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O, To Be In England...

Ghost In The Machine said:
That chapel is excellent. Not many church ruins in woods, either, I'd imagine, so quite unusual? Love these photos. Thanks for sharing!
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You'd possibly enjoy visiting 'The Witch's Leg' aka the ruins of St. Marys in Norfolk. It's got a big tree growing through the middle of the ruins, we did the walk around it anti clockwise thing for x amount of times but it must have been the ghost's day off. It looks like a Peter Jackson film set.

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'.......It finally fell into disuse in the 17th-century.
Since then, the church has remained abandoned, left for nature to reclaim with the forest seemingly devouring its stones. The most striking feature is in the center of the ruins, a tree known as “The Witch’s Leg.”
This thin oak tree is said to be the work of a local witch, stemming quite literally from the witch herself. According to legend, during the height of England’s witch trials, a suspected witch was buried alive in the church.
The buried witch, in her suffering, is said to have enchanted her wooden leg to sprout a tree that would destroy the church above. The legend goes on to say that if anybody were to walk around the tree three times, the witch’s spirit would be released.
However, it’s believed ghostly monks haunt the church and keep intruders from releasing her spirit.'


https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-witchs-leg-at-st-marys-church
 
Swifty said:
You'd possibly enjoy visiting 'The Witch's Leg' aka the ruins of St. Marys in Norfolk. It's got a big tree growing through the middle of the ruins, we did the walk around it anti clockwise thing for x amount of times but it must have been the ghost's day off. It looks like a Peter Jackson film set.

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'.......It finally fell into disuse in the 17th-century.
Since then, the church has remained abandoned, left for nature to reclaim with the forest seemingly devouring its stones. The most striking feature is in the center of the ruins, a tree known as “The Witch’s Leg.”
This thin oak tree is said to be the work of a local witch, stemming quite literally from the witch herself. According to legend, during the height of England’s witch trials, a suspected witch was buried alive in the church.
The buried witch, in her suffering, is said to have enchanted her wooden leg to sprout a tree that would destroy the church above. The legend goes on to say that if anybody were to walk around the tree three times, the witch’s spirit would be released.
However, it’s believed ghostly monks haunt the church and keep intruders from releasing her spirit.'


https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-witchs-leg-at-st-marys-church
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That is seriously brilliant.
 
Ghost In The Machine said:
That is seriously brilliant.
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We went at night with a woman called Dawn. She's now the Godmother of my Godson Murphy and she's a top laugh as well as a paranormal investigator.

We had motion sensors rigged up around the outside but none of them went off so 'the witch' and 'the monks' were clearly not about that night. It's an extremely beautiful and atmospheric location anyway as you can see. (skip to 5:00 to start .. or skip to 16:18 to watch me walk around a tree three times).

 
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How about this for old-style Englishness in the true sense;

MrsF goes to a pub and orders (vegan) Cajun chicken and rice.

Doesn't actually get the chicken, eats the rice and then pays up without saying anything.
 
SimonBurchell said:
Could it be that vegan chicken and rice is... rice?
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This happened to my wife in Corfu.

The menu said 'Vegetarian Curry'. However, all that was available was yellow rice. My wife asked the server where the curry was and they just pointed at the rice as though my wife had gone mad.

Their 'Vegetarian Moussaka' also contained lamb. When questioned why she had been served a regular moussaka the waiter insisted it was vegetarian; We pointed out that it had lamb in it and the waiter said 'Yes, vegetarian' and walked off.
 
Mr. Banooka said:
This happened to my wife in Corfu.

The menu said 'Vegetarian Curry'. However, all that was available was yellow rice. My wife asked the server where the curry was and they just pointed at the rice as though my wife had gone mad.

Their 'Vegetarian Moussaka' also contained lamb. When questioned why she had been served a regular moussaka the waiter insisted it was vegetarian; We pointed out that it had lamb in it and the waiter said 'Yes, vegetarian' and walked off.
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Egyptians haven't really grasped the concept of veganism/vegetarianism yet either.
It's only got a bit of meat in it................
 
Floyd1 said:
Try saying you don't want sugar in your tea in Egypt.
If they don't actually faint, they'll consider than none means five.
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Same as in Turky years ago. I was haggling the price of a tablecloth (gift for my Mum ) in a shop, and they insisted of giving me a cup of apple tea. No thanks I said I don’t like apple tasting stuff, so they said they would get me another flavoured tea……………..which turned out to be apple tea. :)
 
Dick Turpin said:
Same as in Turky years ago. I was haggling the price of a tablecloth (gift for my Mum ) in a shop, and they insisted of giving me a cup of apple tea. No thanks I said I don’t like apple tasting stuff, so they said they would get me another flavoured tea……………..which turned out to be apple tea. :)
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Never heard of apple tea. Apple tobacco, yes, but tea no. That does indeed sound terrible D.
 
It's very common in Turkey Mr F. A very interesting country is Turkey, I've had some great times there

One night on holiday there I got split up from the group I was with, then got lost trying to find them again.

For miles I walked in the pitch black, through tiny villages and back country lanes with unseen dogs barking at me from close by. Eventually I walked into a small town that was devoid of life apart from a couple standing underneath a lamppost kissing. Excellent I thought, I’ll ask if they know where the hell I am.

The kissing couple t turned out to be an old school mate of mine called Tony who was on holiday with his girlfriend. They let me stay at their apartment for the night. It turned out that I’d walked 6 miles in the opposite direction of where my hotel was. I just got a taxi back to my hotel in the morning :)
 
Dick Turpin said:
It's very common in Turkey Mr F. A very interesting country is Turkey, I've had some great times there

One night on holiday there I got split up from the group I was with, then got lost trying to find them again.

For miles I walked in the pitch black, through tiny villages and back country lanes with unseen dogs barking at me from close by. Eventually I walked into a small town that was devoid of life apart from a couple standing underneath a lamppost kissing. Excellent I thought, I’ll ask if they know where the hell I am.

The kissing couple t turned out to be an old school mate of mine called Tony who was on holiday with his girlfriend. They let me stay at their apartment for the night. It turned out that I’d walked 6 miles in the opposite direction of where my hotel was. I just got a taxi back to my hotel in the morning :)
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We need a new thread; DT's holiday adventures, coincidences and mysteries.
 
Stormkhan said:
Wasn't there a bit of The Royal Family where a vegetarian refused some ham, he received an encouraging reply "It's only thin sliced."
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Were you thinking of 'The Royle Family'. The episode where Nana chipped into a discussion about what to give Antony's vegetarian girlfriend to eat with the comment 'can't she have wafer thin ham?'
 
Saturday's hike was along the Grand Union Canal from Aylesbury to Leighton Buzzard, on a sunny, cold day, great walking. About half way I did a slight detour to look at All Saints' Church in Marsworth, established by the 12th century and extended to its current form in the 14th-15th centuries, and "refurbished" by the Victorians. The main Fortean interest there was possibly the most macabre Church of England altar that I have ever seen, obviously originally a tomb.

All Saints' Church, Marsworth:
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The altar in question is at the end in the next photo, below the stained-glass window:
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The altar in its entirety:
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The details of the dark grey panels are not particularly cheerful:
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And then of course, the skull panels. Sorry, the first one is a bit blurry:
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