Friday afternoon I drove up to Stratford-upon-Avon for a preview performance of the RSC's Hamlet with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart. That's another story (and one I'll write at some point). I stayed overnight nearby (a fine manor house converted into an OK, and relatively cheap, Best Western) and after breakfast was away from the hotel just before 9am for a day of church-going on my way back to London.
It was a beautiful sunny morning and there was a wonderful range of churches to choose from -- I eventually visited 8 new ones, plus one I'd been to before and one that was closed, but where I could peer through the window. So that equalled my best day in my collecting of those in Simon Jenkins' book England's Thousand Best Churches. I thought I was going to make 9 but 8 is a good tally, and it's a good focus for an entry that tries to capture something of why I like this activity so much. Which by way of an outline of the day, with some photos, is what I'm attempting here.
I drive first to Pershore to visit The Abbey. Summer CD Review begins on Radio 3, which is an essential accompaniment to much of my time in any car (at least when I'm on my own). The Abbey is set behind the main street, in what looks like a nice town, and I find a carpark alongside a fine large lawn around the abbey church.The building is really impressive, and the more so on the inside.
(entry in progress)
Besford St Peter
Croome D'Abitot St Mary
Lower Strensham St John
Bredon St Giles
Tewkesbury The Abbey
Deerhurst St Mary
Widford
Comments