Duxford, Cambridgeshire

Our friends Barbara and John, last seen on this blog in Bishop's Stortford, have recently moved to a lovely village a few miles south of Cambridge. While it's not that far from us as the crow flies, the roads are pretty rubbish - single lane for at least half the journey. So I took the boys our for a bike ride before setting off.

The village B&J have moved to is Duxford, home of the Imperial War museum. And as Wikipedia states, 'Duxford was first mentioned in the will of Theodred, Bishop of London, in AD 952, by the name of Dukesworthe, and later in the Doomsday Book of 1086, where the village status is listed as having 100 souls, 3 mills and 4 manors. The first part of the name was spelled variously as Doches, Dodes Dux, and other variations after a Saxon called Ducc. The ending of the name, meaning enclosure, first occurred as wrthe or worth. The transformation from ‘worth’ to ‘ford’ can be understood if ‘w’ and ‘th’ were pronounced as ‘v’ and ‘d’ respectively. The ending ‘…ford’ occurs as early as 1397.' So there you have it.

The house is lovely, though I am not doing any justice to it since I only took a couple of pics. It's spacious, great little nooks and crannies and surprise rooms and cupboards and a garden that they can't wait to get stuck into. As Barbara said, she's got great plans. We had a slap-up meal, as usual, and they are always great company. Here is Barbara getting our unruly boys into order, by letting them help open the Christmas cards.

For anyone thinking that life is always a bed of roses and our boys are always wonderful, then do read between the lines. The face below is not uncommon!

Here is John trying to restrain a less than angelic Gregor while still managing to give Alastair a cuddle.