June 26, 2019

Worcester Cathedral – Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary – 1, The Cloisters

The best space to spend a Bank Holiday Monday (27 May) is in Worcester Cathedral – http://worcestercathedral.co.uk/  – SO 850545. This may take a while to write up. As we had parked on the south side of the Cathedral – being a bank holiday no one stopped us driving into the Close – we started in the Cloisters. The original cloister of the Abbey would have been built in wood, and was rebuilt in stone in the C14 and early C15. In 1762 they replaced the glass, then there was a major Victorian rebuild in 1866. Today it may...
Categories Cathedrals/Worcestershire Comments: 0
June 20, 2019

Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire – St Mary the Virgin

We finished the day (Sunday 26 May) by going to Tewkesbury Abbey – the parish church of St Mary the Virgin – for Solemn Evensong and Benediction. The Abbey is at SO 891324, with a posh noticeboard, and a website – http://www.tewkesburyabbey.org.uk/. There are lots of things I could have photographed, but on this occasion writing a blog was not my primary reason for going! Last time we came was with the St Matthew’s choir about a year and a half ago – on that occasion I wasn’t here to blog either. I must go back and buy the...
Categories Gloucestershire Comments: 0
June 19, 2019

Deerhurst, Gloucester – Odda’s Chapel and St Mary the Virgin

Deerhurst is a small hamlet just into Gloucestershire, and has two fascinating churches which we visited on Sunday 26 May. Odda’s Chapel SO 870299 is an English Heritage site – https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/oddas-chapel/. There is evidence of Roman and Saxon occupation in the vicinity, and the parish church is part of a C7 Abbey. The existence of this chapel was unknown until 1865 when it was discovered by the Reverend George Butterworth. He gets his picture on the EH display board, and I love the idea that when he meets St Peter this will be the first thing on the list....
Categories Gloucestershire Comments: 0
June 15, 2019

Croome, Worcestershire – Hall and St Mary Magdalene

Croome is a National Trust property not far south from Pershore, so we headed there on Sunday 26 May. The car park was filling up as we arrived, and there were queues to get in. However they soon sorted us, and the chap went to get the wheelchair accessible buggy. He drove us down – quite a way through the Park. When we got to the House we were introduced to the stair climber. It worked. The landscape and the house are the product of the vision (and money) of George William, 6th Earl of Coventry (1722-1809). He employed...
Categories Churches Conservation Trust/National Trust/Worcestershire Comments: 0
June 6, 2019

White Ladies Aston, Worcestershire – St John the Baptist

We went on and turned off the main road to see St John the Baptist, White Ladies Aston – SO 922527. A small hamlet, a little village church, no website that I can find, but an excellent guidebook. A well kept churchyard with some ancient yews. The White Ladies are the Cistercian nuns of Worcester, who held part of the manor. The tower timbers date to circa 1545, the time of the ‘Mary Rose’ says the guide, the North Aisle is 1861, and the porch 1864. It always seems odd to find bell ropes hanging down into the congregation,...
Categories Worcestershire/World War 1 Comments: 0
June 6, 2019

Spetchley, Worcestershire – All Saints’

After time in Worcester on Saturday 25 May we headed out of town on the Evesham road and stopped so I could visit the Churches Conservation Trust church of All Saints, Spetchley – SO 895540. It is on the right as you drive along the A44, and there is a laybye just past it on the left. Spetchley Park Gardens look worth a visit – https://www.spetchleygardens.co.uk  – and you could park there. The church is one of the Churches Conservation Trust portfolio – https://www.visitchurches.org.uk/visit/church-listing/all-saints-spetchley.html. In the C9 it was recorded that Coenwolf, King of Mercia, “upheld the law of...
Categories Churches Conservation Trust/Worcestershire Comments: 0
May 30, 2019

Worcester – The Commandery

We spent Saturday 25 May in Worcester, and went to the Commandery, a Civil War museum that we hadn’t been to for many years. They had events on for Oak Apple Day, but the place was not exactly buzzing. They could do with having a trip to the Civil War centre in Newark and getting some new ideas how to liven the place up. Two things lifted the place for me – (1) an excellent café, (2) the painted chamber. Before we look at those, here is the funeral pall that is supposed to have covered the coffin of...
Categories Worcestershire Comments: 0
May 29, 2019

Hanbury, Worcestershire – St Mary the Virgin

Friday 24 May and we are en route for a few days in Worcestershire. Hanbury Hall NT property is on our way – http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hanbury-hall-and-gardens. The Vernon family moved to the estate in the 1570s, and Thomas Vernon started work on this house in about 1706. He had married Mary in 1680, became an MP, and wanted a Country Estate. The house was designed by provincial architects and craftsmen, but the interior decoration is by James Thornhill. He worked at Hampton Court, Greenwich Hospital, St Paul’s, and did this work in about 1710. The story is of Achilles, but there...
Categories National Trust/Personal/Worcestershire/World War 1 Comments: 0
May 27, 2019

Wirksworth, Derbyshire – St Mary the Virgin

Wirksworth is a nearby town, but it is not very Julie-friendly (too many slopes and cobbles). On Tuesday 21 May I caught the yellow bus there (the lovely TrentBarton Sixes that run up and down the A6) and had an explore. St Mary the Virgin is in the middle of the village at SK287539. It is now part of a 10 church team – I still need to blog Alderwasley, Bonsall, Brassington, Idridgehay and Middleton – and there is a website at http://wirksworthteamministry.co.uk/. At last I have found a church website which welcomes tourists: We care for the historic...
Categories Derbyshire/Railway History/World War 1 Comments: 0
May 25, 2019

Binsey, Oxfordshire – St Margaret of Antioch

After Deb and I had coffee in Oxford we drove to Binsey, a hamlet just outside the city. There are a few buildings beside the Thames, and the church is about 1/2 mile to the west (within sound of the A34 Oxford bypass) – grid reference SP 485 080. Apparently crop marks show that there were houses between the two. The benefice has a website at https://www.osneybenefice.org.uk/, but there is little about the church’s history on it. In the church there is a laminated A4 sheet, and that’s it. Surely there is someone in Oxford who could help them...
Categories Oxfordshire Comments: 4