a brand of gin that was launched in 1987 and it was sold to Bacardi ten years later. Its name originates from its popularity in India and the sapphire in question is the Star of Bombay, which is on display at the Smithsonian Institute.
The flavouring of the drink comes from a receipt of 10 ingredients, including almonds, lemon peel, juniper berries, coriander and liquorice. It doesn’t exactly sound appealing to me when you put it like that. Once the alcohol has been evaporated three times, the vapours from it are then passed through a mesh/basket containing these ingredients to give it flavour and aroma. Water is then added to bring the strength of it down to 40% (still strong I’d say! )
The mill cottages here were beautiful and I really could imagine these being used in days gone by. They were built around 1850.
We were fascinated by this and its previous use and we were later to find out this is where the real distilling work goes on. The distillery we would see on the tour isn’t the main one, which didn’t surprise me. I think tours would get in the way of the day to day work too much.
Although I couldn’t get any great photos through the windows, as there was too much glare, you get the idea. There are giant vats in here and we would later learn that each of them is named after a member of the Royal family, hence you can see the name Victoria on this one.
There was also a small display off the courtyard, which showed you how the bottling has changed over the years. I didn’t realise that the distinctive blue bottles were only introduced in the 1980s. And, before you ask, this is where the blue colour comes from – the bottles, not the alcohol!
They also had a display in here of a challenge they did for a decade, where artists would design glasses and some were wackier than others, shall we say?
We didn’t stay too long in here and probably didn’t see everything, as there was a guided tour and they were taking up a lot of room, making it difficult to see it all, which was a shame.
But our attention in the courtyard went straight to this amazing structure.
It’s actually two glasshouses, which grows the various botanics that go into the gin. It was so neat to walk around in there and see the various different ingredients from all the plants. There were so many of them!
It was quite a surreal experience, given it was raining heavily by now outside and it was cold, but in here, it was a lovely temperature. I could’ve stayed in here all day sat on my National Trust stool. In some of these shots you can see how the rain was coming down and why I’d be quite happy staying put in here.
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Now, we were carefully avoiding the M3 motorway, as Google told us there was a problem there and the A303, which is partially dual carriageway and partially single carriageway, as that also had problems on. As we’d later learn at the hotel, that was a good plan, as both had hefty delays. 
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Some were from the chair, but others I got up, as I wanted to see things close up. However, it was difficult to get in and out of the chair, so most of them were from sitting down. 
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