Having been living here for all of 6 months, it was time to meet some of the relies! With the kids at school on Tuesday Mum, Dad and I took the 45 minute drive to Cirencester to meet dad's cousin Tess. Having kept in touch but not seen each other in around 17 years they were very soon chatting like they'd never lived apart. It was fascinating to here accounts of my Nana's side of the family who I find I really know very little about. Along with Tess' husband, Bun, we were lucky enough to also meet their son and his wife and one of their daughters. Bun also gifted our kids with an amazing pile of books from his book distribution company which made him very popular in our house!
After a morning spent with the 'Barnfield' connection we headed into Cirencester itself for a quick tour and a bite to eat. Naturally Mum and Dad happened upon the local bowling club but the main street and church proved a tad more historic.
Often called the 'Cathedral of the Cotswolds', St John the Baptist, Cirencester, is a large and very elegant medieval church. Cirencester was a regional capital at the time of the Roman occupation of Britain. The Romans built the first known church here, though its location is unkown. The Roman church was destroyed by the Saxons when they gained control of the area after the Battle of Dyrham in 577 AD.
The Saxons built a church in this location, which stood for over 400 years. Then, in 1117 AD King Henry I founded an abbey and parish church to replace the old Saxon church. The abbey is gone now, though remnants can be seen in the Abbey Grounds beside the current church building.
King Henry's church was rebuilt around 1240, and again in Perpendicular Gothic style around 1520. It is largely this church that we see today.
Hmm!
St John the Baptist in Cirencester
Unfortunately it was teeming with rain for most of our visit. God bless the English summer!
Thursday saw us hitting the memory trail again this time visiting the little village of Hermitage where the Scutt family lived for most of Dad's youth and where he went to primary school prior to leaving for boarding school at the Duke of York's. Despite finding an elderly gentleman gardening who remembered the family (I hope that when I am 80 odd I can still be up a ladder trimming hedges) we were unable to locate their home and believe it must have been remodelled and renamed. We did find his primary school but given it would have been only about 50 metres at best from their house I now find it hard to believe Dad's stories of 'walking miles to school in the snow'. Well they do say things shrink when we get older!
and he hasn't changed a bit!
From Hermitage we drove a few miles to the larger town of Newbury. Dad mentioned in the car that Thursday's used to be Market Day and in the great British tradition of never changing, Thursday's still are Market Day! Dad used to catch the bus into town and we wandered around the high street, found his grandfather's pub and had some morning tea.
High Street on Market Day
The Local
The Corn Exchange (opened for trading in 1861 but now an arts centre)
Dad in the pulpit at the local church
With time marching on and lunch to be found we followed the A4 to the town of Hungerford and located (on the advice of Abbey's nursery teacher) the Antiques Arcade. It was quite a find with rows and rows of antique stalls to browse (and no Abbey touching everything!) We lunched in the attic coffee shop before having a leisurely look around and getting a lovely pair of earrings in the bargain.
Lunch at Hungerford
We were not yet done on the tourist front and spent the remainder of the afternoon strolling the High Street of Marlborough stopping for a pot of tea at Polly's Tea Rooms before it was time to collect the kids from school.
No comments:
Post a Comment