Gloucestershire 1 - Tewkesbury/you cannot take photographs/the abbey/Touching Souls/the prize winning butchers/Salerno

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Time - it's that funny old thing. You cannot buy it. You cannot barter for it. It slips through your fingers like grains of sand. It moves at its own pace. Sometimes quickly. Othertimes painfully slow. Looking back at time it is hard to work out what you did with it and where it went to. As you get older you appreciate it more, you accept that you only have a limited time and look back like the song a little in anger at what time you have not used productively.

This year has proved that time does indeed fly. One minute we were thinking about Christmas, putting up the tree and clearing the snow. Our thoughts were on our next holiday in the sun. The start of another year of travel. February arrived and with it the news that our travels probably would be curtailed. Since that news months have flown by. Easter eggs have been on and off the shop shelves. Bank holidays have flown by. The longest day passed without much comment. Life was full of sickness and planning, doctors and medical staff. When the end came it brought with it more planning, more visits to register events, sorting out of finances. A round of never ending conversations with undertakers, the church, the vicar , pleasing some people and upsetting and annoying others. We just wanted an end to it all when we could find time for ourselves and get some order back into our chaotic lives.

In the end after the funeral we set our sights on somewhere. Anywhere, preferably France but the UK would do. In an ever changing world with poisonings in Salisbury, lukewarm relationships with Russia turning distinctly chilly we felt as if we were suspended in some sort of parallel universe. The cost of the train to France was too expensive to book last minute , the schools had broken up for the long six week holiday which meant that sites were few and far between and costly We needed though to get away. Everywhere in the UK was booked up due to the school holidays. Adults and children wanting to get away leaving much for the likes of us last minute bookers. What was left was expensive £30 a night for a pitch on a field. Enough to give you palpitations. Biting the bullet we did however pay up almost £89 for three nights away at the Caravan and Motorhome site at Tewkesbury.

On the way down we decided to fill up with diesel and LPG at Trowell services. We needed to test out the new gas cylinder fitted. In the end we looked at the weather , saw the sun shining and decided we wouldn't need the heating so the gas could wait.

First thoughts of the site. It was enormous and had six wardens. The reception was upstairs, the staff friendly and organised. The site full of motorhomes and caravans and we were told to find a pitch and come back with the number. We had to look for a white peg on the ground which in plain English meant a standard grass pitch with space for an awning. Finding one amongst the green multiservice, the blue standard grass without awning and red serviced pitches was hard work. Going rWe ound the one way system we finally set up on plot 117 near to the back hedge and the toilet blocks next to Mr and Mrs Doncaster and their dog Sally. They told us they cruised a lot and had been to Europe in their van. We talked a while before heading for the Abbey.

Set within a pristine graveyard the Abbey was imposing. A huge mulberry bush was shedding its crimson berries on the path. It was cordoned off to prevent the berries staining shoes and being trod into the abbey floor. Beneath it stood a lady with a bowl. She was collecting the berries. The abbey is a stunning example of Norman architecture with almost 900 years of history behind it. Work to build the abbey began in 1087 just a few years after William the Conqueror fought the Battle of Hastings. It was by the Bishop of Worcester in the year 1121. We stood outside looking at the building with amazement. Mellow stone shining in the late afternoon sun. On the stone around the door were the masons marks. We walked inside into the cool. It was a lovely space and we were greeted by a guide who issued us with a leaflet giving a pocket sized history of the building. We stood at the start of the route around the abbey clutching our cameras and clicking away. She tapped us on our shoulders . No photographs allowed unless we paid for a permit. I don't think many visitors paid for the priviledge as they continued to take their photographs.

As we stood by the font we read that the Benedictine monks from Dorset had arrived in 1102 just before completion of the abbey. Hoping for a new religious home and challenge. The window of the East End was remodelled at the same time that that the Norman ceiling was replaced with medieval vaulting. I managed to sneak a few photos along the way. We wandered in and out of the side chapels added by the Despencers, the Beauchamps and the Fitzharries.

In 1540 at the time of the Dissolution of the monasteries Henry VIII stripped the abbey of its treasures . The townsfolk put together £453 to buy the abbey for the use of the town as their parish church saving it from destruction. The next catastrophe took place in the year 1559 when the wooden spire blew down during a gale. As we walked we could see all the alterations to the building that had taken place over time. In 1737 the massive organ was installed and by 1875 Gilbert Scott was given the task of bringing the abbey into the modern age. His work was loved by some but hated by others. William Morris slated his work.

So how did the abbey compare to others in the UK and abroad . The font was our starting point a 14th century bowl on top of a 13th century base. The font being the metaphorical starting point of a church journey. The nave was stunning with majestic gigantic Norman columns holding up the 14th century vaulting . We tried to imagine the thousands who had already walked up the aisle looking upwards at the bosses on the roof depicting the life of Christ and angels playing medieval instruments. We bypassed the 19th century lectern beautiful as it was and the medieval pulpit and headed behind the altar where the Statue of Our Lady Queen of Peace was sited. A piece of rusted metal gradually was worked into a shining statue of Mary. It was supposed to remind us that out of despair comes hope, peace and beauty. I couldn't take a picture. Too many eyes followed me and my phone camera. Waiting for a moment of quiet I managed to take photos of the ambulatory walkway in the French style, the high altar of Purbeck Marble. The table had been sawn in half and left in the porch to fool Cromwells soldiers.

Our next stop was the café - Touching Souls staffed by volunteers serving refreshments in much the same way as their Benedictine monks did so in the past. Lemon cake with poppy seeds went down well with a pot of tea.

After the short break I headed up town for the butchers where I purchased home made pork pie, home made sausages , steak and various other bits and pieces for the BBQ tomorrow. Looking forward to those from this award winning butchers.

We ended the day on a meal at Salerno a lovely Italian on the main street. Full when we got there it got fuller as the night wore on. I ate my way through a mushroom risotto cooked to perfection. Glenn ate a fantastic veal dish.

Our thoughts on Tewkesbury were first class ones. What a lovely place to spend a few days. Pretty shops both independent and large well known ones, an attractive riverside walk, a tour of the battlefield of Tewkesbury across the field of Blood. We will have to come back one day and visit again.

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