The weather was glorious so we visited Hampton Court in Hope Under Dinmore, Herefordshire. We had lunch in the orangery where I chose a Coronation Chicken sandwich before taking a guided tour of the castle. After the castle tour we enjoyed a walk around the gardens which are currently between seasons.  The maze and its hidden surprise were as enjoyable as ever and we were surprised to learn of a hidden feature next to the waterfall in the sunken garden. We enjoyed watching young children find their way behind the waterfall, get as near to the (low) edge as they dared so that they could get a soaking from the waterfall. We were sure that one of them was going to step backwards over the edge, but thankfully he didn’t.

We had hoped to walk along the river which would have enabled me to complete one of my Coronation related walking challenges but unfortunately, we realised that we had forgotten to get an all-important ingredient for our evening meal. This meant that we didn’t have enough time to complete the walk before the shops closed.

This means we will have to go back soon to walk along the river which we have not quite managed on any of our visits. By then the gardens should be starting to bloom again.

We had a trip to Bromyard to visit the ‘Time Machine  Museum of Science Fiction’. We arrived in Bromyard in time for lunch only to find that due to the bank holiday most places were shut. We also noticed that some places had closed permanently due to the lockdowns affecting business. We retraced our steps to the Brockhampton Estate for lunch in a teashop that we enjoyed on previous visits to Brockhampton.

When we arrived we found that the teashop had also been a victim of Covid 19 and had not reopened after the 2020/21 lockdowns. We made our way to the National Trust Granary Kiosk and purchased sandwiches which we enjoyed sitting outside in the courtyard surrounded by birds hoping for a tasty crumb or two.

After lunch we returned to Bromyard  and took a leisurely walk around the town until the museum opened after lunch. The museum is eclectic and fun. I can confirm that after stepping through the police box door ‘it is’ bigger on the inside

On the way home we called in at Burford House gardens for a ‘naughty cake’, we both chose lemon drizzle cake which was extremely lemony and delicious.

The medieval church of St Michael and All Angels stands within the grounds of Croft Castle, a historic medieval castle and stately home (National Trust). The church was constructed around the year 1300. To this earlier building was later added a 17th-century clock tower and interior gallery, as well as a set of box pews.

These stained glass windows were created by Tom Deny in 2007. The windows were inspired by Thomas Traherne and his writings.

Thomas Traherne was a priest, poet and spiritual writer. Born in Hereford in 1637, he almost certainly attended Hereford Cathedral School; this was at a time when the city was torn by civil war. After completing his studies at Brasenose College, Oxford, he returned to Herefordshire in 1657, as rector of Credenhill, a small village five miles west of the city. Here he ministered for sixteen years, as well as participating in the work of this cathedral.

Early in 1674, Traherne left Herefordshire for Teddington, where he continued to serve as chaplain to Sir Orlando Bridgeman. He died later that year and lies buried under the reading desk in Teddington Church.

Trahere’s search for happiness led him to see God’s love revealed in creation. He speaks of this vision in his writings, largely unpublished at his time of death. It is thanks to the twentieth century rediscovery of his manuscripts that he is now celebrated as a spiritual writer of great depth and beauty.

The Traherne windows represent themes in Traherne’s thinking:

Love for the Herefordshire countryside

Seeing the cross of Christ in the world around us

Insistence on the importance of love in human lives

Love for the city of Hereford and its inhabitants*

*from a signboard next to the windows

The Church has been at the heart of Ledbury life since Anglo-Saxon times but the bell tower was not built until the early 13th century.

Ledbury is a market town and civil parish in the county of Herefordshire, England, lying east of Hereford, and west of the Malvern Hills.

It has a significant number of timber-framed structures, in particular along Church Lane and High Street. One of the most outstanding is the Market House,^[2] built in 1617, located in the town centre. Other notable buildings include the parish church of St. Michael and All Angels,^[3] the Painted Room^[4] (containing sixteenth-century frescoes), the Old Grammar School, the Barrett-Browning memorial clock tower^[5] (designed by Brightwen Binyon and opened in 1896 to house the library until 2015),