Haile Haile, Rocks ' n ' Roll; To the Manor Born.

D. and I were on our way to the Gloucestershire Way , only to find  a notice informing us that the Tewkesbury to Stow Road was closed near Ford.
We changed plans and made our  way  in the direction of Winchcombe and decided to stop at Hailes Abbey.

This was once a Cistercian Abbey, founded in 1246 by Richard of Cornwall and dissolved by King Henry V111 on Christmas Eve 1539.
Although never housing a large number of monks, there were many workers, mostly to look after the 4000+ sheep on the land.
The pictures above show the Dining  Room and how it looked then.

Amazingly for such a large room, only 20 monks at any time dined in there, silently contemplating their food whilst listening to the scriptures read by a monk  from a balcony ( top left of 2nd picture.)


The Shop/ Museum had some interesting artifacts and two life sized figures one dressed in the white cowl as a monk and the other in a brown cowl as a worker.

Outside I was fascinated to discover this culvert which still  continues to catch the rain- water, running from the hill and thereby protecting the Abbey, after 700 years in service; quite remarkable.

Before leaving the area, we went into the local parish church, where there was some medieval wall paintings to be seen, including this one of a lady.

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On Friday (27/04 ), we braved the intense downpours to drive to another National Trust property; Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire.
Incredibly when we arrived in the Manor car park, the rain ceased for awhile and we were allowed a window to view the lovely garden.

During our walk we visited the aviary;

a sculpture of a horse and cart;

 and the Stables with its fine courtyard.

This Renaissance- style chateau was built by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, largely as a venue to display his collection of art treasures.  No photographs were allowed inside; but if you click onto the link below you can explore the multiplicity of objects(  especially the ceramics, enamel and glassware ) which adorned this residence.

Waddesdon Manor

Before we left, we treated ourselves to a meal in one of the restaurants and noticed this Pavilion outside with these attractive  roof lights.

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Finally yesterday (28/04) I saw the last home game of the season, when Cheltenham  played against Bradford.

The main stand was nearly full and there was a sense of anticipation in the air, with the crowd hoping for a victory, which dependent upon other results might give them a place in the play-offs.

Shortly after the team huddle, the match kicked off. The first half was not promising with Bradford threatening to score at any minute and they duly got their reward  at about 15 minutes into the game, when a low cross  found its way into the left hand corner of the net. The half time score was 0- 1 and a feeling of despair was emoted from the crowd. I even text ed that ' It was all over; ' but fortunately this was not to be the case, for in the second half, after one assumes a fiery team-talk , the 'Robins ' came out on full 'squawk ' and within 5 or 6 minutes, following a determined run down the wing Khalid Mohamed crossed the ball and met Jimmy Spenser's boot to volley in an equaliser.

From that point on Cheltenham bossed the game and it was good to see Bradford having to defend strongly.

The final score 3- 1 to Cheltenham and even better news,  as Oxford Town failed to beat Southend, we were guaranteed a place in the play-offs.

A good way to end.

Ck.