English Cathedrals and Churches - Part 3

By C. LaRene Hall

Next, we drove to Coventry where we climbed the stairs to see the Cathedral.

While still in Warwick we went to the historic Collegiate Church of St Mary (the Thomas Beauchamp Chapel), that was built in 1086. It passed into the Beauchamp family about 1268. Thomas Beauchamp, planned to replace the 12th century church with a much larger structure. They extended the original crypt before his death.

To me, the most impressive feature in this chapel was the Tomb of Richard (1439) and Thomas (1369). I was particularly interested in seeing these tombs because they are my ancestors.

Richard Beauchamp, wanted his marble tomb built in the center of the Chapel. In his will, the final phase of medieval construction work was the Chapel of Our Lady, which took 20 years to complete. His wife Katherine Mortimer, is buried next to him. The tiny figures around the base of the tomb give a fine display of 14th century English fashion. Around the sides and ends of the tomb are the figures of 36 mourning relatives.

Several days later, we drove to Farleigh Hungerford Castle ruins near Trowbidge. There was a stunning church with beautiful stained glass windows. In a Medieval wrought ironwork enclosure was a memorial to Sir Thomas Hungerford who died in 1398 and his wife, Joan Hussey who died in 1412. Next to them were two other memorials of Sir Edward Hungerford who died in 1648 and his wife, Margaret Holliday.

The Hungerford family is also ancestors of mine, and I enjoyed looking around the walls at the many wall paintings, the Hungerford arms and flanking shields, as well as other coats of arms.

Next, we drove to see the 13th century Cathedral Church of St. Andrews in Wells. I had heard they had 365 carved Biblical life size figures. There were many sculptures on the wall outside as well as sculptures inside, and many stain glass windows depicting Biblical stories. The cathedral was very large and had an interesting clock. Every quarter hour the clock strikes, pauses and jousting knights go round in tournament.

Review of Brass Dragon Codex

When Rebecca asked volunteers to review the newest book in the Dragon Codex series, I immediately jumped at the chance. I went to her first book party, and definitely wanted to read the next book written by her – Rebecca Shelley (aka R.D. Henham).

Every gnome has a Life Quest, the need to create an invention, and Hector and his friend Amber are no exception. Hector’s latest invention causes lots of trouble for everyone. Shem, the human leader tells him to leave the city of Kaal and never return. During this adventure, he meets an orphaned brass dragon, many dangerous creatures in the desert, knights, dwarves, a thief, and the vicious blue dragon.

The important lesson learned in this story is that communication is important. Tumbleweed, the orphaned baby dragon is always talking. He interrupts, and never listens. Hector realizes that he is just like the dragon. He never pays attention to his friend Amber or to the dragon. Hector learned it’s no good to keep talking and never listen.

If you like dragons and gnomes, Brass Dragon Codex is a book with plenty of action. It’s part of a companion series to Mirrorstone’s Practical Guide to Dragon books. To check out Rebecca’s website go to http://www.rebeccashelley.com/

English Cathedrals and Churches – Continued

By C. LaRene Hall

By afternoon, we found St Mary’s the Virgin Church, in Henlow, Bedfordshire. The church was made of stone in a perpendicular style. My Mayflower ancestor, Henry Sampson attended church here as a small boy.

His grandfather lived in the next village, Arlesey. The early thirteenth century church of St Peter was made of stone and was also decorated in a perpendicular style.

Tomorrow we are heading a different direction and I'll tell about that later.

Churches in England - Part 2

On July 20, 2006 (wow, that’s almost three years ago), after my sister and I received directions on how to reach the small villages of many of our ancestors, we spent the morning traveling from one village church to the next one.


None of them looked the same. The first one we stopped at was the St. Faith Church at Horseham.

The next stop was at All Saints church in Horstead.

Next, we drove to the small village of Coltishall to see the thatched village church of St. John.


We then stopped at The Church of St.Mary, The Virgin at Wroxham. As usual, the stained glass windows were beautiful. The church is mostly of the 15th century, in Perpendicular style. There is a western tower, nave, south porch, north and south aisles, chancel and north vestry.

When we stopped to look at the church at Salhouse, we only wandered around the outside, because there was a funeral.
I always wanted to see the tiny village of Little Plumstead where my great-grandmother Jex was from, but I was disappointed that we could find no old church. In Woodbastwich we saw many houses with thatch roofs, and The Parish Church of St Fabian L& St Sebastian.
We then went to the Wymondham Abbey and cemetery. They built the West Tower in 1447 and the Central Tower in 1409. The church has ten bells. We didn’t go inside the church, because they were having church services, but I took a few pictures from the doorway.

The day isn't over, but this is getting long so I'll do the rest another day.

Picture

English Cathedrals and Churches - Part 1

By C. LaRene Hall

Today I’m telling you about some of the cathedrals and churches we saw while in England.

Never before had I seen a building as magnificent as the Durham Cathedral. They built it in 1093 and it’s huge. Inside was more beautiful than any of you can imagine. I had no idea that this was just the beginning of many more breathtaking churches that we would be seeing while in England.


Just next door, in the Durham Castle were two small churches. They built the Normal chapel around 1078 and the larger Tunstall chapel several years later in 1540. They didn't allow you to take pictures inside.

My sister and I visited many out of the way places. We were traveling the paths our ancestors before us had been. In the village of Scrooby, in Nottinghamshire, we found a church built about 1380, called St. Wilfred. It was a simple church built with limestone, and was the most prominent building in Scrooby. The steeple is octagonal on a square tower base. I was surprised to see that most of the churches in England have a graveyard.


One mile north of Scrooby, in Austerfield, they built the St. Helena’s church in 1080. We learned that at the church font about 1589, they baptized the famous pilgrim, William Bradford. Above the door in the church's south porch is a dragon carved about nine hundred years ago.

[I'll keep trying to post the picture here, but so far, no such luck]

The next church we stopped at was the Saint Mary’s Church in Granthan.

That's all for today.

Playing Tag

As a child our entire neighborhood would congregate outside every summer evening to play tag. You couldn't get us inside until long after dark. I'm not sure this tag game holds as much appeal, but I'll give it a shot.

Joyce Dipastena tagged me to tell 25 random things about myself. I doubt anyone out there really wants to know that much about me, but I'll be a good sport and give it a try.

1. I hate my December birthday.
2. I think I have gypsy blood because we moved about seventeen times before I was in the fifth grade.
3. I learned to play the violin when I was in the third grade.
4. When I was in a ninth grade play I had to kiss a creepy guy.
5. It was fun being in the school orchestra because we were allowed to miss school and ride the bus to other schools to perform.
6. That was the only time I enjoyed performing. It seemed I was always called on to play at church, or school, or weddings.
7. I use to be a good hula dancer.
8. In high school my boy friend and I usually spent our date nights dancing on roller skates.
9. To me ice skating was difficult and something I didn't enjoy.
10. My one regret - I wish I had been a dance teacher. I love ballet, and tap dancing, and all types of ballroom dancing. Square dancing and line dancing are also fun.
11. I married a man who hates to dance.
12. I use to babysit for twenty-five cents an hour.
13. Because I attended the same junior high and senior high school that my mother did I had some of the same teachers she had.
14. In the third grade I was the most beautiful Christmas tree you have ever seen.
15. I love parties.
16. I collect fairies. My collection includes a fountain, books, movies, dolls, mirrors, pens, windchimes, and lots of figurines.
17. It's fun to explore light houses. I have several minature ones scattered around my house.
18. Pirates fascinate me.
19. If I were wealthy I'd attend the symphony, theater or ballet every Saturday evening.
20. I wish I had the money to travel this beautiful world.
21. The fartherest I've been away from home is Scotland.
22. I enjoy studying history - the people, their customs, and the way they lived.
23. I love reading.
24. I love writing.
25. I love chocolate.

Now I'm supposed to tag 25 other people. That seems like a lot, so I'll cut that down some and tag my new critique group - Amanda Page, Aneaka Richins, Daron Fraley, De Tolley, Holly Horton, Janice Sperry, Jeanne Mendenhall, Karen Mittan, and Wendy Elliott.

Glasgow, Scotland

I know I promised to post some pictures and tell a little bit about the churches we saw in Europe. I'm not sure if these pictures are going to work, because this computer works different than the one I use to have. So this is only going to be a test to see if I can finally begin this project again.

After arriving in Scotland, the first place we wanted to see was the oldest building in Glasgow, the 13th century medieval Cathedral. The architecture was elaborate and the stained glass was beautiful. I had never seen anything like it before.