musings while allatsea

Musings of a curious individual

Tag: Tewkesbury

Tewkesbury Classic Vehicle Festival 2019 (1)

Collections and Museums, Gloucestershire, Heritage, Hobbies and Interests, Personal, Photo Essay, Tewkesbury, Transportation, United Kingdom

It’s that time of the year when all manner of vintage, rare, strange and wonderful vehicles converge on the town and show off. I have been a regular attendee since 2016 and the results of my visits are all buried in the archives of this blog (somewhere).

[ 2016 ]  [ 2017 ]  [ 2018 ] 

The problem with posting about the festival is that many of the cars have featured here before and finding previously un-photographed cars is not as easy as it would seem.  However, there are often new vehicles that catch my eye and I like getting those to add to my already impressive stash of vintage car pics. 

Unfortunately they have raised the entry fee to £7.50 and that may come back to bite the organisers. The changeable weather also played a major role in attendance and at one point it was touch and go whether we would have rain or not. Fortunately the rain stayed away and the sun did pop in for a look. The usual obstacles were also there, the people seemingly rooted to the spot, the aimless and lost cellphone users, kids doing their thing and pram pushers doing their best to bulldozer everybody over. Fortunately they did not allow dogs or we would have been besieged by heaps of mutts pee-ing on hubcaps and tripping everybody up. Oh, and as usual I ask myself: “why do women even bother attending?”.  Because of the position of the sun many images are taken from the same side and tend to loom similar. Realistically you can only really photograph a car from a few positions given the limitations of space etc.  

I have no real theme this year and the images are of cars that caught my eye. I am not a car buff though so identification of some may be impossible. The vehicles on this page have been identified as they have info sheets or badges that could be used to ID them with.  

OYE! you can’t park that ‘ere! Move along!

There were a few vehicles that made me ooh and aaah: the first being this really stunning customised 3 wheel Morgan. It was magnificent.

The second was this wonderful old Fiat 500 Topolino

and then there was this very stunning Nissan Figaro

This was also the first time that there were so many Figaros on show. They are nice little quirky cars and were introduced in 1991 although we never saw this model in South Africa.

(1500 x 535)

Naturally there were masses on Mini’s in all shapes and sizes, but two stand out for me this year: The first is a Mini Moke

and the second was this very nice Morris Mini Traveller

Other cars that caught my eye:

It is a Ford but further than that I could not find a model or date for it

Commer truck

Studebaker Commander

1848 MKI Dellow

Ford Country Squire Station Wagon

Motor cycles were not as well represented as they should be and there were a number of curiosities amongst them.

More cars:

Citroen Dyane (1969)

Morris 8 Series E (1948)

Karmann Ghia (May 1974)

Lea-Francis Shooting Brake

Nissan Pao (1989)

The British love the Volkswagen Kombi and there are lots of them that that have been converted into camper vans. A number of these were on display and you cannot really show them off in their entirety. 

Citroen D523 Pallas

Armour plated 1948 Buick Special Series 40

Panther Kallista (1987)

That is more or less the vehicles that I can ID, there are a lot of others that I cannot. They may be seen over the page.

DRW 2019 Created 19/08/2019. Special thanks to the owners of these vehicles for taking the trouble of keeping these oldies on the road for us all to see. 

Updated: 18/08/2019 — 16:10

Landmarks in Town

Gloucestershire, Heritage, Hobbies and Interests, Memorials and Monuments, Photo Essay, Tewkesbury, United Kingdom

Tewkesbury has some really old buildings in it, and recently I spotted two new information plaques that had been placed in the town that highlight some of the history of the buildings in question.

The first I spotted outside the Town Hall.

The Town Hall

While the second was in the alley next to Cross House:

Cross House

Cross House is a real gem, and for me has one of the best doors I have ever seen. One day I was lucky to find it open and popped my head and phone inside to see what was behind it and was very surprised. It does house a dentist’s surgery so I did not poke around too much. 

There are other finds in town that at breathtaking and I will add more as I gather in the images. Until then..

DRW © 2019. Created 14/08/2019

Updated: 14/08/2019 — 05:38

Victoria Gardens and the flood aftermath

Bridges and Rivers, Collections and Museums, Gloucestershire, Heritage, Hobbies and Interests, Photo Essay, Tewkesbury, United Kingdom

This morning there were balloons in the air and I missed it!  The best I could do was this solitary balloon about to be attacked by a large bird. 

Later I went for a walk, hoping to find a suitable spot to launch my Pretoria Castle from, and did some looking to see whether the flood waters had subsided. This is the view from King John Bridge towards the Avon Locks and the Healings Mill in the background on the right.

and downstream on Shakespear’s Avon Way

Last weekend while photographing the flood it struck me that I had never done a photo essay about the Victoria Gardens. I was unable to do so at the time because of the flood waters, but this morning went walkies in that area to see whether the water had resided and how things looked in the area.

By today the water level had dropped dramatically and the gardens and mill were once more accessible. It was also possible to cross the river at the bridge by the mill. This is what it looks like from the bridge looking across to the mill.

and upstream towards town.

and downstream from the bridge. This high pond is really a sluice gate and somewhere I have an information sheet about it and seem to recall it is called a “Fish Belly Sluice”. Naturally I cannot find it at this moment to confirm what I remember. The garden is the tree-ed area on the left.

There are three entrances to the gardens, the one being from the area at the mill as in the first image, and the other two are in Gloucester Road. 

The Victoria Pleasure Gardens were created by public subscription to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897. They were popular with the Edwardians and in 1910 a bandstand was installed which was in regular use till the 1950’s. The gardens were badly affected by the 2007 floods in the town and as can be seen winter flooding can inundate it. The garden is now taken care of as a result of collaboration between local councils and a volunteer group, “Friends of the Victoria Pleasure Gardens”.  The arches in Gloucester Road are signposted as having been erected to celebrate the diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in June 2012 as well as Queen Victoria in 1897.

And to think that a week ago all of this was under water. 

On my way home I popped into the very famous Abbey Tea Rooms in Church Street. I have been wanting to go in there in ages but have never done so. It is a riot of nostalgia and all things eclectic and to be honest I think you would spend hours just looking around and still never seeing everything. .

My mother would have blown a blood vessel had she seen all of that, and then would have thrown it all away in a frenzy of cleaning. Fortunately the people there are much more far sighted than she is.

I can also recommend the food, and I may have to return because I have so much more to look at, but there is so little time and space.

And that was my day. Tewkesbury is busy hanging out the banners for the upcoming Medieval Festival in July, so soon I shall be posting some of those. But till then this sneak peak will have to suffice.

DRW © 2019. Created 22/06/2019

Updated: 24/06/2019 — 19:08

Not the Steam Festival we were looking for

Gloucestershire, Heritage, Hobbies and Interests, Personal, Photo Essay, Retrospective, Tewkesbury, Transportation, United Kingdom

Today (22 June) was supposed to be the Model Steam Rally held by the  – Model Steam Road Vehicle Society (MSRVS). Unfortunately a group of “travellers” descended on the town and were flooded out of their camp site. They then moved to higher ground and the area where the rally was to take place was vandalised, forcing the cancellation of the rally. I missed the rally last year as I was elsewhere, and was really looking forward to it this year. 

However, I decided to hold my own photo essay based on images that I took in 2016 and 2017, after all I do not get too many opportunities to see live steam in action.  The steamer are not full size replicas, but half, quarter and smaller replicas and have all the charm of the real thing but without the need for heavy workshop and a crane. 

There are not too many cars on display at the event, but they are fun to see, and I have to admit I have my favourites.​

That blue Zephyr is really a blast from my past.

There is also a nice variety of bric-a-brac for sale at the sale tables, and of course a chance to acquire a handy new hammer (or two). I always used to argue with one of my work colleagues about how hammers are so important that there are at least 2 songs about them!

I am not sure whether there is a song about scales though.

One of the exhibitors had a really complicated small town on display along with the associated vehicles and people. It was really fascinating because there was so much small detail.  

This is only a small part of the exhibit though. It was very difficult to photograph because of the angles and compactness of the display.  Small replica steam engines and trains are really amazing pieces of engineering in their own right, and a number of them were on display.​

However, we were probably all here to see the steam engines, and this is a collection of images from the three events that I attended. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed seeing them. Maybe next year we will be luckier.

Special thanks to all those who put in so much effort into keeping this hobby alive.

 

DRW © 2019. Images are from 2015.2016 and 2017. Created 22/06/2019

Updated: 22/06/2019 — 07:17

Not floodey likely

Gloucestershire, Personal, Photo Essay, Tewkesbury, United Kingdom

This has been an odd week weatherwise. One of those nasty storms has hit the UK bringing widespread rain and floods. Unfortunately Tewkesbury has a reputation for floods and frankly I was concerned. On Thursday a flood warning was issued for the town:

I live right on top of the Carrant Brook and it tends to rise and fall dependent on a number of factors, and when I moved into my current flat in 2015 the brook flooded and consequently flooded the field outside. 

The flood warnings were pretty grim, especially for what is known as “the Severn Ham” aka “Tewkesbury Ham” aka “The Ham”, and the area between the Mill Avon and the Severn. You can see that area in the image below between the two rivers on the left.

However, if the Avon floods it tends to back up the Carrant brook which then floods the area where I stay and in 2007 my flat was under a metre of water. Consequently I was concerned because the rain that was falling in Wales would eventually make its way downstream and that would affect the Avon/Severn and possibly me. The long and the short of it is that I stayed at home on Friday, my bag packed and my eye on the field outside. Fortunately it never came to an evacuation situation, although next week more rain is forecast. 

This morning has been cold and overcast/sunny/windy and everything inbetween and I decided to head down to the Ham and have a look at the levels in this area. 

I took the following image on Friday morning looking towards the Avon lock. Normally it looks like this:

But on Friday it looked like this:

The cream building on the right hand side of the image is interesting because it has a high water mark on it from the floods in 2007.

The sign is also quite interesting:

This morning I crossed the bridge over the Mill Avon and took the following two images:

Looking downsteam towards the Abbey

Upstream towards the locks. The derelict Healings Mill is on the left

Healings Mill in 2008 when the rivers were flooding

I then walked along the pathway towards the Ham. There was standing water in a large portion of it and the lower bridge at the other mill was impassable.

The Ham looking towards the waterworks (1500 x 679)

There are two mills on this stretch of water. Healings Mill is derelict and abandoned but cannot be demolished because it is a listed building. That closed in 2006 and is now home to thousands of pigeons and other birds. I suspect they are hoping it will fall down on its own although I believe there are plans to convert it into yuppie pads.

Downstream from Healings is the old Abbey Mill which closed in 1921, it is now apartments and that was where I was heading. I have explored around this area when the water level was lower.

Just next to the building is the Victoria Gardens  and it too is under water:

I was not able to photograph the other side of the mill as I left my wellis at home but these images below were taken in April 2016 from the Victoria Gardens.

Actually the area around the mill is very pretty and I should really go explore around there when the water subsides and we get some summer again. Hopefully normality will creep into our weather and the levels will drop so that I can rest easy again. Unfortunately I get antsy when it rains and when you consider how quickly a town can be inundated you can see why. Things at the moment are not as bad as they were in 2007 and I have seen the field behind where I live much deeper under water than it is now, but it doesn’t take much to tip that balance. Maybe its time to invest in that boat I have always wanted. 

Random images.

DRW © 2019. Created 16/06/2019

Updated: 16/06/2019 — 13:24

Overbury and out

Churches and Cathedrals, Hobbies and Interests, Memorials and Monuments, Personal, Photo Essay, Tewkesbury, United Kingdom, War Memorial, Worcestershire

In October 2018 I visited the village of Overbury as part of my village tour. I had really stopped there to photograph the War Memorial; however the legibility of the memorial is poor due to wear on the stone plaques and base. I did notice a newish screenwall structure in the churchyard, and on a trip through to Evesham saw a stone mason at work on the wall. Could it be they were reproducing the war memorial names onto the screenwall? There was only one way to find out and that was to head out and see for myself. I had to leave enough time for the work to be completed though and as a result I only tackled this visit in 2019.

The image above shows the lychgate of St Faith’s, Overbury. The central plinth has the plaques on either side of it.  The new structure is shown below.

Unfortunately my supposition was wrong and it does not have the Roll of Honour on it, but a list of names of those who may be buried here or who were cremated, with their ashes interred at this spot. There went my theory down the pipes.  I now had anything of up to an hour to spend while waiting for my bus onwards to Evesham. The next hamlet on the road is Conderton, but it is too far to walk to and look around in such a short space of time so I remained in Overbury. I had photographed quite a bit of it in 2018, so I really wanted to add to those images. 

St Faith’s, Overbury

Behind St Faith’s is Overbury Court, a Georgian house dating from 1740. It is privately owned so I did not try for a photograph of it. The gate is in the lane next to the church.

There were too many comings and goings in the lane so I did not even attempt a peek through the railings. But the house has extensive gardens and it is a very picturesque area. You can see part of the roof of the house in the image below.

Heading back towards the bus shelter, I looked left and right and didn’t cross the street.

Looking right (towards Kemerton/Bredon)

You may think that these rural roads are quiet but it was a regular hustle and bustle which was made worse by the narrow roads, parked vehicles, the occasional tractor, horses and delivery vans.

The bus shelter (route towards Tewkesbury)

Possibly the village hall. The window is inscribed “Erected by Robert Martin in the year 1896”

I walked for awhile, enjoying the countryside and the horses having an early breakfast. 

(1500 x 506)

There was also the village cricket pitch for those who have 5 days to spare.

Cricket pitch pavilion

(1500 x 501) The cricket pitch

Dare I say “Howzat?”

This is the road looking back towards Overbury, the building on the left is a pub and the building on the right may have once been a tollgate/booth given how the window impinges onto the road. 

The road to Conderton

(1500 x 533)

Overbury Church Of England First School

The village shop and post office

My mission was accomplished. Had I planned it slightly better I probably would have been able to visit Conderton too, but my planning was not great and I had limited time available to get a bus. I wanted to visit Evesham after this so really had to get on the road. Look, there is my bus, I must go… 

DRW © 2019. Created 30/04/2019

Updated: 04/05/2019 — 08:09

Spring has sprung

Gloucestershire, Personal, Photo Essay, Photowalks, United Kingdom

Yep, it’s true, Spring has arrived, or should I say sunny days arrived for this Easter weekend; which made a nice change from the often overcast and gloomy weather that we seemed to have had since I got back from South Africa. My weather app says it is 22 degrees outside and will it remain like that till Tuesday.  However, it better not turn ugly again because I have plans for Saturday! Anyway, I digress because this post is just one of those springy thingys that came about because I went for a walk this morning. I have not been very active this past month because I was battling sinus, but finally feel much better. Enjoy the pics, they were taken with my celery phone so quality could be variable.

Miss Emily also made a rare appearance in her all new ice cream dress, hat and sandals. She does look snazzy too. Although I did remind her that soon it will be Back to School….

And that was/is Spring for now. Unfortunately my 4 day holiday turned out to be only 2 days long because of work. The extra money will come in handy but it wont be used to buy ice cream with.

DRW © 2019. Created 21/04/2019

Updated: 21/04/2019 — 13:24

Now that was quick snow

Gloucestershire, Photo Essay, Tewkesbury, United Kingdom

This past week has been like a giant countdown to the end of the world, or heavy snow depending on what you read. I was working the afternoon shift and Tuesday’s weather forecast was for heavy snow on Thursday evening. I don’t ride my bicycle when it snows or freezes so I could foresee somewhat of a problem with getting home after midnight. Fortunately the forecast was adjusted to light snow for our area, although other parts of the UK were hit by heavy snowfalls. 

This morning it was white outside again, although not as white as it had been in March last year, and because of the times I was working I more or less missed it. These are some of the pics I managed to take on my way to work. It was relatively dark and I used my phone to take them. 

While I was resizing the image above I could not help being struck by how much that looks like a trench during Winter. All that was missing was barbed wire and gunfire.

 

By home time this afternoon there was no sign of snow. Miss Emily is not amused!

DRW © 2019. Created 01/02/2019

Updated: 17/02/2019 — 08:21

Ancient lights and ancient alleys

Gloucestershire, Heritage, Hobbies and Interests, Photowalks, Tewkesbury, United Kingdom

Tewkesbury is a very old and somewhat quirky place, and I have spotted quite a few things that have left me rooting around for answers. This post is really about a sign that I saw on the back of a building over an alley…..​

My first thoughts were “What a cool name for a building.” However, there is more to this than meets the eye, and I discovered that by accident while reading a post on Atlasobscura. 

In short the “Right to light“ is a form of easement in English law that gives a long-standing owner of a building with windows a right to maintain the level of illumination. It is based on the Ancient Lights law..

In effect, the owner of a building with windows that have received natural daylight for 20 years or more is entitled to forbid any construction or other obstruction that would deprive him or her of that illumination. Neighbours cannot build anything that would block the light without permission. The owner may build more or larger windows but cannot enlarge their new windows before the new period of 20 years has expired.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_light)

The area above straddles what is known as Eagle’s Alley; one of the many alleys and courts that exist in the town. From the front the entrance may be seen between Parsons and The Card Rack but whether the two buildings are connected by that short length of brickwork and a passage  I cannot say. 

Now that I have shed some light on Ancient Lights and alleys I may as well cover a few other places while I am about it.  Unfortunately there is not a lot to see in the alleys and courts and they do not make for interesting photography.

The High Street entrance to Warder’s Alley has a large map on it that shows the many courts and alleys that are in the town, but it is awkward to photograph. It was created by E. Guilding in 2017.

Wall’s Court

Lilley’s Alley

Clark’s Alley

Old Baptist Chapel Court

This is where the old Baptist Chapel Graveyard is.

Wall’s Court

Ancilles Court

Fletcher’s Alley

New additions (July 2019):

Chandler’s Court

Turner’s Court

Machine Court​

Wilkes Alley

I found this one by accident, having never considered looking at the alleys from the other side of the buildings. It is quite interesting because the lane on Back of the Avon side does not co-inside with the exit on the Hight Street.

I will probably add more to this post as I find more of the pics I have taken of these passages, some are really fascinating, but cataloguing them is a different kettle of fish. In fact, I think I will leave this notice for now because who knows what else I will uncover as I start hunting them down.

DRW © 2019. Created 27/01/2019, added more images 03/02/2019, 10/07/2019

Updated: 14/07/2019 — 13:34
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