Tewkesbury and its beautiful Abbey - Purchased for £453!

Thursday 7th August, 2014 in Tewkesbury.
The warm, sunny weather continues. We set off early as tonight's destination is Tewkesbury where moorings are much sought after. Unlike the canals, the River Avon offers very few mooring places and those that exist are mainly in the towns.
It was a lovely morning, beautiful scenery and very peaceful. Again, we saw very few boats moving. We passed some wonderful old bridges, some of which have withstood the power of the river for over 500 years.

Although we travelled fifteen miles along the river from Pershore to Tewkesbury, the river twists and turns so much that, as the crow flies, the two towns are only just over eight miles apart! It reminded us of the Oxford canal - but much, much wider!
A local landmark is Bredon Hill and we seemed to wander round it forever (just like Napton Windmill on the Oxford Canal). The hill is just a few feet under 1,000ft and the local landowner built a folly on its summit so that it would top the magic mark.
The River Avon joins the mighty River Severn at Tewkesbury. There is a lock in the town to bring you down from the Avon to the Severn, but we will not go through it today. Firstly, because there are no moorings close by on the Severn and second, because R has to go to London tomorrow for a meeting with Peter's lawyers, so we will stay here in Tewkesbury until Saturday morning.
We moored up in Tewkesbury just before the lock and walked into the town.

And what a delight it is! After a refreshing iced coffee in Costa, we went exploring. The town is full of wonderful old buildings and little alleyways.

We had read in the guide books of a row of 15th century timber-framed cottages, one of which is preserved in its original state. The whole row narrowly escaped being demolished to build a Woolworth Store in the 1960s - before someone realised that they were actually unique in the whole country and managed to save them.
The front of each cottage was a large shuttered opening which dropped down to become the shop counter, so each cottage was inhabited by an artisan or shop-keeper who sold his goods from the front room.

Behind was a kitchen with a simple fire pit in the middle of the floor with a "smoke chamber" above.

A stairway led to a small bedroom over the front room. In the preserved house, the stairs were original and showed the wear of many feet over the years.

Just behind the row of cottages was a rather grander building - the old Abbey. It survived the Reformation to become the parish church after the townspeople clubbed together and bought it from Henry VIII for the princely sum of £453! What a bargain!!!!!

A lovely day came to the perfect end when we had a magnificent view of the International Space Station flying overhead across an absolutely clear sky.
Today: 15 miles, 3 locks and 4.5 hours.
Trip: 132 miles, 101 locks and 113.3 hours.