Highlights Gloucester Cathedral and meeting all the Smithies.

We finalised packing and washing and headed away at about 9.30am with Gloucester as our destination. Jane and Ian had left earlier for Italy with the cats in their cages, despite Jensen escaping earlier.

Our mission today is to meet for the first time Heather and Hazel and their families. Heather and Hazel are the 2 daughters of Smithy, another of dad’s old bomber crew. Sister Jennifer has kept in touch with them ever since she met them several years ago. We sent a message to Heather to say we would be arriving a tad late (because our washing took longer than expected) but were only 7 minutes behind schedule n the end.

We were greeted by Heather and Rusty (her 7 month old puppy) and with tea and coffee. After John took off his cap, Rusty (who is nervous about hats) was happy to be with us as we chatted. Heather then produced a lovely ploughman’s lunch with 4 cheeses – a mature cheddar, an Applemans with caramelized onion, a double Gloucester with herbs and a cheese from Cornwall covered with nettles. They were all delicious. Heather said she had only enjoyed cheese after the birth of her oldest son Tom. Later we realised he was living not far from where we are staying so a catch-up with him may be possible. We finished with chocolate cake.

We handed back to Heather a Cornish Pixie that had been Smithy’s good luck charm during the war. Jennifer had been given it by Smithy and had treasured it, but felt it belonged to the family, and with Tom being Smkithy’s oldest grandson and working in aviation it seemed right that it should be handed on. Heather appeared very touched by the gesture.

Heather then took us in to see Gloucester Cathedral. She had in the past uploaded the geocaching website so knew about our hobby. We knew we could get a cache at the Cathedral with an appropriate photo, so it was perfect.  

On the way we went past the Tailor of Gloucester shop. There was a special waistcoat made by the local Federation of Women’s Institutes as well as lots of Beatrix Potter books and games. There had been an animated model of the shop with mice working, but it had been out of action for about a year while they tried to have it repaired. A couple of posters told of Beatrix Potter’s visit to the city to stay with a cousin and how her sketches of the area later appeared in the book. Pat and Libby were in our minds as we saw patchwork on display representing the book.

We spent over an hour exploring the Cathedral in a leisurely way. We had been greeted by a volunteer offering to show us around, but Heather was our personal guide. She had visited the Cathedral often over the years, mainly with her boys when they were young.

The ceilings were the thing that first caught our eyes when we entered the Cathedral. The original building was an Abbey which is now in the middle of the cathedral, It’s ceilings are Norman from the early 1100’s. The Quire was added in the 1330’s and it’s ceilings is English perpendicular architecture.

By the door we entered is a large statue of Jenner. Jenner is often called "the father of immunology”, and his work is said to have "saved more lives than the work of any other human”. He was born in the area and it is nice he is recognised so prominently here.

Edward II was buried here in 1327 and pilgrims brought to his tomb gifts and money to rebuild the Abbey Quire and Cloister. The Abbey survived the devastation wrought by Henry VIII to most monasteries by being recast as a Church of England building. It is felt that the tomb of his ancestor being here was one of the main reasons why it was saved.

We went through one of the short doors (Heather had pointed the height of these out to us) into the peaceful garden area in the centre. It was lovely in the sun today but she said it can be too hot in summer as it is a sun trap. She said it is a popular spot for locals to eat lunch.

We admired the tiles on the floor in the Quire, both the coloured times and a series showing biblical scenes starting with Adam and Eve. Later we found a display on the floor above giving more details of the history of the tiles and also information about grotesques and stained glass.

We tested out the Whispering Gallery and Heather said she had not been through it before as she thought it had been closed when she visited in the past with her sons. It was nice she had a new experience, as she gave up her afternoon for us.

I am a great fan of stained glass and it was certainly lovely in this Cathedral. There was a lot of information about the various windows including about the restorations that had been required over time. One spot said that various restorers over time had had different philosophies. Some moved glass from other places to keep the age correct, some went for plain panels and one made a deliberately modern face to indicate the alteration.

There is a special cache here that just required a photo at a spot that especially appealed. We had considered the Jenner statue but ended up using a sign. This talked about the great window. It had survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Civil War and Victorian Restoration (when the window was going to have most glass replaced with new copies but it was instead releaded). In WW2 the window was removed and stored for safety, half in a nearby stately home and half in the crypt. However, when it was brought out for reassembly all the paper labels on the pieces identifying them had fallen off!!! The only record of the window layout was a coloured picture postcard, and this was used to redo the window.

On our way out Heather took us to a favourite spot from visits with her sons, the crying cherub. The cherub has 3 tears on his face which we would not have noticed usually. We also saw the newest window in the Cathedral, a stunning piece in shades of blue that lit up the chapel.

We walked around the cathedral and past some of the juniors from the school practising hockey. The Close was being set up for a festival but we had other plans. We then returned through the streets and back to the car to go and collect Rusty and go to Tewksbury for dinner.

On the drive to Tewksbury Heather pointed out the disappearing Church amongst other landmarks. The church was at first very visible then disappeared as the name would suggest, behind the hill. It appears to sink from view. Her boys (now 26 and 23) had enjoyed this when they were young.

We parked near the Abbey and saw it from the outside before heading to “the Bell” (dating from1696!) where Hazel had booked a table for us all. Sadly for us her husband Paul was not able to join us because of a longstanding family arrangement. Hazel’s husband Mark was able to attend, although he first took his dogs for a run so they were settled throughout the meal. The six of chatted ‘non-stop’. It ranged from the serious to the amusing and was broken up by remarks about how much our dad’s, Ted and Smithy, would have enjoyed seeing their family getting on so well. We handed over some presents from Jennifer. Heather and Hazel recognised the paua on their mats and Lorelei’s (Hazel’s young daughter) gift, a tuatara, was perfect for a reptile lover.

At some point I was taken to see the wall coverings in the pub, that had been uncovered recently and goes back to the earliest days of the pub. I also talked to another patron who, though local, now lives in Oxford NZ, and was living in Darfield at the time of the earthquakes in Canterbury.

We emerged after our meals to the sounds of the abbey bells, and then headed back to Churchdown with Heather. There we were delighted to be able to meet Paul.

From there we went to our Holiday Inn to check in and write a bit of this blog.

It was an excellent and memorable day and we would like to thank Heather, Hazel and their families for their generosity and friendship.