Helen Thomson

On our recent visit to Worcester Cathedral we passed several elephants that are part of a current art trail.

Each sculpture has been sponsored by a business and individually designed by an artist – either well-known or just starting out, from the Worcestershire area or further afield. They marched into the city on Tuesday, 13th July and will leave again from 5pm on Sunday, 5th September 2021. After this, there will be the chance to say a final ‘goodbye’ at a Farewell Event, before each elephant is auctioned to raise funds for St Richard’s Hospice.

The sculptures are delightful, although due to their popularity proved difficult to photograph.

After breakfast we set off to Worcester to visit the Cathedral. The Three Choirs Festival was taking place so parts of the Cathedral were obscured by the temporary seating and stage area. We were however, treated to a wonderful practice session of Elgar’s Enigma Variations. The BBC were setting up for recording the performance for later in the day.

We walked back through the town to purchase some items we had seen on our walk to the Cathedral; Mr C purchased some items for the kitchen, mum picked bought a lovely Tilley hat that is just her style but sadly the Lilac Rohan jacket that I have had my eye on for a while (waiting for the sale) was completely sold out.

We decided to head towards Ledbury  to explore it further and have lunch on the way. As we travelled I spotted a cafe and farm shop sign where we decided to stop. The Fold turned out to be a vegetarian café with an interesting and varied menu. Our timing was off, we arrived just after a large party of 10 people which meant we had to wait a while for our lunch to arrive. The waitress came with apologies from the chef for our wait. When it arrived the food was delicious, I had opted for apple and cinnamon cake, one of my favourites which is not often on the menu.

On arrival at Ledbury, we found a more suitable place to park the car than on the previous day’s visit. The town was much quieter and I was able to enjoy unobstructed views of the Market House. Mr C spotted a lovely cobbled street with great photo opportunities. Walking along the cobbled passageway was like stepping back in time and it led us to the delightful Church of St Michael and All Angels. As we left the church the sky had become heavy and dark, threatening thunder. We beat a hasty retreat to the car and as we made our way in the general direction of the hotel the roads were awash with floodwater after a torrential downpour.

Ironically the sun came out as we arrived back at the hotel so Mr C and I headed into Malvern to visit a second hand bookshop before freshening up for dinner and more ‘Fine Dining’ in the Cotford Hotel.

We had left plans for my ’significant birthday’ celebration until the last minute. It was looking good to go for a Staycation so we booked into a hotel in Sherbourne, Dorset. Just after the booking was made lockdown tiers were announced.  A few days before the planned mini adventure Chez Nous was moved into tier two. We phoned the hotel to check whether we could still visit and they confirmed that we could.

This led us to feeling confident enough to book restaurant venues during our stay. The next day there were rumblings of a full lockdown being imminent and sure enough a full lockdown was announced starting on November the 5th, the day of my birthday. I smiled at the irony of the start date of our second lockdown, November 5th being the anniversary of the date that the gunpowder plotters planned to blow up Parliament.

With our trip cancelled last minute birthday plans had to be made. Mr C booked an extra day off so that he could arrange some ’seasonal secrets’ that wouldn’t have been necessary if we had been away and also to enjoy some mini (Covid Safe) adventures before full lockdown came into force. In the morning he went out to sort out some shopping and various other things leaving me at home. I have to confess it was rather nice to have the house to myself for the first time since March. I am sure he would feel the same but he is usually working when I leave the house.

He was gone longer than expected because of difficulties and delays in the shops. Eventually he arrived home, although too late to have lunch out as planned. Instead we had a delicious bacon butty before heading off to Bodenham Arboretum for the afternoon.

We were treated to delightful autumn sunshine as we drove to the arboretum and as we walked around the arboretum the sun highlighted the beauty of the autumn leaves. I had to tread carefully in some places where the ground was muddy. The soles of my shoes were not quite up to clinging to the wet mud but I managed to stay upright. Later we enjoyed fine dining at home.

A good start to ‘plan C’ birthday celebrations.

The Moores were drapers and clothiers in this city at the time of Queen Elizabeth I.  Their fortunes were laid by “farming out” spinning and weaving with local farmers wives and cottagers, they then died the cloth and sold the finished article. Soon they had business connections in London and with the continent.

This splendid monument does not identify the figures. They are probably those of John Moore and his wife Anne, on the right, their son and daughter, John and Margaret in the centre and their son Thomas in his Aldermanic robes with his wife Mary. Thomas was the last to die in 1633 at the age of 79.*

*From an information board next to the sculpture

Coventry Cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1940. These 14th. century hand carved nails from its roof were formed into a cross which became a symbol of reconciliation in a divided world. When the diocese of Worcester its 1300th anniversary in  1980 this cross of nails was given to it by the Bishop and people of Coventry.

The Crypt is the most substantial remnant of St Wulfstan’s Cathedral. The semi-circular end of the crypt reflects the original shape of the main Cathedral above before it was extended in the thirteenth-century. Although the crypt is smaller than when it was built it is still an impressive work of late eleventh-century architecture.*

*Information source – The Worcester Cathedral guidebook

Arthur, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, was born in 1486 and baptized by the Bishop of Worcester. With his father and mother, and grandmother. the Lady Margaret, he visited Worcester in his boyhood. At the age of 15 he was married to Catherine of Aragon; the young pair were sent to keep court at Ludlow Castle, and there, less than five months after their marriage, Arthur died on 2 April 1502. Had he lived, he would have succeeded his father as King of England.

Prince Arthur’s body , after lying in state at Ludlow. was carried in solemn procession to Worcester. In the long series of funeral services in this Cathedral, three Bishops, eight Abbots, and the Prior of Worcester took part, and noblemen and men-at-arms made offerings.

This chantry chapel was erected over Arthur’s tomb by Henry VII, and decorated with heraldic devices illustrating the union of the rival houses of Lancaster and York. At the reformation, fifty years later, the figures above the reredos were mutilated, though many of the 88 small figures escaped damage; then, in Elizabeth’s reign, the east wall was covered with plaster, on which was painted “Vivat Regina” with the Royal Arms. The plaster remained there until 1788.

When Queen Elizabeth visited Worcester in 1575, “she entered into the church with grett and solompne singing and musick, with cornetts and sackbutts, with a canapy boren over her; and so up into the chancell, where she diligently viewed the tomb of King John, together with the chapell and tomb of her deere uncle, lat Prynce Arther, all rycheley and bewtyfully adorned.”*

*From an information board outside the Chantry Chapel