G. K. Chesterton

The Stations of the Cross refers to a series of images depicting Jesus on the day of his crucifixion and accompanying prayers.  The stations grew out of imitations of Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem which is believed to be the actual path Jesus walked to Mount Calvary.  The object of the stations is to help the Christian faithful to make a spiritual pilgrimage through contemplation of the Passion of Christ.

In the words of William Fairbank “The forest stations are dedicated to beings of the world for whom timber plays an integral part in their lives” and it was William’s love of timber and the attraction of the timeless nature of the subject that brought him to complete the fifteen sculptures which tell the story of the traditional account of Jesus death, depicting each stage, or station, along the road to the place of crucifixion. The images are formed within the natural and carved shapes and colours of different timbers.  The Forest Stations are on semi permanent display within the Nave of Lincoln Cathedral

Vijali Hamilton

Dating back to 1160AD, Lincoln’s High Bridge is the oldest bridge in the United Kingdom to still have buildings on it.

The stone High Bridge was built around 1160, possibly replacing a wooden bridge. The first building to be built on the bridge, that is now part of Lincoln High Street, was a chapel, dedicated to Thomas Becket – a common occurance on Medieval English bridges.

This chapel was removed in the 18th century and an obelisk containing a conduit erected in its place – part of the city’s water system. The obelisk was removed in 1939 (due to concerns with its weight on the bridge) and recreated at St Marks Shopping Centre in 1996.

All that is left from the bridge’s original purposes is a short row of black and white timbered shops, dating back to around 1550.  The shops currently house Stokes High Bridge Cafe and Stokes to Go.

Mum had been moved to the escalation ward over night and had started to become delirious as we had suspected she would.

Due to being home a day earlier than expected, we needed to pick up some food supplies. We visited Battlefield 1403 in the hopes that we could also have lunch there. There was a waiting list for tables so we opted to buy the fresh produce and have lunch in Shrewsbury instead.

We chose Palmer’s of Shrewsbury which is a lovely place to eat, drink and to sit and chat a while. After our relaxing refreshments, we picked up the rest of our week’s supplies from Sainsbury’s.

We visited the hospital to see mum where we were able to persuade her to have a drink of water and a cuppa soup.

Now it was time for some well-earned chill out time at home, looking forward to roast chicken.

When we called on mum to take her to breakfast it was obvious that she had become more unwell overnight. She could hardly stand up so we helped her to the breakfast room where she enjoyed her breakfast. We were also pleased to find that the other member of our party had recovered overnight.

After breakfast we made the sad decision to take mum home because she had the early symptoms of another UTI infection.

We were disappointed not to be able to take part in the Easter Morning service in Lincoln Cathedral which was meant to be one of the treats for mum’s birthday.

Back home, we dialled 111 who assessed that mum should attend a critical care appointment in the local hospital within two hours and that they had called ahead to tell the hospital to expect her arrival. However, we found that our local hospital insists that everyone should go through the hospital’s own triage nurses. The triage system labelled her as coming in with vertigo and downgraded her to non-urgent despite us telling them that we suspected she had a UTI and the consequences that we know lead from that.

Mum had a few preliminary tests to rule out a few things and then we sat and waited watching many people come and go. Nine hours later, only mum and another lady, who had been admitted for an orthopaedic problem, remained from the original intakes.

Nine hours was too much for a 91-year-old lady so she decided she wanted to go home but first needed a nurse to remove a canula from her arm. The nurse went to check what was going on and advised that mum was next in the queue and gave an approximate time unless it was bumped by ambulance admissions.

The doctor who saw her was amazing. He talked to mum, assessed and listened to her concerns and accepted that she hadn’t come in with vertigo. From the tests he concluded that she had a UTI infection and, due to frailty, admitted her into hospital for what was left of the night.

This was a relief for me because I knew what would come next…

Breakfast, cooked to order was excellent. Unfortunately, two of our party were under the weather for different reasons but despite this we visited Lincoln Cathedral. It was mum’s birthday and a treat for her but her legs were a little wobbly so she only made it part way around the cathedral, having to sit down whilst the rest of us completed the tour of the Cathedral.

We had elevenses in the Cathedral Café which turned out to be rather cold due to drafts. It didn’t help that the staff kept leaving the outside door open when they served customers in the outside eating area. No matter how many times I shut the outside door, it was open again a couple of minutes later…

After our morning refreshments we walked the short distance into town where mum picked up some items from the chemist. The ladies had a mooch around EWM clothes shop where mum found a lovely gilet which she just had to buy, a birthday gift to herself. We then had a wander around the cathedral square and mum managed to walk to the castle grounds where I showed her the dragons!

At lunch time the party split into two, Mr C, mum and I had lunch in a lovely café Grayz that Mr C and I had enjoyed on a previous visit. It didn’t disappoint.

Mum, on her wobbly legs, enjoyed browsing around antique and bric-a-brac stores and craft stalls. She had become tired so we took her back to her room to relax, then we walked down steep hill.

At the bottom of steep hill, we remembered why we prefer the upper part of the town. The upper town is calm in contrast to the busy and boisterous nature of the lower town.

Rather than walk up the steepest part of ‘Steep Hill’ we took a detour through Temple Gardens with its slow winding pathway upwards.

Mum’s birthday dinner was in The Old Bakery, which is operated as a training ground for students from Lincoln College. We had a lovely evening and the food was delicious.

Mr C drove back to Cathedral View guesthouse where all but Mr C and I retired for the evening. The two of us visited the Wig & Mitre for a nightcap. It was a bit boisterous in the bar area but calm & chilled in front of the fireplace where we chose to sit. Just what the doctor ordered.