Tewkesbury (River Avon) – Friday 27th July

I was woken up during the night by something I’m not sure of!  Firstly, I thought it might be a combine harvester then thought that there aren’t any fields around so I then thought it might be a helicopter but it didn’t really sound like one – so I’ve really no idea of what it actually was.  A spaceship maybe??!!

We are moored close to the Avon lock which takes boats down to the River Severn – oh it does bring them back up again!!  Anyway, every time the gate opens it sounds just like a donkey building up to a good old braying session!!

The reason for us being in Tewkesbury is that Muffin was booked in for a clip at lunchtime.  Poor dog has been getting so hot.  It is only 5 weeks since he was last done but his fur seems to have grown a lot since then.  I took this photo of Muffin last night, so it is a before photo!

  

And this one is the after one.  He has been done extremely well and smells gorgeous!

While Muffin was at the groomers we went to visit Tewkesbury Abbey – it was really nice to visit something like this together instead of one of us waiting outside with Muffin.  The Abbey is beautiful inside. 

  

There are 14 columns which are Norman and the vaulting is 14th Century.

  

Above the quire is a sun, an emblem of the House of York.  It was put there as a memorial to their victory over the House of Lancaster in the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.

Below the sun is a brass plaque marking the burial of Edward, the Lancastrian Prince of Wales.

  

The Milton Organ was built in 1631 for Magdalen College, Oxford and sold to the Abbey in 1737.  It was restored in 1997 and again recently.  It has 68 speaking stops and 4611 pipes!

  

Outside the Abbey is the Touching Soles statue.  It is an exact replica of the same sculpture in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. Created by sculptor Mico Kaufman, it is cast in bronze and shows four children - native-American, European-American, African-America and Asian-American, sitting on the ground, legs outstretched, with the soles of their shoes touching.

Richard went and collected Muffin while I did a little bit of shopping in Tewkesbury. When we got back to the boat we moved up to Tewkesbury Marina for a couple of nights as it’s “crew change” weekend.