A day at the Fair

We did some more exploring on the Bank Holiday Monday, setting out to visit another nearby village , Melton Mowbray, and on to Rutland Water.

Along the way we saw where Frisbies come from.

We also saw a lot more open countryside, and some small villages.

This one is called Rotherby and is very cute.

We made it to Melton Mowbray, and it too seemed to be almost deserted.

Until we found the fairgrounds.

And what a fair.  There were all sorts of attractions, and all the people that we hadn’t been seeing in the nearby villages, it seemed.

There were rides to be had on pretty horses.

Horse races if you preferred.

A very high and very steep jumping slide.

You could ride on cars or teacups.

A train if you preferred.

Or even a flying elephant.

Dodgems that you are expected to crash.

Water rides, well Zorbs anyway.

Even death-defying motorcyclists crashing through barriers of fire.

The owls weren’t impressed by any of it.

We took a walk around the town and found quite a bit of activity up in the central mall area.

Unfortunately the market stalls weren’t operating.  We found another 14^th century church.

Melton Mowbray is not a big place but this church seemed quite large to us, almost as large as the cathedral in Leicester.

We moved on to Rutland Water which is a large lake area, not far from Oakham, with the village of Hambleton smack in the middle, built on a peninsula which just about splits the lake in 2.  It is described as the water playground of the East Midlands.

Our pictures of the lake weren’t great and don’t do the place justice, but it was impressive.  The lake is man-made (1976) is actually a reservoir and it’s huge, covering more than 12 square km.  It is also the principal water supply for the Anglia region of England.

There is a lot of holiday accomodation in Hambleton and around Rutland Water.

Some old.

Some new.