We visited one of our favourite places during the month, Batsford Arboretum near Moreton-in-Marsh. The daffodils were out and we enjoyed a look around this familiar place. Our Westonbirt membership card gets us free access at Batsford as well.
Donna’s Dad, Tony, would have been 88 on 1st February, he was a bit of a star in terms of DIY (unlike me). The photo shows the western sky on 6th February, the remaining light has not faded completely, even at 20:47 when I took the photo on my phone. The bright ‘star’ in the upper-left is actually the planet Jupiter, and the dog star (Sirius) is just above the trees. Orion is in the centre with his belt of three stars, and the little triangle above and to the right of Orion is the Hyades star cluster.
Broken jars
Donna ordered jars of stewed apple pulp but it was badly packed and mishandled and arrived as a messy box full of broken glass, soggy labels, and unusable pulp. Four jars had survived. She’d ordered these several times before and they’d been just fine. Amazon replaced the goods but the replacement arrived in the same condition. The third attempt was in good shape, however.
Batsford Arboretum
We visited one of our favourite places during the month, Batsford Arboretum near Moreton-in-Marsh. The daffodils were out and we enjoyed a look around this familiar place. Our Westonbirt membership card gets us free access at Batsford as well.
Natural History Museum
We also travelled to Oxford for a day later in the month and looked around the Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum. They were both very crowded because it was half-term and there were a great many families exploring both the town and the museums.
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Rendcomb College was coping with a lot of change due to wartime needs and restriction, some staff were called up to serve in the Army, Navy or Air Force and some newcomers arrived to fill the gaps where possible.
Mike was 14 at this time, turning 15 in June 1941. He would still have been at school at this time, at Rendcomb College about four miles north of Cirencester on the Cheltenham Road. Sometimes he cycled home for a visit at weekends, even during term time. One of his least favourite subjects was maths and, in particular, algebra. When I was at Cirencester Grammar School, also about fourteen, I remember him saying you could add and multiply numbers, but it was quite unreasonable to do the same with letters of the alphabet! Somewhere along the way he had not understood that the letters in algebra represent numbers. Often numbers with values you don’t know.
General meeting
Mike had a mention as a ‘Cycle Man’ in the Rendcomb General Meeting for the Summer Term of 1941. I’m not sure what this duty entailed, but he was one of three pupils appointed to the task. Rendcomb College was coping with a lot of change due to wartime needs and restrictions, some staff were called up to serve in the Army, Navy or Air Force and some newcomers arrived to fill the gaps where possible. Disruption of this kind was affecting schools and businesses all over the UK, of course. Copies of the school magazine are available online.
World events: Germany, Italy and Hungary invaded Yugoslavia; and Axis forces reached Halfaya Pass, on the Libyan-Egyptian frontier.
From the beginning, Blast from the Past articles have been rather long and have become hard for me to write and publish. I need to simplify the process if I’m to continue with it.
From now on I’ll post much shorter, more manageable articles each covering a single month, this one, for example, covers April 1941. I should be able to complete one of these every week or so. I’ll provide links at the bottom of each one so readers can jump backwards and forwards a month at a time and these links will integrate with those in the existing Blast from the past articles. I’ll also add links to jump from year to year.
We’ll see how it goes for a while and I’ll make further changes if necessary.
Useful? Interesting?
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
Cirencester had an Abbey, St Neots had a Priory; both are long since gone, but both are remembered still. Cirencester has a lovely public park, The Abbey Grounds, St Neots has a public building called The Priory Centre for theatrical and musical performances and all sorts of local events and meetings. Donna and I have very much enjoyed living in both places.
What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image whenever I can.
Click thumbnails to enlarge
Before we moved to Cirencester we lived in a big old detached property in St Neots, Cambridgeshire. We could seat 10 or 11 people around the big table in our dining room, and a similar number on the patio outside. Our friends called it ‘The Party House’. When we first moved in, the house and garden both needed a lot of work; the second photo shows our housewarming party in September 1999, soon after we moved there. The mix of people includes people from work (Unilever), friends from church (Open Door, St Neots), and neighbours.
September 1999
But Cirencester house prices are far higher than in St Neots so when we moved we bought a much smaller place and extended it, turning the garage into a bedroom and en suite bathroom. We still miss the spaciousness, but we love living in Cirencester. I began my life in this lovely, old, Cotswold town and it seems fitting to complete my life here too.
Quite apart from the town of Cirencester itself, the Cotswold countryside is very special. The towns and villages are all built from the same honey-coloured Oolitic limestone. Although it’s a beautiful colour when it’s freshly quarried or pressure washed, the stone ages to a pleasant neutral grey and becomes mottled as it hosts the growth of white, yellow and black lichens. Many of the buildings have traditional anti-drip ridges above the windows and doors, the roof tiles are frequently of Cotswold stone as well, and gutters, downpipes, doors and window frames are usually painted in a sympathetic, dusky, greyish-pale-green hue as well. These old homes, farmhouses and outbuildings blend gracefully into the countryside. Some of these buildings are rightfully famous, like Bibury’s Arlington Row (pictured above right). It almost looks as if the houses have sprung out of the ground like the nearby trees and hedges!
Historical change
Historically things were very different. If you’d visited the Cotswolds in 1500, the only stone buildings would probably have been ecclesiastical or military: churches, cathedrals and castles would have been built in stone along with city walls, but all the houses and many businesses (shops, pubs, inns and so on) would have been built of heavy wooden frames with wall infill of wattle and daub, a building technique going right back to Neolithic times.
Some of the old houses in Cirencester were originally built this way, rich wool merchants replacing them with stone in Georgian times, and in some cases a stone front was built just outside the old timber frame walls giving the appearance of a stone structure at lower cost. Arlington Row in Bibury was built by a local monastery for wool storage and later divided up for use as weaver’s cottages.
Rivers
Cirencester’s River Churn is part of the headwaters of the Thames. As rivers go it’s very small, rising at Seven Springs just south of Cheltenham, high in the Cotswold hills, running through a wooded, winding valley twelve miles to Cirencester and then joining the Thames at Cricklade after a further ten miles through flatter land. From the confluence with the Thames the Churn is by far the longer of the two rivers, but both names are very old, going back to the Iron Age, and perhaps a good deal earlier. Where they meet, the Thames is wider and deeper than the Churn so would have been thought the main river.
More on St Neots
The River Great Ouse
I began this article with a photo of the patio at our old home in St Neots and I should say some more about that lovely old town before finishing. One of the main features of St Neots is the River Great Ouse, a huge and navigable river by comparison with the little Churn. Both the Thames and the Great Ouse enter the southern part of the North Sea on the east coast of England and at that point both are significant rivers.
Cirencester had an Abbey, St Neots had a Priory; both are long since gone, but both are remembered still. Cirencester has a lovely public park, The Abbey Grounds, St Neots has a public building called The Priory Centre for theatrical and musical performances and all sorts of local events and meetings. Donna and I have very much enjoyed living in both places.
St Neots is a good deal larger than Cirencester and both towns are still growing rapidly in size and population.
Being at home
As I was writing I began to see how important home is. Home can be anywhere on the land surface of this planet called ‘Earth’. But there is something special about home, this is true for all of us. The difference between St Neots and Cirencester is quite minor. English is the most spoken language in both towns. Food and drink are similar in both places, so are the customs and the public holidays and the way life is lived. I could feel at home in either place and I have friends in both places.
But the place where I currently live is special in certain ways. I know Cirencester very well, but St Neots will have changed slightly since we moved ten years ago. For all of us, home is the most familiar place in the world – quite literally.
And I began to see that the same is true in places that are not places at all. For me, heaven is a familiar ‘place’ too. Of course it’s not a physical place in the way St Neots or Cirencester are. But it’s certainly home for me, where everything is familiar and reliable. Heaven is where my heart is already, Jesus is there, his Spirit lives in me and with me day by day, hour by hour.
‘Home is where your heart is’, we are told. My heart is already in this mysterious non-place which is beyond any normal meaning of the word ‘place’. Thinking in terms of place just helps me relate the extraordinary to the ordinary of everyday life.
Perhaps in this last section I’ve lost many of my readers, but I know some of you understand what I’m trying to say. There is more mystery in this universe than we can grasp with everyday thoughts and ideas. Don’t dismiss these thoughts as the ramblings of a deluded old man, they are not that at all. Here is a hidden truth that we can all lean into; and there’s a treasure here that you do not want to miss. So take my advice – go on digging until you find the treasure. His name and his character are there for all who will look deep and long.
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We went to see Worcester’s famous cathedral. There was a service underway so we couldn’t visit the nave, but today’s photo shows a section of ceiling between the choir and the altar retaining stunningly beautiful medieval-style painted decoration.
What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image whenever I can.
Click thumbnails to enlarge
We visited Worcester recently, we wanted to visit the birthplace of the famous composer, Edward Elgar, in a nearby village, but afterwards we drove to the old city, parked the car, and went to see the famous cathedral. There was a service underway so we couldn’t visit the nave, but today’s photo shows a section of ceiling between the choir and the altar retaining stunningly beautiful medieval-style painted decoration. The stone vaulting was built in the 14th century and the decoration restored in Victorian times.
Beautiful buildings
Up until Henry VIII’s split from the Catholic Church, some of the most beautiful buildings in Britain were the old monasteries and abbeys, all of them Catholic and most of them destroyed and/or sold off to Henry’s associates and friends. A few centuries later Oliver Cromwell’s men caused further loss and damage, pulling down statues and rood screens, whitewashing painted masonry, and more.
Here are a few of the ruined treasures I’ve seen with my own eyes and wished I might have seen before their destruction took place: Cirencester Abbey, Fountains Abbey, Malmesbury Abbey, Tintern Abbey, Whitby Abbey. See some of these and many more at English Heritage.
But here in Worcester Cathedral some of that splendour is still to be seen, and the ceiling is just a part of it. We can make good guesses about some of the losses from documents, drawings and paintings created by people who had seen some these places before they were destroyed. Past structures can be partially imagined as well, reconstructed in our minds from fragmentary records glued together by informed thinking.
This can be extended to the deeper past as well, we can imagine Roman Cirencester (or Corinium as it was known during that era), and know small parts of it quite well based on excavated remains and reconstructions.
And in our own day?
Lowther Estate
What parts of our own early 2000s architecture and artworks will be lost before future generations have an opportunity to admire and enjoy them? We do have one advantage over past times, and that’s our ability to photograph and video structures and artworks before they are lost. This was emphasised for me when Donna and I visited the Lowther Estate during our recent family holiday in the Lake District. We drove east from our holiday house in Windermere to visit this very grand old palace, built in 1806 to replace Lowther Hall which had suffered a fire and was in a poor state of repair.
The days of grand, old houses were passing and Lowther Castle was no exception. The grounds were used for tank training during World War 2 and the beautiful and extensive gardens decayed and were later used to grow spruce for timber. The roof of the building was removed along with many of the internal walls. The two photos below show part of the interior more than 100 years ago and as it appears today.
These images represent similar parts of the building. I can’t claim they’re correctly matched, but they are close. The top photo was taken before the roof was removed and the interior structures demolished.
Click the photos to expand them.
The lower photo shows the area as it is today. These images allow us to compare two instants in time, one before the destruction and one afterwards. In a sense we can see what has changed. Technology moves on, the first image lacks colour. For more recent changes we can compare colours, movement, sound and more. So the further back in time we go, the less full and accurate the information tends to be.
Remains of the statue
There’s one more detail worth mentioning. If you expand the first photo and look at the upper right, you’ll see a statue, probably of William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale (1757–1844), the man who had the present castle built between 1806 and 1814. He’s depicted as a knight in chain mail with a large sword. A small piece of that statue survives and today stands incongruously in the gardens outside the ruined building. This is one of the few details of the interior still visible to visitors today.
It seems extraordinary today that such an amazing building would be deliberately destroyed, but death duties often made it impossible for stately homes to continue in occupation and that was the case with Lowther Castle. So many lovely old houses were demolished for the same reason during the early 20th century. It’s one of the tragedies of that period of British history.
But there’s much to celebrate, too. The National Trust and English Heritage were set up to save, restore and conserve what remains; and without them we would have lost so, so much more. Let’s remember, too, that we each live our own lives and there are so many ways we can care for the people and places we value. Surely our place in this world, individually and together, is to do as much good and as little harm as possible in every aspect of our daily lives. So enjoy today to the utmost, care for the people you meet and the places you go, focus on justice, peace and beauty and you won’t go far wrong.
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If I tell someone that I follow Jesus they will expect him to be like me. If I am mean, greedy, selfish and easily angered people will pick up the notion that Jesus might be like that too.
A few days ago I posted Butterfly dead or alive? I considered the difference between a dead butterfly and a living one. I thought about this in biological terms, suggesting I’d write again soon on the spiritual aspects for people following Jesus. This is that second article.
I’ll go through each of the main points from that earlier article to draw spiritual truth out for anyone who believes they are alive in Christ. So here goes…
Ability to move
If I’m spiritually dead, then like the dead butterfly I will be unable to move. But what is spiritually equivalent to the physical ability to move? There may be more than one way of looking at this. Read Acts 17:1-8. What does this mean, in real, practical terms? Try reading the entire chapter, Acts 17, and it will become clear. Paul was explaining to Greek philosophers in Athens that the ‘Lord of Heaven and Earth’ is not served by humans because there’s nothing we can provide that he doesn’t already have. Instead he’s the One who gives us life and breath and everything else we might need. You’re not spiritually alive until you start paying attention to Jesus and agree to let him work in you and through you. He will change you in so many ways, all of them good. But if you’ve never met him before and never spent time with him you will not become alive spiritually. When you allow him to touch you in this way you will become alive and aware and, like the living butterfly, you’ll be able to move with energy that is within you, the essential energy Jesus has placed in you. The dead butterfly would be dried up and provide food for the ants. The living butterfly can detect predators, move to safety, and gather energy from floral nectar.
When we’re spiritually dead we can do nothing to help ourselves, but when Jesus has made us alive we can move freely, and not just in this physical world for we can now move spiritually too. It’s difficult to describe this to someone who has not yet experienced it. But come on in! You will never regret it.
Appearance, colour, lustre
As you continue to learn from Jesus you will become a thing of beauty and fragrance, well maintained spiritually, colourful, clean and cared for. The body ages and deteriorates over the years, but the spiritual heart and life will never age or fade.
Ability to sense danger
There are forces of spiritual evil in the world, as well as the more obvious physical dangers we face from falling rocks, dangerous drivers, illnesses of many kinds, or the occasional thunderstorm, earthquake, or volcano. Jesus does not give us any guarantee of safety from the physical world, but he will alert us to and protect us from spiritual danger and damage – if we pay more attention to him and his Holy Spirit than we do to our own ideas and preferences. Often, sadly, we do not.
Reproduction
This is an important one.
Spiritual reproduction is not like biological reproduction, although both result in growing numbers. In the case of spiritual reproduction it’s mostly a matter of living lives that will make people ask themselves, What’s different about them? People tend to know a good thing when they see it. If I tell someone that I follow Jesus they will expect him to be like me. If I am mean, greedy, selfish and easily angered people will pick up the notion that Jesus might be like that too. So I’d better become kinder, more gentle and helpful and generous, more loving towards the people around me.
Metabolism
Living creatures of all kinds, including people, have an active metabolism, it begins in humans and other animals when a sperm fertilises an egg cell, generating the very beginning of a new organism. And that metabolism continues all day and all night, year in and year out, until that new organism dies through accident, illness, or old age. There is a spiritual analogue for metabolism too. There are complex actions and interactions going on in the life of the church. A church can be healthy or sick, it can be hungry or fat, it can be happy or truly miserable. There are spiritual gifts poured out over people who follow Jesus and gather as church. These gifts are crucial in forming and sustaining church growth in helpful and useful ways.
I’ll finish by mentioning two phrases that are sometimes used in church circles; they both come from Romans chapter 6 and verse 11.
The first one is ‘Dead to sin’
The second is ‘Alive in Christ’.
Would you rather be dead, or alive? That, my friends, is the choice before us.
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
