Travelling Britain with Celia Fiennes

Writing a blurb line for Peter Fiennes’s book En Route (a literary trail around France) led me to his earlier book Footnotes (ditto for the British Isles) which introduced me to the remarkable Celia Fiennes. In the late 1600s, but particularly in 1698, this intrepid woman traveller managed to visit every county in England and did it riding side-saddle. Now isn’t that like Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, she matched all his dance steps, but ‘backwards and in high heels?’

If you want to follow Celia Fiennes remarkable travels they were published in 1888 – nearly 200 years after her amazing journeys and her account is all available – free – as Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William & Mary (click for the download). A warning, they are not easy to read, it’s the English of three centuries ago, her punctuation and sentences were decidedly random and so was her spelling.

◄ No problem, very recently in 2023 Derek J Taylor published England from a Side-Saddle – The Great Journeys of Celia Fiennes (click for the book on Amazon) as he follows her travels – by car – juxtaposing his experiences with her descriptions of the same places. It’s a terrific read.

▲ So naturally I set out to follow some of her remarkable journey, starting with a tube ride to London Fields in Hackney where you can find a plaque noting that she spent her final years there until her death in 1741. Today this is not the fanciest area of London and there is really no relation to how it might have looked when she lived there although her plaque is on Celia Fiennes House.

▲ St Andrew’s Church, Newton Tony – or Newton Toney, both spellings are used.

Celia Fiennes was born in Newton Tony near Salisbury and Stonehenge and was buried there, a week after her death. Her father was Nathaniel Fiennes: ‘a Parliamentarian colonel during the civil war and a politician … Celia spent most of her younger years in Newton Tony, living at the manor house on the west side of the High Street. The house was largely demolished in the early 19th century … ‘

▲ Family memorial on the north wall of the church. The church is often locked up, if you want to see the Fiennes memorial you will have to check that the church is open.

The original 14th century church was demolished in 1843 and today’s church dates from one year later. The memorial on the church wall was probably from the sepulchre on the earlier church floor where Nathaniel Fiennes and his descendants were buried. She asked that she be buried with her father with only her name and date of her death added to the inscription. Note the ‘correction’ from Celia to Cecilia, in fact her name was indeed Celia.

◄ ‘A fine lady on a white horse’

Beside Banbury Cross in the town of Banbury, 29 miles (46km) north of Oxford, is the statue of the ‘fine lady on a white horse,’ the inspiration for the nursery rhyme:

Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,
To see a fine lady upon a white horse;
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
And she shall have music wherever she goes.

It’s a nice notion that perhaps the ‘fine lady’ is actually a ‘Fiennes lady’ and that the nursery rhyme is dedicated to Celia Fiennes. That’s unlikely, the traditional poem probably dates from far earlier than Celia Fiennes’ great travels, but it’s a fine idea!

◄ Celia Fiennes on ‘The Monument’ at No Man’s Heath in Shropshire.

Having followed Ms Fiennes to the location in London where she spent her final years, to Newton Tony where she was born and was buried, and to Banbury to check the statue which she might have inspired I then travelled north to No Man’s Heath to find the only memorial to this remarkable traveller. At the junction of Back Lane and the old Chester Rd, 5.5 miles (nine km) from Whitchurch, Shropshire the memorial was erected in 1998.

▲ It features Celia Fiennes, her horse and also these two highwaymen. Travelling England in her era was definitely not a safe occupation and apart from assorted less-than-comfortable inns and at least one tumble from her horse, this was the only occasion where she was – almost – held up. She reported that ‘two fellows all on a sudden from the wood fell into the Road, they Looked trussed up with great Coats and as it were bundles about them which I believe was pistols’. Fortunately it was market day in Whitchurch and as she encountered more-and-more people heading to the market the ne’er do wells decided to abandon their interest.

Finding my way to her No Man’s Heath monument was not straightforward. Don’t confuse No Man’s Heath in Shropshire – near Crewe and the Welsh border – with another No Man’s Heath near Tamworth and Birmingham. Having taken the train from London to Crewe (where Bentleys are made) I should have taken a taxi or Uber the 15 miles to No Man’s Heath. Instead I took another train to Whitchurch (there are several Whitchurches in England too, but this one is near the correct No Man’s Heath). Unfortunately there were no taxis there and sticking my thumb out and trying to hitch a ride proved hopeless for once. It took a long long time for an Uber to appear. Thank you Dumitru from Romania.

▲ I noted the J B Joyce Turret Clock Factory in Whitchurch, only a short stroll from the railway station. Established in 1690 they claim to be the oldest clock factory in the world, but unfortunately since 2012 they are no longer in operation.

▲ It’s only about 30 miles (50km) north from Banbury to this statue of another famous side-saddle rider: Lady Godiva in the centre of Coventry. There may be a connection between Celia Fiennes and the fine lady at Banbury Cross, but there is absolutely no association with Lady Godiva. Celia Fiennes regularly comments on people who are not properly dressed, so she would most definitely have not approved of nude horse riding. She does, however, regularly comment on the quality of the beer during her travels. And the wine. No she didn’t have problems with alcohol, beer and wine were simply much safer to drink than water.

This is not the only time I’ve pursued a pioneering traveller. In 2010 I chased Thomas Coryat – was he the original backpacker? – he walked from England to India in the early 1600s. I’ve followed him from his birthplace in Odcombe in Somerset, England all the way to where he died in Surat, India.