Today, Tewkesbury Abbey and the Mechanical Music Museum at Northleach were on the agenda.
You may be able to find Satoshi standing at the bottom of the huge tree
A very solid tower. You can see where the roof used to begin.
The Consecration Cross to the left of the door
The Nave - more Norman pillars!
The Lectern
Lion with tongue
I'm not sure which saints are adorning the lectern but they are very nice!
Detail of lectern
This "goblet" pulpit is 19th century.
The Screen (19th century)
The canons' stalls and the sanctuary
Looking up into the tower from the crossing
The Organ
The ceiling of the chancel
The Quire and the organ
The kneeling knight is Edward Despenser, Lord of the Manor of Tewkesbury, who died in 1375. He is remembered today because of this statue, which shows him in full colour kneeling on top of the canopy of his chantry, facing toward the high altar.
Joseph with interesting carpentry tools.
Giraldus was the first abbot of Tewkesbury (1102)
A window by Tom Denny
This roof boss depicts an angel playing the bagpipes.
Jesus changes water into wine at the Wedding in Cana. The people at the wedding commented that the host had kept the best wine until last (which was unusual because the practice at the time was to serve the best wine first, keeping the inferior wine for later when the guests were less likely to notice the difference!)
The Three Kings. The number of kings or wise men is not mentioned in the Bible but there were three gifts (gold, frankincense and myrrh). Traditionally, their names are Gaspar, the King of Sheba (frankincense), Melchior, the King of Arabia (gold) and Balthazar, the King of Tarse and Egypt (myrrh).
The Annunciation
The Nativity
This is a depiction of "The Presentation of Christ at the Temple". Simeon has been promised by God that he would see the Messiah before he died. He says the words "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation".
The reigning Christ surrounded by the symbols of the four evangelists.
Another depiction of the Nativity. This shows the three kings and the shepherds at the stable at the same time (which is chronologically incorrect but makes for a lovely scene).
The wisemen see the star
I love how the artist knows he has to have three kings but there isn't room so one of them is shoved into the back. Herod looks suitably suspicious about the whole thing too. He tells the wisemen to return to him when they find Jesus but the wisemen are too wise for Herod and go home another way.
There were a great number of beautiful windows at Tewkesbury, many like this depiction of Jesus in the Temple, were spread across several panels (called lights).
This huge and very detailed window depicts Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. People in the crowd are waving palm branches and some are putting their cloaks on the road. I loved the bottom of the second light where a mother has a child on her knee and the child is waving a palm branch. This is just one of perhaps a great number of windows - no wonder it takes so long to have a "proper" look around!
Next on the list was the Mechanical Music Museum at Northleach. I had phoned ahead to make sure that it was open and was told that tours went for an hour. When we arrived, it was 2:10pm. The next tour was not until 3:00pm (they had neglected to tell me that part!) so we walked the short distance to...
The Church of St.Peter and St.Paul, Northleach
The Nave
The nave ceiling
As with many churches, there are stairs which once led to the rood screen but now go nowhere.
In 1964, the church was "reordered" (which I find usually means "messed up"). The choir and organ were sent down the back.
There were many embroidered kneelers. There is a Christmas carol "I Saw Three Ships".
One of the things I enjoy about English churches is the tendency to have "random" things like a duck in them! You never know what you might find. Remember the fire engine?
It's not brass but still a wonderful piece of carving.
Detail of lectern - not many have a tongue!
St.Paul
Detail of above window. (I thought Paul's looked rather like a dinner plate!)
Back to the museum. We then found that they didn't have a card machine and that we were short of cash. OK, off to the local supermarket or post office to get some cash. Australian cards not accepted at either place - not encountered this problem before. Solution - scrape around for coins - only had £8 - enough for one ticket. So we had a shortened tour for two! The museum was very interesting and the guide knowledgeable. I didn't take many photos because I chose to take movies instead. See link below.
This is the lid of a music box at the museum.
To see and hear some of the devices in the museum in action, click here.
We went to Worcester Cathedral for Evensong. The responses were by Gibbons/Barnard, the canticles were Morley's First Service and the anthem was the traditional carol "I Wonder as I Wander" arranged by Andrew Carter. All the music was of a very high standard.
After a dinner at Toby Carvery, it was time to head for home.