A Guided Tour and a New Fridge

A week or so ago I walked through the centre of town to visit friends. It was a beautiful sunny, Sunday evening, with few people around so I took the opportunity to take a few photos. 

I liked this picture I took in the High Street with the pub sign and the lamp post standing out against the blue sky. The Swan used to be a hotel, but lived too long on former glories - you can get a glimpse of them in the portico and the balcony railings - and became unviable. These days it is a Wetherspoons (pub/restaurant chain). 

Looking across from the Swan to the market cross. It was built in the 15th century, probably by Alice Chaucer, Duchess of Suffolk, (granddaughter of Geoffrey Chaucer) who held the town manor at the time, and who was a wealthy and powerful woman in her own right. Both the buildings behind were previously inns or pubs. The one to the left with Allders Opticians on the ground floor was once the Eagle and Child - the same name as the Oxford pub frequented by C. S. Lewis, Tolkien and the Inklings. The Eagle and Child was the badge of the Earls of Derby in the middle ages, and it is possible that an older inn of the same name was used by the retinue of the earl of Derby while he was taking part in a tournament at nearby Dunstable in the 14th century. To the right of the cross is the what used to be the Cross Keys public house. The original pub burned down in 1899 and was replaced by this much larger, relatively "modern" building, which is now a bank. If you zoom in you may just be able to see the Cross Keys over the door. 

To the right of the former Cross Keys is the old Town Hall, a Victorian replacement for the original timber framed Market Hall. It later became a fire station, then was mostly used by the town council for storing market stalls. It was restored about 10 years ago and turned into a pizza restaurant which has an old hand-cart fire engine on display.

A bit further up, almost hidden in a corner at the entrance to an alley way is yet another former pub, The Peacock, now a Thai restaurant. Parts of the building probably date to the early 15th century, making it the oldest building in the town apart from the 13th century parish church. 

And finally, another lovely old building - 16th century this time - as I headed out of the town centre. 

We have all been back at work again today except TG, who woke up sneezing and sniffling and full of cold - fortunately it clearly is just a cold, which I'm afraid she has passed on to me as I am also now feeling sniffly and under the weather. Colds are an asthma trigger for me and can easily turn into chest infections, so I'm using my inhaler regularly - if I start doing this quickly enough I can usually keep it under control. TG stayed home from school today, and thinks it is 50:50 whether she will be well enough to go tomorrow. 

The day's main excitement was the arrival of a new fridge-freezer. We had a large American style one, but the connection to the water and ice dispenser sprang a leak early in lockdown and as it was also running alarmingly hot (externally, not internally), had various cracked and broken drawers, and was generally the worse for wear so we decided to replace it rather than get it repaired. At the time, however, it wasn't possible to get a large fridge delivered and we have only just got round to sorting it out. The new fridge is a straight replacement for the old one - same make and equivalent model, but updated and more efficient. From tomorrow we will have ice again, just in time for the spell of warm weather we have been enjoying to break on Wednesday!