Rambling around Ramsbury

We've had a great day with my former colleague M, and his brother J, who had suggested we go for a walk around  Ramsbury, a village in Wiltshire  near the  Berkshire town of Hungerford.. We started at Littlecote House, which  is a magnificent building, close to the River Kennett. The oldest part was originally a Medieval Manor dating from the 13th century, which later was  incorporated into a much bigger Tudor Manor in the 16th century by the Darrell family. Finally, in the  17th century a further addition was  made by the Popham family. It has been suggested that it may have been  here where King Henry VIII first met his future wife, Jane Seymour.
My blip shows the  entrance to the Tudor part.  The house is now owned by Warner Holidays who use some of the Old House ( as it is known ) as well as a much newer hotel building.  Littlecote House
In the grounds are the remains  of a Roman villa. Although there is not much to see of the main villa, there is a very well preserved Orpheus Mosaic. (See extra)
Having admired the mosaic, we set off up the hill on  surfaced tracks to a plateau which is the site of the old Ramsbury airfield which played an important role in WW2. In June 1944,  American airmen from the 82nd American Airborne Division were flown from here in gliders to Normandy, to take part in D Day Operations, while in  September 1944, members  of the 101st Division flew to Holland in Operation Market Garden. There is now a small  memorial on the edge of the old runway commemorating the servicemen, who were stationed at Littlecote House when not on a mission. Leaving the plateau we could then see the village of Ramsbury with its prominent church in the  valley below. We quickly descended into the valley, crossing a couple of millstreams off the river Kennett, and wandered through Ramsbury.  The village has a lovely assortment of houses in a variety of vernacular styles,but difficult to photograph because of parked cars obscuring the view. We had a look around the church with its massive tower, before stopping in the cafe attached to the pub for a coffee and snack.Ramsbury Then it was a short stroll back to Littlecote,  walking beside the river Kennett. (The walk was about 5- 6 miles in total. ). We then did an audio  guided tour of the Old House which  was very interesting. We discovered  there is a haunted bedroom with a gruesome tale about it, as well as the  old Great Halls from Medieval and Tudor times, and an old family chapel.