Thursday 4th July
2019
While my family research had come to an end yesterday, the car had
been hired until tomorrow morning, so we decided to take full advantage and
have a day out. We drove to Wells about 15 miles from Bath and had a lovely day
away from the boat. The road crosses the Mendip Hills, an Area of Natural
Beauty. Dropping down just before Wells and Glastonbury Tor can be seen
dominating the flat countryside to the south. Quite a mystical sight.
Wells is a delightful place, said to be the smallest city in England,
next to the City of London. The High Street is very quaint with lots of shops
and bar/cafes, but very busy. The High Street is dominated by the Cathedral
which sits at the far end. There is a square here surrounded by the City Hall
and the Bishops Palace. Passing from the square brings you out onto the
Cathedral Green, a tranquil place.
The Cathedral itself is stunning and the light reflecting from the
stonework gave it a surreal feel. The interior is awesome, but the eye is
immediately drawn to the unique ‘scissor arches’. These consist of three sets
of arches with an inverted arch above. They appear almost delicate but are a
medieval solution to sinking tower foundations, being built between 1338 and
1348.
The Wells Astronomical Clock is amazing and you cannot help but stare
at it. It was built about 1390 and is one of the oldest clock faces in the world.
It consists of a number of concentric dials, all revolving around each other.
One gives hours based on the 24-hour clock, one gives minutes and one, lunar
months. There is also a window within the clock that shows the phase of the
moon. The dial represents the geocentric view of the universe with sun and moon
revolving round a central fixed earth, said to be ‘pre-Copernican’.
On the quarter hour, jousting knights chase each other around a circular
pedestal, the same knight has been losing the competition for over 600 years.
On the hour a figure, known as ‘Jack Blandifers’, hits a bell with a hammer
held in his right hand and two bells hung beneath him with his knees.
Wells Cathedral dominates the High
Street
Wells Astronomical Clock
Jack Blandifers
We had lunch of a seafood sharing platter in The Old Goal before a
shop in a supermarket and the drive home. With the amount of traffic, queues
and people being in such a rush, they do not have seconds to spare to be
courteous, I don’t miss driving at all.
Once the shopping was unloaded, I returned the car and got a lift back
to the boat.
In the evening we spent time with some neighbouring boaters. These
were all K&A “continuous cruisers” and were quite open about staying for
the maximum 14 days on a mooring and only moving when they had a phone call
from another boater to say a mooring had come free. While, by the letter of the
regulations, this is perfectly permissible, it has always annoyed us, as they
block up moorings for others. Most of these had well looked after and
maintained boats that were their homes and gave a cheaper way of living in a
city, but one guy that Brenda had met previously, paid £100 for his boat!!!,
had no licence and never has had one, and yet complains that CRT are always
hassling him. He has never quite understood why CRT confiscated loads of crap
off his boat after they salvaged it when it sank in a lock.
Brenda had discovered when she was in the laundrette, that not all
boaters are welcome. When Harvey visited the vets, she couldn’t understand why
“on a boat” was written in capital letters on the form. Both were because of
people like him taking everybody for a ride and not paying. It seems, on
initially meeting, we are all tarred with the same brush.
Weather: hot
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