Tattershall Castle and Battle of Britain Memorial Centre

[reetnproper]

.... that's where we've been today and what fantastic value both places were .

Tattershall was our first stop and when the girls saw the 'moat' (albeit empty at the moment) they were thrilled. Our 6 yr old reeled question after question off, fair bubbling over with excitement as she finds all things 'castlelike' facinating.

Awestruck she crossed the rickety old wooden bridge over the outer moat and gazed open mouth at the beautiful tower, before happily crossing the inner moat via a second old bridge.

If you live near enough to visit the castle then do. It's trully beautiful, not furnished like Warwick but the fireplaces are beautiful, there is a huge chandalier and the views from the top (which OH reckons looks like an American fort ) are amazing.

The church which sits alongside the castle is a treasure in itself, not only is ALL the glass in its' leaded windows clear (not a single stained pane among them), allowing for an unusual 'through and through' view as you approach it but it is apparently home to 5 species of bats. This means that at the end of every day, all the bric abrac and gift stands, the plant stall, the leaflets not to mention the tables and chairs of the tea room have to be packed away - can you imagine the mess several hundered bats could make in a night .

[reetnproper]

After a picnic lunch we took ourselves off to the next attraction on our list - the Battle of Britain Memorial Centre, based at RAF Coningsby. We are lucky enough to see the only flight worthy Lancaster in Europe fly over us 3 or 4 times a year, sometimes on her own but often accompanied by Hurricanes and/or spitfires.

It takes your breath away to see this majestic plane fly over so low that you could almost touch it (apparently they have to fly low to minimise the stresses to this 2nd world war veteran) and the sound, so much more thrilling and evocotive than the bl***y annoying Eurofighters that like to buzz over at all hours of the day and night with their sonic boom.

The only way to get up close and personal with the aircraft (well within a few feet at least as you can't actually touch them) is to take the guided hanger tour. Our tour guide was a Battle of Britain veteran (what a trully humbling experience) and he made the whole tour (1hr 15 mins approx) so very interesting that it flew by (excuse the pun). One of the Spitfires (I think) he showed us had actually fought in the Battle as well and was still flying.

Of course the plane we had come to see was the Lancaster and she was huge. As we were one of the last tours through, we were lucky enough to see the crew pushing her back into the hanger. It was tense as we watched and realsied that her wingspan was nearly as wide as the hanger itself and even though you know that these men do this every day, we all held our collective breath as they pushed her back in.

All in all a very good day out and setting aside the cost of the diesel and picnic, the actual cost on the day including admission for a family of four, 2 cups of tea, guide books and gifts for the girls from the Castle and the BBMC, was £55.

Reet
x

[lynda66]

i have been past tattershall castle many times, my parents lived in new york for 20 years, but i never got round to going in, cos you expect you can always do it another time

although having the battle of britain memorial flight planes always take off over your house has to be one of the best reasons to live there ..... they decided to move once the eurofighters took over, definitely spoiled it for them ..... sounds like you had a fab day out