Day 11, July 12th The TOWN of TEWKESBURY

What a WONDERFUL TOWN!!!

Tewkesbury is “an historic English country town nestled among the beautiful
Cotswold and Malvern Hills in Gloucestershire, England” …
“at the junction of the Severn and Avon rivers.”

The City Center is marked by this Cross monument, built right in the MIDDLE of where
Church Street, High Street, and Barton Street all RUN INTO each other.
For more info about Tewkesbury, visit Tewkesbury’s Website!

The pic above, and FIVE of those following, were snagged from the Tewkesbury Web,
as was all the commentary I’ve placed between quotation marks.

FIRST! Because I was only there long enough to enjoy the Medieval Fayre,
there were TONS o’ things I didn’t get to see in and about Tewkesbury.

Such as the River Avon!

And, I didn’t even KNOW about the Tewkesbury Abbey until I was researching stuff to put on THIS PAGE!
It looks and sounds so KOOL, that I’ve put a snippet o’ info about it in here. (MY boldface type!):

“Tewkesbury's great Benedictine Abbey, almost certain to have replaced a much older church, was founded in the 12th century, but dates mainly from the 11th century. It is believed that the present building was started about the year 1090 and the Norman phase of the building was completed in 1121. The Abbey's enormous cylindrical pillars in the Nave, the loftiest pillars in the country, and the spectacular central tower, which stands 132 feet high and 46 feet square, making it the largest surviving Norman central tower in the world, continue as a prominent landmark in Tewkesbury. Along with its bells, which still call worshipers to service or are used to mark important events, the west front with its impressive Norman arch of six orders, originally of seven, is one of the finest in England.”

“It is believed that the [Tewkesbury] Abbey, with the exception of Westminster Abbey, contains more medieval tombs than any other church in Britain and, from a purely historical point, has much to offer its visitors. Resting within its tombs are Abbot Alan, the former Prior of Canterbury, who became Abbot of Tewkesbury after the murder of Thomas Becket; Edward of Lancaster, Prince of Wales; and George, Duke of Clarence, who drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine, according to Shakespeare.”

CLEARLY! I MUST RETURN to Tewkesbury in the future – next time staying long enough to do some sightseeing AND attend the Medieval Fayre again! Wanna Come WITH!?!?

(The 2 Abbey Pix above are from The Tewkesbury Abbey Website – if you’re interested in Abbeys!)

Something I WAS able to thoroughly enjoy –
the TEWKESBURY ARCHITECTURE!:

The WHEAT SHEAF Antique Store

“Tewkesbury is remarkable in that its medieval layout and character has survived to this day, as it was one of the most important towns in the country at the beginning of the 19th century, but suffered a decline, and from 1850 to 1930, virtually no new building was seen.
Although several new buildings have been built in the town centre since 1960, Tewkesbury was designated as a Conservation Area in 1967 with over 200 listed buildings, giving local authorities considerable powers in the area of preservation and, hopefully, avoiding further loss of valuable old buildings and damage to the town's streetscape.”

NOW, here come MY PIX …
And my TEWKESBURY SAGA BEGINS!!!

The Fayre didn’t start until 11 am, so I had plenty of time to prance about the town – in COSTUME!
In fact, I headed to town REALLY EARLY, because I was OUT OF UK CASH!!!

Worse than that: My DEBIT/CREDIT Card had STOPPED WORKING
even before I got to GLASTONBURY!
(Having to do with me exceeding the overdraft transfer limit for JULY
within the first 9 flippin’ days o’ my trip, LOL!!!
I had plenty o’ money in another account … but, the bank had stopped transferring it!)

One of the BANKS (Lloyds) in Tewkesbury.

GADZ! ALL the BANKS were CLOSED on Saturday!!! But, hey! It was only because I was frantically searching for “HEY-ALP!!!”, that I went to the “Tourist Information Center” and ended up MEETING THE MAYER AND HIS WIFE! [I could just SPIT! I’m reasonably CERTAIN that I had my PIC taken with them. But, it sure wasn’t on MY camera. If someone reading this knows (or can contact) the Mayer & Wife, PLZ ask them to EMAIL ME THE PIC!]

Thankfully, I did have some “Emergency” American money stashed in my luggage. (Hey! Travel lesson here!) And, thankfully, I found a TRAVEL AGENT with the ability to do a foreign currency exchange. (Another Travel lesson here!) SO … Pant, Pant, and HEAVY Sigh! … I managed to come up with enough money to pay for my last lodgings, a last tank o’ gas for my drive to the airport, AND, a bit to SPEND at the FAYRE. WOOF!!!

During all my frantic money-related romping about, I learned to use the several funky ALLEY-WAYS within the town center – ALLEY-WAYS that are, apparently, PECULIAR to Medieval Town Layouts! (MOST importantly, as you can tell from ALL my pix, parking on the MAIN DRAGS was NON-EXISTENT this day! So, I quickly learned to park on SIDE streets and get to the MAIN streets via these ALLEY-WAYS!)

Early in my costumed, money-related, FRANTIC romping about, I also met TWO “Town Cryers” who were there for the Fayre! Michael and John. This is JOHN!

Clearly, “Town Cryers” have the enviable authority to STOP TRAFFIC! Personally … I suspect that John is a Town-Cryer ONLY because he likes PLAYING in Traffic!

Here, Teddy and I are joined by John AND Michael!

It looks like John is using his Bell as a “microphone” for interviewing TEDDY! LOL

Although there were MANY folk romping about Tewkesbury in COSTUME this day, myne was CLEARLY the most … er … BUSTY! In fact, during the ENTYRE DAY – e’en AT the FAYRE – I saw NO OTHER push-up-type, Wenchly, Bodices!!!

Consequently, my costume (and TEDDY!)
was quite POPULAR with many MALE Fayre-Goers!

I started picking up on this fact soon after John & Michael INSISTED that I joyne them for some pre-Fayre libations at the NOTTINGHAM ARMS!

In FACT! After getting the cash gig taken care of, when I finally ENTERED the Nottingham Arms to meet with John & Michael, I was immediately greeted by someone YELLING OUT, “Look at the TITS on her!!!” Oddly enough, this was yelled out by a WOMAN! A VERY DRUNK WOMAN … e’en though it was only about 10 o’ the clock!

Thankfully, the DRUNKEN TART stayed at HER end of the bar!
So, I entirely enjoyed my pre-Fayre libations with John & Michael.
Furthermore, they gave me important FAYRE PARKING info – that WERKED!!!:

“Since you’re in costume, no one will know that you’re
NOT supposed to be parking in the close-up lot!
Just go there [they told me where] and park!”

PLUS! I also got to meet the OWNER of the Nottingham Arms.
SHE even bought me a drink, when I retreated there later, for some POST-Fayre libations!
TOO FUNNY!!!

Next DAY 11 Pix Options (in order of trip occurrence):

TEWKESBURY MEDIEVAL FAYRE

MEDIEVAL FAYRE PERFORMERS

The CAMP GROUNDS

The BATTLE Muster

The GUNNERY Display

More BATTLE Mustering & WENCHES!

The BATTLE of TEWKESBURY

Two Tewkesbury BATTLE Mini-Vidz

If you have suggestions for The Miller Fandamily Web Site,
OR contributions to the photo gallery!
please Email WebMistress Chas!
c-d-miller@neb.rr.com
That’s: c-d-miller@neb.rr.com –
those are hyphens/dashes (-) between the “c” and “d” and “miller”