A Visit to Stow-on-the-Wold

E was on holiday for a few days last week so we had an afternoon out at Stow-on-the-Wold in the Cotswolds.


With hindsight visiting on a sunny August day in the school holidays was probably not the best of ideas as the town was very busy and there was a 20 minute queue to even get into the town.


Timothy in the traffic jam feeling rather bored and asking "Are we there yet?"!

Nearly there!

A rather lovely new Cotswold stone wall.

Unsurprisingly there was no room to park in the town square so we went back to leave the car in the free car park at Tesco and walked.


This fountain was presented to the town's residents in 1896 by Piers Thursby.

The town has a lot of lovely independent shops.

This building houses the library and information centre.

The town was heaving with people and combined with cars parked all round the square made getting photographs something of a challenge!

There are a lot of pubs and tearooms.

The Cotswold Cheese Company - purchases were made :)

This is allegedly England's oldest inn built c947AD

We bought some chips from here for a rather unhealthy but tasty lunch!

Sadly, I didn't get chance to look round this interesting looking bookshop.

Time for a quick drink.

Near this cross Sir Jacob Astley surrendered to Parliamentary forces following defeat at The Battle of Stow on 21st March, 1646. 200 Royalists were slaughtered in the square and 1500 held prisoner in the church overnight. This was the last battle of the first Civil War and resulted in the end of the Royalist occupation of Oxford.

It was impossible to get a photo of the cross without people sitting on it!

It was a pity this shop was shut as the Oak Man in the photo above may well have been coming home with me.

Stocks

More purchases were made here!

The church of St Edward dates back to the 11th century. I didn't go inside this time but if you want to see the church interior please see here as I did look round on my last visit. The church is about half way down the post. For some unknown reason I called the town Stow in the Wold and not Stow on the Wold!!

These are bale tombs which date from the time when individuals became wealthy due to the wool trade. The tombs have a semi-circular ribbed shape on top of the chest tomb. This may represent bales of wool or possibly the rippled shape of a pall which was suspended over a semi circular metal frame over the body during medieval funeral services.

This is the wonderful door at the church said to have inspired J R R Tolkien especially in relation to the Gates of Moria.

This churchyard was rather neat and manicured :(

Purchases for D as he was stuck at home working!

I do like the Cotswolds but the one huge disdvantage is that, like Stratford upon Avon, it is always busy.

All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera.

DORSET - Part 4 30th June: Corfe Castle Continued - Model Village and St Edward's Parish Church

After we had spent several hours at the castle we spent the afternoon looking round the village.

It was very busy :(

In the square there was a tiny shop called "Ginger Pop" selling Enid Blyton related items and all sorts of other goodies for people who had their childhoods quite some time ago!!

D and E loved The Wishing Chair books

and no visit would be complete without purchasing some ginger beer!!

I have to admit to being a huge Enid Blyton fan - I think I read every book she ever wrote when I was little. Bed-time stories with my own children often revolved round one of the Blyton series! I bought a book in the shop called "Enid Blyton and her Enchantment with Dorset" by Dr Andrew Norman which is very interesting and worth buying if you are a Blyton fan and holidaying in this area.



The Town Hall, formerly a prison, is now a museum with a small display of local history items. The upper floor is still used as Parish Council chambers.

We had a look round the model village which opened in 1966

There is a small but attractive garden to walk around - and games such as croquet and a giant Connect 4 and draughts' board for children.

Entrance to the model village

The castle is shown as it would have been before it was destroyed by Parliament in 1646.

Apparently roofs in the (real) village are made from Purbeck Stone (rather than the thatched rooves which often occur in Dorset villages) which was stolen from the castle after its destruction.

The Rings - this is the remains of earthworks for a "Ring and Bailey" castle which was built by King Stephen in 1139 to siege the main castle and it was used as Cromwell's battery during the Civil War. The real earthworks would have been worth a visit (its not far away) but we just ran out of time. Somewhere to go when we return!!

Lichens again! As you may have gathered I am rather fascinated by them :)

The inevitable "model within a model"!

You can see the "real" Corfe castle ruins in this photo.

There was a nice little woodland garden to wander around

and a viewing screen overlooking a stream.

This little Fairy Garden would be lovely for young children to explore -

although it has a few goblin type characters scattered about!

Finally, while the family had a walk round part of the village I had 15 minutes to quickly look round the Parish church of St Edward, King and Martyr. The original church dates back to the 12th century with a 15th century tower. The church was rebuilt in 1860 using the original stone. It was named after St Edward the Martyr who was murdered in 978 on the orders of his stepmother (as mentioned in yesterday's post). The story records that his body was hidden in a hovel where it was discovered by a blind woman. Her sight was restored when she found his body and the church was built at this location.

During the Civil War (1642-1646) Parliamentary troops stationed themselves within the church using it as sleeping quarters for soldiers and stables for the horses - they caused quite a bit of damage to the fabric of the church and records were burnt.

There are now 6 bells in the belfry. The original No. 5 bell (cast in 1739) was replaced recently and can now be found in the north aisle.

The stained glass is mainly Victorian.

The font dates back to around 1450 and is made of black or reddish Purbeck Marble. The font cover was made by Martin Travers in 1940.

We bought some scones, Dorset strawberry jam and clotted cream from the bakery to make our own cream tea. The scones were the best bought ones I have ever tasted and highly recommended if you ever visit Corfe Castle!