Sunday 5th May
2019
After a quiet morning, we went to the 11am service at the Abbey. The
Abbey is a huge, imposing structure that dominates the town. As with all
religious buildings that predate the Reformation, it has suffered from this
period of our history. There are signs of demolished parts of the Abbey and
many statues are defaced and beheaded. The interior is quite spectacular and
the scale awesome. There are many old
tombs, notably those of the Despencer and Beauchamp Families. There are a
number of old family chapels surrounding the High Altar adorned with delicate
looking stone carvings. The roof is amazing and the columns that support it are
cylindrical and very grand. The Abbey was well worth the visit and is
considered to be one of the finest Norman churches in the country, certainly,
it is one of the best we have yet seen.
In the ground was a tree that could have been straight out of Game of
Thrones:
The service itself, apparently, was High Church, and for me, far too
Catholic with genuflecting, signs of the cross and incense. I felt rather
uncomfortable.
In the afternoon, we explored Tewkesbury. A delightful place with a High
Street of largely timber framed Elizabethan buildings, with overhanging gables and
many others of the Georgian era. One of the more unusual aspects of Tewkesbury,
is the number of surviving tiny alleys that lead off the High Street. These alleys
yield tempting views of discreet cottages, gardens, back walls and private
yards, but also hint of a past of poor living conditions and abject poverty. What
is a des-res today, hasn’t always been. One of these alleys leads to the old,
1655 built Baptist Chapel and its small, intimate graveyard, a very peaceful
spot.
Cross House and a sign on the back of the toilet door.
We returned home via the Avon Mill with the hydraulically operated
weir sluice. This can be raised in times of flood to release the built-up waters.
It must be a dramatic sight when this has to be done. We walked back along the
river, the cottages across from the mill could be right out of any timeless
English county village.
The course of the River Avon in Tewkesbury has been much altered over the
centuries to aid navigation and alleviate flooding. In effect this has led to
the creation of two islands. The Old Avon follows alongside the town and has
the Avon Mill and flood sluice located on it before it flows into the River
Severn downstream from the town. The other island is formed by the large weirs just
upstream from St John’s Bridge and the Avon Lock.
Alongside the river is the huge Healing’s Flour Mills. These are now empty
and semi-derelict but were still in use as a flour mill just five years ago. There
are also the Mill offices, in a derelict state and an old brewery, again
semi-derelict. The three of these buildings would be attractive and very much a
part of Tewkesbury’s past. Hopefully they will be converted into apartments before
the dereliction becomes too bad.
Across the river from us is the Old Black Bear pub, empty, disused and
in a sad state. This is said to be the oldest pub in Gloucestershire dating
back to 1306. Strangely, it is not a listed building. There are notices posted on
nearby lampposts of a pending application to have the place listed, but, in the
meantime, it could easily be demolished and lost.
We had an interesting chat with the owner of a boat that looked
somewhat commercial and had a number of strangely shaped nets on board. They
are licenced to catch elvers, baby eels, on the River Severn. 1kg of elvers
sell for about £150 and there are about 1,500 to a kilogram. 60% are sold to Scandinavia
and Holland for fattening and 40% sold for conservational purposes.
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