This fabulous free magazine dropped through my letterbox this morning – Totally Telford (The great outdoors edition).
It is the first issue of a magazine produced by Telford and Wrekin Council.It has lovely ideas for places to walk, cycle and generally enjoy the outdoors. There are features on local towns, local shopping opportunities and a couple of local celebrities.
The ‘your photos section’ features photos from Shropshire 1000 milers.
It has given me inspiration for some of my next local adventures.
Tags: Adventures, Magazine, Outdoors, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin Council, Totally Telford, Walking
A C1 AD formal Roman courtyard garden, enclosed within the partly excavated wings of a Roman palace and reconstructed according to field evidence revealed through excavation and planted in accordance with known contemporary planting styles.
HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT
The site at Fishbourne was first occupied by the Romans as a military base in the early stages of the invasion of Britain, from AD 43(75. Its abandonment for military purposes was quickly followed by two stages of building for residential use, the second of these occurring between AD 65 and 75 until, in AD 75, the site was cleared and levelled for the construction of the present palace, possibly for the British client king Togidubnus. From AD 100 to 200 it underwent considerable change and development until in the 280s it was destroyed by fire. Subsequent stone robbing, weathering, worm and agricultural activity reduced the contours to an even slope. Although the sporadic discovery of Roman artefacts was recorded from 1805, proper investigation of the site and the identification of a major, late C1 building only took place following the cutting of a trench for a water-main in 1960. A series of major excavations, which brought to light the history and the scale and structure of the Palace, its gardens and surroundings, took place between 1961 and 1968. The Sussex Archaeological Society acquired much of the site and established the present museum which opened to the public in 1968. This remains (1997) in their ownership while the rest of the (unexcavated) site is in multiple public and private ownership.
Tags: Chichester, Fishbourne Roman Palace, Vacation
The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think.
Gregory Bateson
Tags: Cherie's Place, Giardini Naxos Bay, Italy, Sicily, Vacation
Although there was probably an earlier Celtic church on the site Aldhelm is celebrated as the founder of the Christian Church in Sherborne in 705 AD. Founded as a cathedral it became an Abbey in 1075 before finally becoming the parish church of Sherborne with the dissolution of the monasteries. For many it is still the ‘cathedral of Dorset’ and the Benedictine heritage lives on in the daily offering of prayer and praise.
When people look at the Abbey, they see different things. Some see the finest building in Dorset, with its glorious fan vaulting – of which Simon Jenkins says in his book England’s Thousand Best Churches, “I would pit Sherborne’s roof against any contemporary work of the Italian Renaissance.” Others see a place renowned for its choir and its music and its bells – the heaviest peal of eight bells in the world. Some see thirteen centuries of history.
In addition to the roof there are many other fine features from the Whistler reredos in the Lady Chapel, the high altar reredos in Caen stone by Richard Carpenter, the great West Window by John Hayward installed in 1997 and dedicated by HM The Queen, mediaeval misericords, ancient stone coffins said to contain the bones of Ethelbald and Elthelbert, kings of Wessex and brothers of Alfred the Great, the Grey and Davidson organ, rebuilt by Kenneth Tickell and Co in 2005 , who added the west end section, tombs of the local gentry and much more.
Although there is much to see it is not a museum. It is a living, working and growing place of worship and ministry, often filled with music and with any people, young and old, attending services and events. Prayers are said and sung daily.
Tags: Dorset, Sherborne Abbey, Vacation
The name “Sherborne Castle” was then applied to the new house, though today the term Sherborne New Castle is generally used to refer to it, in the same manner as “Sherborne Old Castle” is used for the ruins.
Through the early and mid-18th century William, 5th Lord Digby,[7] who laid out the grounds praised by Alexander Pope, and his heirs Edward, 6th Lord Digby, who inherited in 1752, and Henry, 7th Lord, created Earl Digby, laid out the present castle gardens. Features include the 1753 lake designed by Capability Brown, which separates the old and new castles.[8] The ruins of the old castle are part of the gardens, being conspicuous amongst the trees across the lake. King George III visited the house and gardens in 1789, shortly before awarding Henry Digby with a peerage. When Edward, 2nd and last Earl Digby, died in 1856 the house was passed to the Wingfield Digby family, who still own the house. The house was modernised by the architect Philip Charles Hardwick.
In the First World War the house was used by the Red Cross as a hospital and in the Second World War as the headquarters for the commandos involved in the D-Day landings.
Tags: Sherborne, Sherborne New Castle, Sherborne Old Castle, Vacation
