Highcliffe and Oh no not again!

Thurs 13^th Feb 2014

Great night’s sleep on Val & Malcolm’s driveway! Then had a lovely Skype with Jess & Mum. What a quandary we are in! No licences’ have arrived yet and Jess leaves Australia on Friday and lands in UK Saturday to then fly to Spain to meet us there on Wednesday!!!!!!! It’s not going to happen! So now thinking Jess may have to cancel her flight to Spain and we will meet her somewhere in the UK and she can drive over through France to Spain with us - who knows???!!! We will make some decisions when the licences arrive. After breakfast we drove to visit Clive & Janet in New Milton and was very pleased to hear that Clive had had the “all clear” on a surgical procedure he had had yesterday. They helped us with lots of technical questions we had regarding Priscilla and then we walked into New Milton town and had a lovely lunch at Poppins Café. Thought Janet was going to wet her pants when she said we should make sure we had an Atlas as a backup (other than technology) and we said we did but it’s a 1996 version!!!!! Left them and drove to Highcliffe and guess what!!!! Yes another BANG!!!!! David clipped the other wing mirror!!!! My side! Going down Highcliffe high street! Duct tape wasn’t needed this time thankfully! Doesn’t do much for one’s confidence!

Parked up and looked around Highcliffe Castle :

HE was the American who revolutionised the British way of shopping .The tumultuous life of Harry Gordon Selfridge is the subject of a major Sunday night drama on ITV and Australia TV, Selfridge spent much of his life in Highcliffe, where he lived in a castle and laid plans to build one of his own. He is buried in the village’s St Mark’s Churchyard – but by the end of his life, his standard of living had declined considerably. It was thought to be a fear of Zeppelin raids that drove Selfridge to move out of London during the First World War and rent Highcliffe Castle for £5,000 a year fully furnished. Despite being widowed, Selfridge continued to live lavishly. In 1919, he bought 700 acres of Hengistbury Head from Sir George Meyrick and planned to build a castle there. He intended his castle to have 250 bedrooms, four miles of walls and its own theatre. But it remained a pipe dream, and instead, he spent £25,000 in 1925 on improvements to Highcliffe Castle, despite only being a tenant.

We then set off on a great walk along the beach towards Mudeford and the sun was shining. After our walk we made tea in Priscilla and sorted out our “garage”. Back at Val & Malcolm’s we Dog sat “Sunnie” while they went out to a friends. It was nice after a week in Priscilla to catch up with local TV and news.

David & Clive 

Janet & Jo with their huge motorhome! See the numberplate Mum?

Highcliffe Castle