Once again, it was a very cold morning. We began the day with a visit to Aylton Church which is only a few metres away from our accommodation.
Aylton Church is located within a few metres of our accommodation.
The Nave
The Tithe Barn
The nearby pond was frozen over!
In our accommodation, we had found a CD of a tour of the Ledbury area. We decided that we would give it a try. When we put the CD into the car player, it refused to play but we decided to give it a try just following the map included. Guided by the map, we visited several small towns and their churches. Each one was different and interesting in its own way.
St.Michael and All Angels, Little Marcle
The Nave
The Organ
At Ledbury, we had a lovely and moderately-priced breakfast. We wanted to visit St.Michael and All Angels Church (seen here in the background). As a funeral was taking place, we were unable to do so.
A small resident of Ledbury
An old building in Ledbury
A laneway
The Guildhall
The Barrett-Browning Memorial Clock Tower was opened in 1896 and housed the library until 2015.
This yew tree is thought to be about 1500 years old.
It's quite a size!
The Nave
This chest is dated 1698.
The Green Man
Mary Magdalene realises that the "gardener" is the risen Jesus.
Effigies of Sir John and Lady Kyrle.
Detail of above. Note the detail of Lady Kyrle's ruff and necklace.
Mary visits her cousin, Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.
Effigy of Walter de Helyon (Note his crossed legs, this is rare in effigies and denotes piety)
St.Peter (with enormous keys!)
Putley Church (the pond is frozen apart from the middle)
The Nave
The Baptism of Jesus by John
Philip baptises the Ethiopian eunuch.
The font
The font has carvings of the four evangelists. This is St.Matthew.
St.Mark
St.Luke
St.John
One of the kneelers
A mosaic depicting Abraham and Isaac
Detail of the reredos (The Last Supper)
The Lectern
The material used to block this door included Roman tiles.
This head is either Norman or Roman.
Because of the work being carried out on the tower, the organ was wrapped in protective plastic.
The Nave
The Last Trumpet
The Nave
Mary and Joseph (looking amazed) find Jesus talking to the priests in the Temple.
It was getting dark by the time we got to St.James the Great Church. We heard the sound of a piano as we opened the door but this turned out to be a recording. The recording, a small portion of Beethoven's Für Elise repeated a few times. Then a voice announced that the church would be closing and all visitors should leave within 10 minutes. We spent what we thought was less than ten minutes taking a couple more photos, buying a guide book and turning off lights. As we entered the porch, I heard a "click". Moments later we realised that this click was the sound of the door being locked electronically! A few more moments and the alarm began sounding (both inside and outside the church)! There was a notice with phone numbers to ring in case of a problem but neither of our phones had and a signal - and still the alarm was going! There was a button covered by glass which we were invited to press in case of emergency so, we did. The door was unlocked and we escaped! As we were leaving, a van drove up. Satoshi thought it might be a security company and went to speak to the driver. He turned out to be a resident of one of the houses near the church. His response was "Oh, don't worry about it!" When we had service on the phone later in the evening, Satoshi rang the emergency number and left a message explaining what had happened. The next day, a lady rang, thanked us for making contact and said, "Don't worry about it."
We just made it to Worcester Cathedral in time for Evensong 5:30pm. The music included the responses by Tallis, the Dyson in F canticles, and the Bairstow anthem "I sat down under his shadow". The Cathedral Choir sang very well and we were glad that we had made the effort to get there.
We had dinner at the Worcester Toby Carvery. Driving back to Aylton was not much fun because quite a heavy mist descended making visibility limited. I was glad to get "home" without incident.