Friday, 30 May 2025

Tewkesbury Abbey Part III

4.20 a.m. and I was too hot in bed so have come down for a while.  I got around my  stress-levels yesterday by doing some family history research, and think I may just have cracked my brick wall of 45 years!  My gut feeling told me that although I had found my Bolt family in Wolborough/Highweek, Newton Abbot, there was a link to the Cheriton Bishop area.  Later family members being in Moretonhampstead and gravitating to/marrying into a Cheriton Bishop family.  I found a census link to Tedburn St Mary with that family too, and yesterday - having gone back through a chance finding in the late 1600s - found the Tedburn St Mary link.  Full circle.  Delighted!  







Below:





So skilfully done - love these little cherubs.






Don't fall out with the Mortimers . . .  Last time I was in Hereford I walked over the very place (marked) where he died.



Absolutely stunning glass by Tom Denny in the Chapel of St John the Baptist and St Catherine.  These commemorate 900 years since the founding of Tewkesbury.


Sorry that this isn't very clear.  There was a book purely on the stained glass of the Abbey, but I resisted temptation and just bought the guide book.





Lady Diana Spencer was descended from the Despensers.


Another of the Medieval stained glass windows in the quire clerestory - a rare survivor of 14th C glass.



I will go again, and soon.  Next time I will have the guide book in hand, rather than buying it at the end.  It was so beautiful there and SO much history - and without that history there is no meaning to a building or a place.  Worcester Cathedral is also on my list for a visit this summer.  I am near enough when I go to Malvern - it's about 9 miles further on.

Celtic Rainforest day today, at the Elan Valley.  Think it will be sunshine and showers and it's looking a bit showery out right now.


Posted by at
Labels:

4 comments:

  1. Ragged Robin31 May 2025 at 03:06

    Great news about the family history breakthrough :) Glad you saw the Tom Denny glass - his work is just sublime. I'm reading a book at the moment on his stained glass. Have a good day in the rainforest.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jackie31 May 2025 at 17:20

    So wonderful that you had that breakthrough in the family history. Our oldest son was trying to trace our MacDougall family and hit a brick wall. So he decided to try tracing the female side... He got a great deal further.
    Love that cathedral. All the gorgeous carvings and stained glass.

    God bless.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Morning's Minion1 June 2025 at 11:08

    After more than 2 decades of searching for clues I have to concede that I'll likely never be sure about my Lewis g-g-grandparents. My feeling is that after a few years in upstate New York they moved across the border into Ontario. I've definitely located there the two neighboring families associated with them as coming from England just prior to 1850. So many people don't 'stay put'--as much then as now!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Terra2 June 2025 at 13:45

    I enjoyed this visit via your blog to the Abbey and seeing the beautiful tombs, carvings and windows. My goodness, the one man was a favorite of a king and then hanged by another man. Dangerous times to be in court. I am in the USA and traced some family back as far as 1750s in Belgium.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)