We visited horncastle from mablethorpe in august 2008. It did not take too long to get here and mum was surprised how quick it took her to drive.

We followed the parking signs at the traffic lights and parked up in the free former cattle market. From here it was a very short walk into town.

Our first task was to find some public toilets. On the way there I mentioned to mum that we should phone nan and ask her which was the best tea shop (as a joke as she had already visited here earlier in the year and likes her tea shops). An old man overheard our convisation and stopped my mum launching into a 10/15 mins discussion of tea shops/antique shops in horncastle.

After she had finally escaped we took a tour of the shops in horncastle. First stop the book shop. All book shops in horncastle are pilled high with books but amazingly the owner seems to know where everything is.

Our next stop was the hardware shop on my dads request. He was in heaven. This shop stocked everything.

We then moved on to the local newsagents. We were drawn in by the shop front display which had local artist pictures from cadwell park (motorbikes).

After this we moved on to the first of many antiques centres. When they say horncastle is capital of lincolnshire for antiques it definately is. There are loads of antique centres here!

After antique hunting we took the old mans advice (yes my mum did listen) and went to the tea shop on the bridge. Here we had sandwhiches and a strange salad and a cup of tea. When I say strange salad who has had strawberries in their side salad? Plus we got dollie mixtures with our cups of tea. But for all that it was very nice and nothing was wasted. It wasnt overpriced either and made a nice break in the day.

After the break it was time for more antique hunting. We ent into the most enormous antiques shop. Seriously it went on for ever! There was another one like it near by in the former co-op (this shop was recommended by my nan).

Following on from ploughing through that antiques centre we cae across a big book shop. i'm surprised the owner could look over the counter there was that many books! However I managed to find a long lost book I had been looking for.

To round off the day we called into the local tescos. This is based next to the river bain and has a good picnic area. Hear we managed to pick up our favoutite batemans beer as well as other suplies.

Finally we made our way back to the car park via the loylds tsb ( for more money) and tourist information point. We would have spent longer here but by this point were tired so decide to go back.