Bought by chance!

The blip is of a souvenir plate made for Hampton Wick..in 1994 ..a limited edition of not more than 175. My plans today were changed because of the tube strike so my friends and I thought we would go to Hampton  Court instead but….. it is not open on Mondays and Tuesdays except in the school holidays as they have many fewer overseas tourists now. 
So Plan No 3 when we met outside Hampton Court was to walk around Molesey the other side of the river before lunch. There are several interesting independent shops there and I always like to look in the ‘Emporium’ which has lots of stalls with antiques etc. there is a huge variety of goods…including lots of jewellery and books plus vintage clothes etc. I spotted this plate.  I don’t really need it but as we moved nearby about the same time I thought it would be nice. One of the shops Manuels is no longer there, it has been converted into flats. It had a bakery on the premises and my daughter worked there for a Saturday job for a couple of years. The other buildings have not changed much. On the reverse of the plate is more information about the village.

We had a really nice lunch at the ‘Mute Swan’ which is a pub/restaurant opposite the Hampton Court Palace main entrance. I had not been there before and was impressed. A fairly conventional menu but nice relaxed layout and good service.