St Mary’s Mill-Stroud & Tewkesbury Visit

May 18, 2008

One of the specialties of the area is the locally produced Winstone ice cream. The double cream vanilla flavoured is particularly delicious with brambleberries, which was a fitting dessert for a lovely chicken dinner one evening.

The following morning we headed to the Post Office at Far Oakridge to make use of the wireless Internet for a brief time before we headed to St Mary’s Mill in Stroud.

St Mary’s Mill
Again it was a lovely walk to the mill. Another special day of demonstrations and talks we learned how tapestries are made from a local, well-known weaving artist. http://www.visitthecotswolds.org.uk/general.asp?pid=22&pgid=822

This is also where I learned that there had been an Iles Mill in existence in the 1850’s. It had burned down in the early 1900s. I also discovered a lane called Iles Green a very short distance form Trillis where I was staying, though I didn’t have time to investigate the name or its origins. I suspect both places relate back to Iles ancestors, as the family came from Gloucestershire before moving on to the Wiltshire area, from whence my grandfather came. (Iles is my maiden name.)

Crickley Hill Country Park
Along the way of our travels, we stopped at Crickley Hill Country Park lies on the edge of the Cotswold escarpment, 6 miles east of Gloucester, overlooking the Vale of Gloucester. http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=1428 This is also the site of Crickley Hill Hillfort, an important Neolithic site with its own Iron Age hillfort. The walls are mainly all that is left. www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/content/panoramas/crickley_hill_360.shtml

Priory of St Mary’s

The Priory of St Mary’s at Deerhurst was another stop, that we did accidentally. It had a very ancient font in it that someone had been using to water their cattle. “The spiral-carved font is one of the oldest in England; other notable details include ancient Saxon sculptures, two fine brasses, Early English capitals, and some medieval stained glass.” http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/deerhurst-st-mary-saxon-church.htm

Odda’s Chapel
Odda’s Chapel is an old Saxon Church at Deerhurst (3 ½ miles from Tewkesbury). “Odda’s Chapel is a tiny Saxon chapel now built into a medieval timber-framed farmhouse which obscures the eastern chancel. The building is a simple two-cell structure with characteristic Saxon long and short quoins. It is very plain inside, but retains its original chancel arch and a number of Saxon windows.” http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/adversaries/archaeology/deerhurst02.html



Tewkesbury
Tewkesbury was another destination as it is featured in my novel, though I wasn’t quite sure why. The name just came to me in a spurt of writing one day, and it seemed tied to the first Civil War of 1642-1646. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Civil_War)

Although the museum and the tourist information centre were closed by the time we arrived, I did enjoy seeing the village and the abbey.

The Tewkesbury Abbey dates from the 11th century (http://www.tewkesburyabbey.org.uk/) “Although the Abbey was founded in 1087 by nobleman Robert FitzHamon, building of the present Abbey did not start until 1102. Built to house Benedictine monks, the Norman Abbey was near completion when consecrated in 1121.”

The town of Tewkesbury was known as the mustard capital and is filled with Tudor and Georgian buildings dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. The Battle of Tewkesbury took

place in 1471 during the War of the Roses, which was 200 years too early for my research, but interesting nevertheless (p 59).

We had a lovely evening meal at the Bell Hotel, another Tudor building, then continued on to Sapperton, which did feature very much in the Civil War of my research.