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Published: April 27th 2021
Week 17 of 2021. Day 409 of Lockdown - one more week left before April ends and May begins.
Feeling fed up with walking locally I got up this morning with the intention of suggesting to the driver that he might like to run me up to Marchwiel. The idea would be that I would have a wander around a different village , a different church and churchyard and have a slightly different walk home . It was sunny and the sun was breaking through the clouds that looked liked streaky bacon.
I was dropped off in Marchwiel . Did you know that there is a Marchwiel in New Zealand ? No that is a fact that had passed me by too. Its seems the story goes that in the year 1879 the Marchwiel estate was sold by Philip Bouverie Luxmoore . The estate had been named after Luxmoores home village of Marchwiel. I wondered if it was pronounced correctly - Mark Wheel or incorrectly March Wheel.
Marchwiel is a small village with a big church, a conservation area, a village hall, a post office and shop and a primary school . Very similar in character to Bangor
on Dee but without the river Dee in its backyard. The church is entered by a lovely iron gateway with lantern above . An identical one sits at the opposite end of the graveyard . The graves looked old . I was searching for family graves expecting none . Ag Labs or waggoners on farms don't have fancy gravestones . I could hope though. As I walked through I picked out names that might be my relatives amongst the names on the stones . The church dedicated to St Deniol and St Marcella looked lovely in the early morning sunlight. I had the place to myself . Just how I like it . So who were St Deniol and St Marcella? Well for a start little is known of the origins of Marchwiel but it is believed that a Church and small settlement existed on the site from as early as the 13th and 14th Century. Apparently there is a cross base in the churchyard believed to be 14th century. I think I found it but I might need to go back and look again .
After my musings about the test on the way out I was left
with the short journey over the bridge to home. The fishermen were out with their rods and nets . The village shop was selling morning papers and small summer bedding plants . How do you get your test to come home ? If we were lucky enough to get to France what about coming home. Eurotunnel had very kindly put a map link on their site of places in France to get a test . Information suggested another trip to the laboratory for a test 72 hours before returned to the UK. No cost but I guessed it would be similar to back home . Another probably 100 euros or so . The idea of a trip to Europe felt further away than it had ever been. As I rounded the corner home I pondered the next step . 2 days quarantine . Now that would not be a problem . Another test - another trip - another £120 . The government had made it very hard for any travelling this side of Autumn unless you choose to ditch the van and go on an airplane where the companies are subsidising the cost of the test and sorting it out
at the airport . My enthusiasm for a trip to anwhere had by the time I got home evaporated . Back to the drawing board .
During the Middle Ages Marchwiel formed part of the Lordship of Bromfield and Yale, which later became the Welsh Maelor. At this time Bangor, which was home to a large monastery, owned the church in Marchwiel which was said to be called Deiniol Chappel. It is from this chapel that Marchwiel is said to derive its name. Marchwiel meaning stray twigs or saplings. The church is almost identical to Bangor, to Worthenbury and to Whitchurch in style . Much of the present day Church dates from the late 18th Century and is of neo-classical Georgian design. It seems this was the dominant style in the area . I peeked through the keyhole but all was dark inside and I could see nothing .
In 1774 the church was rebuilt to a design by William Worrell following public subscription. It is suggested that the great engineer Christopher Wren had an input to the design of the church when he was staying at Wynnstay Hall, near Ruabon in 1709. How true that
is I have no idea . The church was further altered in 1789 when the west tower, designed by James Wyatt was constructed at the request of Philip Yorke of Erddig. The Yorke family vault lies in the churchyard against the church walls and there is a window inside showing the Family Tree of the Yorkes . I walked around the church looking up at the tower . At the top were the four usual weather vanes . The old gravestones were mostly still in place . Massive thick chunks of stone . Some were legible and others hardly readable . Table tombs with copper memorial plates stating the name of the deceased and the date of death . Many were from around 1750. Some stones lay on the ground . Some face upwards so I could read the inscriptions . Others were upside down and were impossible to read . The new graveyard lay beyond the wall . It was all laid out too uniform for my liking . None of the higgledy piggledy stones of the old churchyard . Everything in straight lines to ensure no waste of burial space . The new stones were shiny , Different
colours of granite . They lacked the sublety of sandstone and limestone . I thought a high hedge might just do trick to hide them from the lovely older part of the graveyard . They looked too modern and I felt that future generations looking at them would probably like me think them slightly garish compared to the older stones . A matter of taste I suppose .
I left the church and passed the old school now a furniture store . The old fences and railings in the conservation area broken and in need of some tlc. I walked past the council houses now all sold off , Gibraltar Cottage and reached Cross Lanes . The very small community had once had a chapel . Long ago it closed and was now derelict . My thoughts were on St Deniol - who was he? Turned out the first Bishop of Bangor who died in 584AD . What about Marcella? She was a bit more interesting and around earlier than Deniol . In fact from 325 AD to 410AD. She was a saint of the Roman Catholic church and the Eastern Orthodox. After the untimely death of her husband
she gave her life to charity, prayer and a touch of mortifcation of the flesh .
I crossed the quiet road to have a look at the stone that had been placed at the roadside . It commemorated the Queens Jubilee of 2012. As I walked I pondered holidays . It sounded as if we were getting closer to being released . The Drip also known as the First Minister of Wales had announced that on Monday the pubs could open outside . Our local was busy clearing the yard and gardens out, putting up tables at discreet distances apart and sunshades to keep out the sun and the rain . Table service only. Limited menus but it was a start . Six people could meet out side or in a group for a meal . The gyms and leisure centres could open next week . Holidays had not been mentioned in Wales but dates had been mooted in England by Boris . Sometime the middle of May we might be able to travel without fear of a £1000 fine. All fine and good it seems .
I could see the fields in front of me that a
few weeks ago were flooded . Bangor church was in the distance and the medieval bridge . I was almost home . The airlines were getting ready to take holidaymakers to sunnler climes . For us then holidays abroad might be on the cards . However reality at the moment feels like a very strange and faraway country. We would need a PCR test before we left our shores . That had to be done 72 hours before we departed on the train and had to be negative . That would be tight . Train early Friday morning . Test would need to be done sometime on the Tuesday morning so as not to be too early nor in danger of being too late . A negative result would be with us in 48 hours . Assuming the test was not lost on its way to the laboratory or on its way back . Then there was the problem of where they could be done . The English government had given lists of places to get them done . Many in the big cities and all charging an arm and a leg for the test . £120 each. I found myself angry at the government for letting this happen . Pure racketeering and price fixing . So that would add to the cost of the holiday. If the test came back inconclusive it would have to be done again . And then Wales - who knows where the centres were.
I ended up by the bridge where the fishermen were just coming out of their cars taking out their rods and their nets . What about a test on the way back I thought ?. Eurotunnel had very kindly put up a link taking us to the french site showing every laboratory in the country . Some with opening hours and all with addresses . The only thing missing the price but I guessed around 100 euros each at least . The cost of a two week break was growing by the minute . Different to the airline holidays where the tests are discounted and they can be taken at the airport . Two worlds of travel - two far apart . I walked past the local shop busy selling morning newspapers and small summer bedding plants in pots . It was a hive of activity . Coming home possible quarantine for two days . Not a problem but another two tests . Will we get away for the summer of 2021 - it is looking more and more likely I will be ringing Eurotunnel to put the holiday off yet again until the Autumn .
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Travel plans...
I've read in the news that Europe will be open this summer to everyone who has been vaccinated. We are still planing to fly to Edinburgh on 23 August. I hope you remain optimistic!