Dad used to ride his bike with his mates up on a 2000 year old fortification called Castle Ring which was at the top of the hill and reportedly provided a view across five counties. The trees had grown up a bit since then, but it was still a fantastic spot.
After walking around Castle Ring, we took a drive through Cannock Chase down Hayfield Hill, past Pamela's old house where John remembered taking Pamela out on their first date, through Boney Hay, and then on to Lichfield.
We found a good place to park and walked through the town to Dr Johnson’s birthplace. Dr Johnson was an English author who, amongst other things, defined and assembled the first English dictionary. It was an amazing house on about five floors (including the basement where the kitchen was, and the attic) with creaky floors and staircases, and beautiful exposed beams. We made our way to the top and found an original print of the dictionary encased in a solid plastic case. His dictionary was unique due to the detail that each entry was given (pronunciation, entomology, definition, example usage etc) for each of the over 42,000 words, and some 2,000 definitions are still in use today.
After getting back to Penkridge, Pamela started to prepare Spaghetti Bolognaise for dinner while Rachel and I popped down to the butcher to get some lean, freshly minced meat. We also stopped off at the bakery where I picked up a yummy custard donut. After dinner, we headed out to meet the Vicar of Farewell church where we discussed how Dad’s memorial service was going to run. Pete joined us as soon as he could get there after his work, and after a few hours, we left feeling confident that the service would go well.
Finally, we drove back up the hill to The Park Gate Inn, where Dad and Peter used to stop off and ask for a glass of water after a day’s biking at Castle Ring, and had a quick pint before heading home. Pete got a pint of ‘Top Totty’ – the local drop from Slater's Real Ale brewery in Stafford.
