Shortly after lunchtime the sun made a brief appearance so I grabbed my my camera and headed off to Buildwas Abbey. It is a perfect tranquil place to enjoy the sunshine.

As I a sat on a bench I was reminded of a previous visit when I was treated to the sounds of a Benedictine chant from the chapter house. Today, however it was not the sounds of chanting I could hear it was the sounds of tweeting from the parlour. A family of swallows were nesting in there. The two parents kept flying out through the doorway and low past my legs whilst searching for a tasty snack for the youngsters. I sat in the sun watching them for a while before retreating to a different bench for a different view of the Abbey before making my way home.

I decided to drive back via the scenic route and along the way I was surprised when a peacock stepped out into the road. Luckily it changed its mind rather quickly and strutted back off in the direction it came from.

We booked an early morning call to make sure we were awake in time for breakfast. The early morning call didn’t happen, but luckily we were awake anyway!

I started breakfast with mixed fresh fruit, during which time our breakfast order was taken. Shortly afterwards a complimentary glass of Prosecco arrived, followed almost immediately by the cooked breakfast order. If we had known we would have delayed ordering cooked breakfast until after the Prosecco…

After breakfast I took a few photos of the outside of the hotel before we set off on our way to Gloucester, taking in a slight detour to allow for mistletoe photography. We were visiting to Gloucester to see the Cathedral but when we arrived Mr C was on a mission to visit the docks first. I let him have his way When we arrived at the docks and stepped out of the car it was bitterly cold and one of my eyes started streaming. We made our way towards two tall ships that Mr C had seen on our arrival but as soon as he had seen the ships he started to rush off to visit a military museum that he had noticed whilst parking his car.

I had other ideas, now that I was at the docks, photos had to be taken. He had to persevere with the cold a bit longer whilst I explored the dock area. After my exploration we visited the military museum which ironically I enjoyed more than he did.

After the visit to the dock area we moved the car closer to the Cathedral, where we had lunch before visiting the Cathedral. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Cathedral, it was every bit as good as I remembered it from my previous visit many years ago. Only the portable labyrinth was missing. We were informed that it is likely that it will return for the summer holidays.

We then set off towards home, stopping off at Tewkesbury on the way. Being a Monday in rural Gloucestershire it was mostly closed, but eventually we found a nice tea shop where we enjoyed a cup of tea. After a refreshing cup of tea we spent some time in the Abbey before continuing on our journey home.

15th February 2016

There is more to Beaulieu than the acclaimed motor museum.  The footprint of the Cistercian Abbey church can still be seen next to the cloister and chapter house. One can only wonder what the building would have been like. One of only four monastic buildings to survive in tact is the Refectory which became  Beaulieu Parish Church.

Another building that survived in tact is the Domus. This was used as the living quarters for the lay brothers.

The Palace House, which is one of the best stately homes that I have visited houses houses a fine portrait gallery and retains its original  medieval features.

Just a short walk from the house is the Victorian’s garden which was created as a tribute to the Victorians’ immense contribution to our knowledge of plants and our enjoyment of gardens.

Within the garden is a sundial that was commissioned to mark the 50th birthday of Lord Montagu’s eldest son and his wife Ailsa, in 2011.

On significant dates, the shadow of the sphere will track along one of the curves crossing the hour lines. The dates are:

Winter solstice (purple), Ailsa Montagu’s birthday on 9th November (blue), Ralph Montagu’s birthday on 13th March (red), their wedding anniversary on 16th April (gold) and Summer solstice (green).

The sundial does not always agree with the clock. There are three reasons for this. First, Longitude: the sun takes four minutes to pass over one degree of longitude. Beaulieu is 1 deg 27′ West of the Greenwich meridian. The difference in longitude between Beaulieu and Greenwich makes a sundial at Beaulieu 5 minutes and 48 seconds slow to one at Greenwich. Second, the elliptical orbit of the earth round the sun and the tilt on the earth’s axis cause slight variations in the day length. This effect is known as the equation of Time and has a different value each day which makes the sundial up to 16 minutes fast for 15 minutes slow depending on the time of year. Finally, in summer clocks go forward an hour but sundials do not. The combined effects of the Equation of Time and longitude mean that the sundial at Beaulieu will be a maximum of 10 minutes fast in November and 20 minutes slow to the clock in February. The sundial will agree with Greenwich Mean Time in mid-September and mid-December.*

*from an information board next to the sundial

Sadly it was now time to say goodbye to Carcassonne and return to the airport for the journey back home.  We took a leisurely drive along the A roads and stopped off in the quaint town of Saint-Papoul in order to visit the abbey. We then continued our journey and stopped at Castelnaudary where we didn’t quite find the cathedral but we did find an unexpected windmill!! Along the way we picked up a cheese and ham baguette for lunch which we ate on a picnic bench at a service station.

After that we made our way back to the airport stopping for petrol on the way before finally dropping of the hire car. After all that we thought we were a little late for checking in but we found we were half an hour early. The flight times had been given in UK times rather than local times

I inadvertently managed to choose a seat that was in the emergency exit isle and was advised on how to open the emergency exit if a problem arose… Then I was asked ‘are you still happy sitting here’. Well of course I was for more than one reason. And in any case there were going to be no problems There was thick cloud throughout the journey until we came into land. At this point we were treated to some amazing cloud formations and gaps creating interesting views of the land below. My camera had been stowed away by this time…

Luck was with us and we were off the plane, baggage collected, onto the shuttle bus to the car within 20 minutes of landing. All that remained was for us to pick up our car key from the airport parking and head for home.

I posted a cropped version of Malmesbury Abbey entrance a few weeks ago. I cropped the photo because a garbage can was spoiling the view.

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.

Today, the Abbey is approximately a third of its original size.  During the middle ages it had a tall central spire which William of Worcester recorded as  being 431ft high which made it even taller than the spire on Salisbury Cathedral, which is the tallest spire in England today.  The spire was unstable and collapsed destroying part of the Abbey as it fell.

When the Monastery closed due to the Dissolution in 1539, a wealthy clothier called William Stumpe purchased the Abbey from Henry VIII for £1517.  William Stumpe used the building as a factory for his weaving looms before giving it to the people of Malmesbury in 1541 for use as their parish church.  It is still used as the parish church today.

The Abbey porch is of note and is wonderfully detailed.  The inner porch portrays the Twelve Apostles, six on each side and Christ in Majesty is carved above the door.  The carvings on the outer porch form three concentric arches depicting the Creation of Man, the Old Testament Narrative and the Life of Jesus Christ.  You can probably see from the picture how worn these scenes have become over time.

The day I visited the Abbey, young people from the church community were rehearsing a service to say goodbye to the Youth Pastor who was leaving to take up a new position outside Malmesbury.  The music was very lively, vibrant and uplifting; the young people’s enthusiasm and enjoyment left a smile on everyone’s faces.