Scholars' Trip
On Tuesday, 4 June, we set out to Oxford. First, we visited Magdalen College. It was amazing to walk off a busy and noisy High Street, straight into the calm, pristine and tranquil grounds of Magdalen. What a wonderful place to study, right in the middle of Oxford surrounded by your own deer park and river. We then walked through the Radcliffe Camera, pass the Bodleian Library, under the Bridge of Sighs and had lunch in University Parks before reaching the Pitt Rivers museum. This museum, with close Sandroyd connections, is an ecletic mix of artefacts from around the world arranged by exhibits, rather than cultures and dates. We discovered a pickled witch in a bottle and lots of gruesome weapons, but we were relieved to find that the shrunken heads were now hidden away – after all these are people’s relatives. The Ashmolean Museum then beckoned with its stunning collection of European Modern Art and Egyptian artefacts, and then on to Christ Church College, forever famous for being the location for the Hogwarts dining hall. After resting at the hotel, we moved from culture to retail therapy with a trip to Westgate, before supper in the Covered Market. The next day, we headed to Blenheim Place, the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill and home to the Marlboroughs. The palace was celebrating the icons of British fashion, so the front hall was full of Vivien Westwood dresses and the library was decorated with the styles of Stella McCartney. Favourites were Amy Winehouse’s ‘Zap Pow’ mule shoes and the handbags of Lulu Guinness. We then walked around the formal gardens and lakes, got lost in the amazing maze and were blown away by the colours and variety of the butterflies in the Butterfly House. We thought that a Wednesday afternoon would be a good time to visit Diddly Squat Farm. There was no Clarkson, Lisa, Gerald, Kaleb or Cheerful Charlie, but there were heaps of people queueing to get into the shop. The burgers around the back looked very tempting but they were beyond our scholars’ budget. We enjoyed a siesta in our van, before arriving in Bristol late afternoon. In the evening, we enjoyed supper in Clifton village and were treated to the spectacular sight of the Clifton Suspension Bridge lit up at night. For our final day, we took a boat to another of Brunel’s triumphs, the SS Great Britain, the largest and most advanced ship in the world in its day, and its lifetime the ship travelled the equivalent of 32 times and staggering 1 million nautical miles. The Victorian class system was very much in evidence in the contrast between first and third class, and there were many similarities with the Titanic. A trip to Bristol would not be complete without seeking out a Banksy, and on Spike Island, we found his rendition of ‘The Girl with a Pearl Earring’. We finished the day with a trip to the Bristol Aquarium, with the nemos, turtles and the starfish being firm favourites. Thank you to Mr Attlee and Flo for organising such a fascinating trip.
