We woke up to a lovely morning – one of those mornings when I am more
than happy to get up! The new sleep
machine shelf/drawer worked very well, Richard has even put the electric wire
under the bed so aren’t going to trip over it all the time.
We were determined to be ready for 9.30am this morning and we even had
time to plant my lily plant that I had brought with us and had flowered
beautifully but was now, to be honest, just taking up room. I had been looking
for somewhere to plant it and Beale Park seemed a good place – I wonder if it
will survive.
We were first away – spot on 9.30am by my watch and even turned and
went down river a bit so we weren’t too far ahead.
We stopped at Goring for Sue to post a birthday card and Diane wanted a
look round. It is a very small town but
has a very good butcher which we all patronised. Next we went to the Church of St. Thomas of
Canterbury. It has an interesting
history.
It seems that the building was originally without aisles or transepts
and then consisted simply of a chancel, nave and western tower, with the
chancel ending in a semi-circular apse. The north aisle was added in the late
twelfth or early thirteenth century by the Augustinian nuns of the adjacent
priory. Before the aisle was built, the
nuns shared the church with the parishioners of Goring, but this arrangement
was found to be inconvenient, so the nuns built the aisle as their place of
worship. This, too, proved unsatisfactory, so the apse was demolished and the
nuns built their own church to the east of the existing building, separating it
from the parish church by a stone screen.
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the nunnery church was
destroyed and the stone screen extended upwards to form the east end of the
parish church. During excavations in 1886, the foundations of the original
Norman apse were discovered. Two years later, when a major refurbishment of the
church was undertaken, the apse was rebuilt on these foundations and the wall
that had served as the east end of the church for so many centuries was
demolished. Nothing can be seen today of the nunnery except the corbels that
supported the roof of the cloister on the south wall of the church. One of the oldest bells in England is inside
the church - it was cast about 1290.
We had hoped to moor in Wallingford but coming up to the bridge we
could see that it was jam packed. Andy
noticed a space on the bank and pulled in so we all pulled in and managed to
squeeze ourselves in – Ferndale behind FL with us breasted up against FL. It was a bit of a struggle to get on and off
but Ray dug a step out of the bank and we all climbed up that way using a rope
to haul ourselves up. We had to climb
over FL and onto Ferndale before the treacherous accent!!
We sat and had a drink on the bank then decided to have a wander into
Wallingford. Diane and Ray hadn’t been
before so wanted to have a look around.
We went into St. Mary-le-More church in the centre of town. I’m afraid we found it rather a mish mash of
styles which we didn’t like very much.
The original church existed by 1077.
The west tower was originally 12th century but its upper stages were
rebuilt in about 1653. The nave and aisle were built in the 13th and 14th
century and the chancel was built somewhat later, but all were rebuilt in
1854. In 2009/10 underfloor heating was
installed and the floor retiled and I assume the glass office and meeting room
were added.
Wallingford’s history goes back a long way and there is far too much to
even write a potted history here. So
have a look on Wikipedia
We went into the courtyard of the George Hotel for a drink and then
walked down to The Boat for another drink and, as it was getting late, a meal
with of course another drink. We then
swayed back to the boats – Diane just had to go for a paddle and then we had
great fun getting down our abseiling course!
8.45 miles
2 locks
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