Friday, September 4, 2015

Five on Friday

I'm joining in with Amy (and others) at Love Made My Home for this weeks Five on Friday.  As I've been talking about our trip to England I thought I'd use that for my Five.

Number One is the beautiful early 19th century Georgian Barley Twist glass we bought.  Before we went I'd said that for our anniversary we wanted to buy one, but with prices for them being so high (£200-£300) I didn't know if we'd get one or not.  Well we found one, at a price we would be comfortable with.  Why so reasonable?  Because it has a chip on the base.  We didn't care at all.  There was an identical one sitting right next to it without a chip and it was £300.  So our chip is just fine.
Chip is on the bottom left and it doesn't both me at all


Number Two is the archeological dig we went on.  It was a bit of a drive from our cottage, but we were excited.  We'd dug with Tony last year and really enjoyed it so we were looking forward to it.  Because we had dug before we didn't have to do as much of the heavy work.  It was a warm day, there was lots of other volunteers and it was a good day to dig.  Mac found a Roman nail, the best I could do was some small terracotta shards, another lady found an iron ring.  At the end of the day we were stiff and sore, but very satisfied.



Number Three has to do with the saying "Going to Hell in a Handcart".  After we left the steamfair we went into Fairford in search of food.  We had a simple pub lunch, walked along the river and then went to see the local church, St. Mary's.  It was a beautiful church, quite large for the town and what's known as a wool church, one built from the profits from wool.  It had wonderful stained glass windows, we were surprised they hadn't been destroyed during the English Civil War.  The lady working in the church said that Fairford had been a Roundhead town and it is surprising they'd survived.  She gave us an information paddle to explain the windows and we discovered one that is said to be the basis for the Hell in a Handcart saying.  If you enlarge the picture you'll see a devil hauling someone off to hell in a handcart!
The devil and the handcart are the last window on the bottom right

Notice the blue devil on the right
St. Mary's Fairford




Number Four has to do with bell ringing.  We'd first learned about bell ringers years ago while watching the All Things Bright and Beautiful series about James Herriot.  His partner's brother Tristan was a bell ringer or at least he used it as an excuse to go to the pub.  Lately while watching Midsomer Murders we've notice several stories about bell ringers.  So last year when we learned that  L, our landlord, was a bell ringer we were fascinated.  This year  we decided we'd attend an English church and find out about bell ringers.  I tried on the 3 dresses I owned,  picked out one I'd never worn and packed it.  Mac talked to L our landlord and he'd said he'd be glad to take us to St. Stephen's in Clanfeld a 13th century church where he rang.. On our 2nd Sunday there he introduced us to his fellow bellringers and they put us in the back and explained some of what goes on in bellringing and then they rang.  It was wonderful.






























Fifth was a less well known museum, The Museum of London.  Mac says we visited it years ago, but I have no memory of it at all.  After lunch at a pub on Fleet Street (The Tipperary) we walked up to it.  Located on a side street up from St. Paul's it's a little tricky to find, but well worth the search.  It tells the story of London from pre-Roman times.  My favorite part was the streets of Victorian shops, including a pub you could sit in.






12 comments:

  1. St. Mary's looks like a gorgeous church! My kind of place to just wonder and have a peaceful afternoon, also, The archaeological dig looks brilliant!
    I hope you have a wonderful 3 day weekend!
    Tammy x

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  2. I think a bell ringing exhibition would be wonderful. I'd love an archaeological dig, too, as long as I didn't have to get down on the ground, which I not longer can do. In my next life...

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  3. The dig was great, but oh we hurt afterwards!

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  4. Seeing the bellringers at work is great isn't it? I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time in Castleton in Derbyshire once when the ringers were practicing. The Cotswolds and East Anglia are full of wonderful old wool churches. How great to have volunteered on a dig too.

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  5. You did some interesting things on your visit. I love to hear church bells ringing and have been into a belfrey - many years ago - to watch the ringers ring up the bells and then ring a peel - it was wonderful:)

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  6. What a lot of exciting things you did on your visit to England. I'd love to go on an archaeological dig, two of my children have done on school trips, lucky pair. I can't pass by a church without stopping for a look inside, you never know what you might find!

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  7. Thank you for joining Five On Friday! Five really great things from you trip! How great that you got to do some digging, that must have been exciting. Lovely that you got to arrange to go and meet the bell ringers and see them at work, I am glad that there were no Midsomer moments! I hope that you have a great weekend! xx

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  8. What fun to see the bell ringers and that stained glass is something else! Pretty piece of stemware too:)

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  9. The stained glass at Fairford was funded by wealthy wool merchants and is the most complete set of medieval glass remaining in Britain along with a wonderful set of misericords. Out of the 28 windows you have chosen to show my favourite - The Last Judgement". I was wondering where exactly the archaeological dig was that you were on?

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  10. Thank you very much for the details re: the dig - my granddaughter is an Archaeologist and moved to Bristol two weeks ago, so I will give her the information you have kindly given me.

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  11. What a fun post! I'd love to go back to England someday. The museum sounds really interesting.

    Have you ever read "The Nine Tailors" by Dorothy L. Sayers? It's an amazing novel, and absolutely steeped in the lore of change-ringing. She spent two years researching the subject and was eventually made an honorary member of a change-ringers' association (although she had never rung a bell) because she portrayed the craft so accurately and so well.

    Did they let you keep the things you found at the dig?

    P.S. Love the header! Mac has been busy I see. :)

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  12. This is a great way to find out what you've been up to - but I will read your previous posts to find out more about your trip to England.
    We loved the Museum of London too especially seeing the London Olympic cauldron.

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