Sunday, August 02, 2009

Candidate's World Tour - Last Leg.

Candidate and candidate's wife awoke this day back in England (Hartwell Hall, near Aylesbury). We passed on a tour of the grounds because it was chucking it down. Headed towards Wales, but then decided to visit Tewkesbury, a town never before visited by either of us. The town was named after a Saxon named Theoc who established a hermitage there in the 7th century and it used to be known Theocsbury. Anna Ford was born in Tewkesbury and Eric Morecombe collapsed and died there. Checked into the Tewkesbury Park Hotel, Golf and Country Club. After lunch decided to play the course. A very nice 18 holes. The third (I think) had us driving between two 100 ft conifers which framed Tewkesbury Abbey in the middle distance. Resolved to stay overnight and visit the Abbey next day. That's more golf in a week than the rest of 2009 put together.

Construction of Tewkesbury Abbey began in 1102 to house Benedictine monks. Embellishments were added in the 14 th century. After the dissolution in 1540, the Ladies Chapel and other bits were demolished, but the rest was sold to the townspeople for £453. There is the finest copper beech that I have ever seen in the Abbey grounds - worth the visit on its own. The Abbey totally dominates the town, which has a population of less than 20,000 and is often flooded by water that falls from the skies above Montgomeryshire and travels to Tewkesbury by means of the River Severn. The semi-professional Abbey Choir were warming up for a service, creating a fabulous atmosphere for our visit. And we were accosted by one of those volunteer enthusiasts who cannot stop talking about the building and its history. We had to leave after a couple of hours, but could have spent all day there - and our volunteer enthusiast still wouldn't have stopped extolling the wonders of the place. Then we went home to Wales. The 'World Tour' was over.

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