8/13/2018 0 Comments Off to Gloucestershire!Today was move day as our itinerary reminded us, so it was important for us to listen to instructions and follow them carefully. However, for everyone what was most important was that today was a day off from singing! With great sadness we boarded the bus at 8:30 this morning to leave Chester, a place we have come to love. Along with Adam, our tour guide for this part of the trip, we drove through some beautiful countryside between Chester and Birmingham before getting on the M5 to head down to Tewkesbury. The name of the town is a derivation of the name of the monk named Theoc who began a hermitage there in the eighth century. This hermitage eventually grew into a glorious Norman abbey. Completed in 1121, the abbey prospered for over 400 years before being handed over to Henry VIII in 1540. Instead of allowing the abbey to be destroyed, the townspeople of Tewkebury banded together to purchase the abbey for the then enormous sum of 453 pounds. The tower is the largest and finest surviving Norman tower in the world. We began our free time in Tewkesbury with a fun boat cruise on the River Avon which gave us a chance to see the beautiful Gloucestershire scenery surrounding the town - and the sheep. It also helped us to understand why Tewkesbury floods regularly each year, sitting as it does by both the River Avon and the River Severn, which is the UK's longest river. After this we split up to have lunch, at various local establishments, both historic, such as the timber-framed The Bell, and more contemporary. A tour of the town following lunch gave us a chance to view some of Tewkesbury's other historic buildings, for example the Hop Pole, which Mr. Pickwick visits in Dickens' famous first novel. We also saw an enormous example of sixteenth-century half-timbering which is sadly falling into disrepair. Most interestingly, we learned that because of its position at the confluence of the Severn and Avon rivers and its proximity to Wales Tewkesbury was the site of the final and decisive battle of the War of the Roses in the fifteenth century. Because of this, many buildings in the town are decorated with royal standards of the various knights who fought in the battles. The history of each knight and his fate is also provided. The battle was so fierce that the main fighting ground is still referred to as the Bloody Meadow.
At the end of the tour we spent half an hour in Tewkesbury Abbey and to say it is breathtaking is a gross understatement. It is one of the finest extant examples of Norman architecture anywhere in the world (many of Britain's finest examples were destroyed in the sixteenth century dissolution of the monasteries). Remarkably, Gregg received a remarkable surprise when he met his old colleague and mentor Dr. Barry Rose in the quire preparing for Evensong with a visiting choir from Newport. This was a welcome reunion for Gregg as he readily admits that everything he knows about training children's choirs he learned at the feet of Dr. Rose. Checking in to our hotel in Cheltenham, the Holiday Express, went remarkably smoothly and quickly. Our hotel is very bright and modern inside. And perhaps most importantly, it has air-conditioning. A relaxing few hours getting settled in and a dinner at the hotel restaurant brought a pleasant day to its conclusion. Tomorrow we are off to Bristol for a lunchtime concert and an Evensong at the Cathedral.
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Met Choir School England Tour 2018 |