Evesham and onwards

Up before the sparrows this morning and was standing outside Aldi waiting for it to open.  Afterwards I walked down to Evesham Lock in a vain effort to take that missing photo.  The best I could do was a photo through the gate.  It’s a poor photo because the sun was behind the cottage.

 

It’s an ‘A’ frame building with a raised bottom floor.  ‘A’ frames are particularly strong structures and I assume it’s been built to resist flooding.  The building was seriously damaged in the 1998 and 2007 floods with 4 – 5 feet of the lower structure being flooded.  At one point demolition was being considered.

I managed to get another photo from the upstream end.

It must have been one hell of a flood!

We spent the first half of the morning wandering around Evesham.  Jan liked the place because it was attractive and the people were friendly.  I was (of course) interested in the old buildings.

A crooked building to hold the crooked bankers!

Some interesting narrow alleyways with the upper floors leaning out over the alley below “Watch out for the chamber pots being emptied”

Evesham Abbey was founded around 700AD although not much exists of the original structure.  I did notice part of an old stone wall to the west of the bell tower which I assume is original.  It’s behind the memorial to Simon de Montford which is apparently located on the site of the original high altar.

Wall in the background.

Simon de Montford was the 6th Earl of Leicester and he died here during the Battle of Evesham in 1256AD.  de Monford led a rebellion against Henry III and briefly became the defacto ruler of England.  He is famous for organising two Parliaments.  The first stripped the monarch of unlimited authority and the second included ordinary citizens from the towns (ie, (wealthy and influential citizens who were not nobles). 

Evesham Bell Tower and gatehouse dates from the 16th century, however it has been extensively renovated since then.

 

St Lawrence Church, Evesham is actually redundant and under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.  It was open, but we didn’t go in.

Opposite it is All Saints Church which is still an active Anglican Church.

We wandered around Abbey Park coming upon the War Memorial.  I was surprised to read Evesham continued fighting WW1 two years beyond armistice day.

There has to be more to this story?

On our return to Waiouru a decision was made to depart Evesham and look for a quiet rural mooring.  Just as we were preparing to move nb Spinning Hinny passed by heading in the opposite direction.

Beacon Boats always look nice and they do all seem to have an almost standardized colour scheme.

The cable ferry is in operation on the downstream side of Evesham.  the wire rope is tensioned by a hand operated winch which raised it about 3ft above water level and then the ferry operator pulls the ferry across by hand.  We loitered in the middle of the river until he had unwound the cable and then headed further downstream. 

The next interesting sight was the remains of a bridge abutment.  What was unusual was the brick lined pipe which must have run under the carriageway.  I’m guessing it was a railway bridge.

Jan managed to capture a photo of one of those stately homes peeking through the trees in the distance.  It had a huge satellite dish to one side which made me wonder if MI5 owned it.

There’s a large and attractive weir at Fladbury Lock.  

Eventually we stopped and moored above Wyle Lock just downstream of Wyle Piddle (I wanted to write that!).  Where are Upper Piddle, Middle Piddle and Lower Piddle?