For breakfast I once again chose a few items from the Full English option. On this occasion my plan for a smaller breakfast didn’t work, the chef added extras of the items I had chosen so that my plate was full!

After breakfast we checked out of the hotel  and drove to Bury St Edmunds in order to visit St Edmundsbury Cathedral. It was one to add to my Cathedral passport which details my pilgrimage to British  Cathedrals since the passport was launched in 2020. Starting the pilgrimage  off was a bit of challenge, shortly after the pilgrimage passport was launched England and other parts of Britain were put into lockdown due to the Covid 19 epidemic.

At the Cathedral, a lady from the tourist information area pointed out some highlights and suggested we also visit the nearby St Mary’s church where Henry VIII’s sister, Mary Tudor is buried next to the high altar. She also told me to look at the spectacular Angel vaulted ceiling.

We enjoyed our tour of the Cathedral where we learned that the tower and crossing were quite modern and completed in the 1950s. We had enough time to visit St Mary’s where we were greeted by one of the guides who shared detailed history of the building including the location of Mary Tudor’s (Queen of France & Duchess of Suffolk) tomb. Mary Tudor was married to Louis XII of France until his death after which she married the Duke of Suffolk.

Besides the two beautiful church spaces the town of Bury St Edmunds is delightful. We didn’t have time to explore the town but we had just enough time to visit the Abbey gardens before continuing our journey to Windsor.

We broke our journey for lunch in The Old Butchers at Balsham a place recommended on the Extra Mile website. On arrival we found the menu was not as extensive as the website suggested but the food (in my case a cherry flap jack with yoghurt topping) was both excellent and delicious. The weather was warm and sunny allowing us to sit outside.

The remainder of the journey to Windsor was tedious; lots of motorway and duel carriageway driving. On arrival at the hotel we checked in and found that we had been booked into the same room we had stayed in on our previous visit. Initially we were a little dismayed, we had been hoping to stay in the annex near to the car park and station. We also remembered the bed being a little on the small side, which it is not.

Later I realised the problem was the mattresses were tired which meant I kept rolling into the middle (small bed space). The mattresses have been replaced and are now super cosy.

We chilled out in the hotel room, cooling off from the muggy heat before enjoying our free pre-dinner drink in the hotel bar. Then we walked the short distance across the bridge into Eton where we dined in the Cote Brasserie. Before returning to our hotel for the evening we had a nightcap in the George Inn.

During our Christmas shopping trip to Shrewsbury, we intended to have an afternoon cuppa in the Cafe within St Mary’s Church but unfortunately the cafe was closed for refurbishment.

It was a pleasure to see the Jesse Window and the detailed roof panels. Seeing the window reminded us that after a previous visit in December we had always intended to go back to visit the church in summer months when the light is more favourable to explore the finer details of the church.

The church is now the only complete medieval church in Shrewsbury. It dates from Saxon times and has beautiful additions from the twelfth-century onwards. Inside, the atmosphere is peaceful with the soaring stone arches giving way to the church’s great treasure – its stained glass. There are panels in glorious colour including the world-famous fourteenth-century ‘Jesse window’; filled with figures of Old Testament kings and prophets, and scenes from the life of St Bernard – a Medieval cartoon strip that shows him ridding flies from an abbey, riding a mule and curing the sick. No other church in the country has a collection to equal it.

Most of the glass was brought from elsewhere, much of it from Europe, by two remarkable clergymen, and installed in St Mary’s during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Warmth and richness is also provided by superb Victorian coloured tiles on the floor.  Lifting your eyes upwards, you will see the wonderful fifteenth-century carved oak ceiling of the nave, with a profusion of animals, birds and angels.

Tolkien’s inspiration for Durin’s Door was a little too far away for a Saturday afternoon excursion so I looked for inspiration in ‘The Churches of Shropshire & Their Treasures’ to find inspiration for suitable doorways that were fitting for the presentation of my medals for completing  ‘The Fellowship’ and ‘Mines of Moria’ challenges.

Within the books pages I found St Mary’s Church, Edstaston which has Norman doorways that could quite easily have inspired the doorways to and within the Mines of Moria. The doors shown here are original and feature fine Norman iron-work.

Unfortunately the church was not open so I was unable to go inside and share the treasures within.

Cerne Abbas is a charming and quaint village that is world renowned for the Cerne Giant, a 180 ft high ancient chalk figure carved out into the steep sloping hillside above the village.

The origins of the Giant, now owned by the National Trust, are a mix of fact and speculation. Some believe that he represents the Roman god Hercules or that he is a Pagan fertility symbol. There is no known historical record before 1694, however recent studies suggest the giant was first made by the Saxons between AD 700 and 1100.

The village of Cerne Abbas grew around a great Benedictine Abbey, which was founded in AD 987 however the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century sadly saw the Abbey destroyed. Remains of the Abbey can still be seen today and are well worth a visit. Despite the loss of the Abbey the village managed to not just survive but prosper; Cerne’s fresh underground water supply fuelling a highly successful brewing trade. The quality beer was sold as far afield as London and was even exported to the Americas. Due to this industry, Cerne Abbas at one time boasted no fewer than 15 public houses with a population of only 1500. Waterpower also gave rise to many other small industries including milling and silk weaving.

St. Mary’s, formally dedicated to St. Gregory is over 1200 years old and sometimes referred to as ‘The Cathedral of the Dales’.

“Nestled in the valley between Bishop Auckland and Barnard Castle on the main A688, Staindrop has been described as “quite simply one of the prettiest villages in County Durham.”  It stands as one of the gateways into Teesdale, with its long village greens making it a typical rural Durham village.  The village is also one of great antiquity with some evidence of neolithic activity, but it gained importance in the time of King Canute when he gave his manor at Staindrop and its surrounding ‘appendages’ (hamlets and houses) to the newly founded priory at Durham Cathedral in 1031.”

“The church itself stands at what was once the Easternmost end of the village next to the Langley Beck, just past the magnificent Raby Castle.

It is a mediaeval gem, based on an 8th Century Saxon foundation with some of the earlier Saxon churches incorporated into the ‘newer’ building.”

We had a short but lovely afternoon walk around Jackfield. Mum was joining us for an evening meal so preparations were needed

The Church of St Mary is a Church of England parish church in Berkley, Somerset. It is a Grade II* listed building built in 1751.^[1]

The church, dedicated to St Mary, was built in 1751 by Squire Thomas Prowse of the adjacent Berkley House.^[1]

The whitewashed stone church has a west tower and a hip roof with stone slates, while the nave has a central glazed cupola. Both this cupola and the organ have been recently^[when?] restored.^{[2][failed verification]} There are a pair of 17th century panel backed chairs. The font, pulpit and pews date from the mid 19th century.^[1]

Grounds

The walls and gate piers around the church date from the mid 18th century.^[3]

The graveyard contains the graves of the local population including some notable tombs. The tomb of William Hall is made of Doulting Stone and dates from 1670.^[4] The Bath stone tomb of Joseph Singer is inscribed for several members of the Singer family from the 18th and early 19th centuries.^[5] There are also several unidentified tombs.^[6][7][8]

William Blake

Meister Eckhart