Around And About My Home Town

[merlin]

Worcester Cathedral


What is now the Cathedral was founded in 680 as a Priory, with Bishop Bosel at its head. The first priory was built in this period, but nothing now remains of it. The crypt of the present-day cathedral dates from the 10th century and the time of St Oswald, Bishop of Worcester.

Monks and nuns had been present at the Priory since the seventh century (see Bede). The monastery became Benedictine in the second half of the tenth century (one author gives the time range 974-977, another considers 969 more likely). There is an important connection with Fleury Abbey in France, as Oswald, bishop of Worcester from 961 to 992, and prior at the same time, was professed at Fleury and introduced the monastic rule of Fleury to Worcester.[5][6] Remains of the Priory dating from the 12th and 13th centuries can still be seen. The Priory came to an end with King Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the Benedictine monks were removed on 18 January 1540 and replaced by secular canons.

LINK

There are always a lot of so called royal swans on the river by the bridge, I forgot to mention them.

 

[Pete]

Here I am just outside the city by the old Roman Walls unearthed a while ago,

Reminds me of some sections of old Philadelphia in the US where they left wlls and even buildings standing from colonial days. Thanks for sharing

 

[RubyK]

I've enjoyed this thread very much. Thanks Merlin and Capt Lightning for the wonderful videos and pictures.

 

[Ruth n Jersey]

That was absolutely wonderful! Especially getting a glimpse of every day life in another country. How this computer technology can bring us all together is amazing.

 

[merlin]

That was absolutely wonderful! Especially getting a glimpse of every day life in another country. How this computer technology can bring us all together is amazing.

Thanks Pete, RubyK and yes Ruth n Jersey ................. who would have thought in our childhood, that one day we would be able to take a movie on our camera and even more amazingly our phone, plus then sharing it with the rest of the world for free...............no wonder technology has taken over a lot of our lives.
Being seniors we have seen all this grow from virtually nothing to where we are now, whereas youngsters have never known a world without it, so I feel have missed what I regard as an amazing and fascinating journey.................where we go from here though is difficult to imagine

 

[merlin]

Here is the final part of my walk away from the cathedral through the High Street, a couple of arcades/malls to the Bus station...

 

[merlin]

The following morning I took another walk this time down Bridge Street to the River Severn, and along the riverside walk.......

 

[merlin]

A bit more information and still photos to go with the earlier videos ..................

St. Andrews Spire (The Glovers Needle)


In the 15th century, Saxons built a church (called St. Andrews Church) with a tall spire but this was destroyed in a great storm of 1733. Shortly after this disaster, the spire was rebuilt. It was constructed by using the ingenious method of kite flying to carry up the stones. Worcester people took the new masterpiece to their hearts and named it the 'Glover's Needle'. This name came from the industrial glove making that was executed in Worcester.

The entire structure measures approximately 245 feet. It is the tallest spire in the country to have such a narrow angle of taper. In the 1920s the slum housing which crowded round the church was demolished. The congregation of the church was thus reduced by a large degree. The church fell into decay, had an overgrown churchyard, few parishioners and a tiny parish of five acres. In the 1940s, the council accepted the Bishop of Worcester's offer of the church. They decided to demolish the church and create a garden of remembrance to replace it. However the council decided to leave the tower and spire, freestanding. Thus St Andrew's church was demolished in 1949.

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[merlin]

I always remember Bridge Street as being shabby with a few shops interspersed, they removed all the shops and restored them to houses, in fact they rebuilt the lower terrace, keeping the front facade only, in the 1980s. There is a large development of houses and apartments behind the original houses, which are themselves mostly divided into apartments.

This is how I remember it

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This was a model shop on the opposite side of the road, I often bought various balsa wood kits and other stuff there.

The rebuilding​

Current view​

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[merlin]

The last part of my walk which I forgot to add

:


Cripplegate Park one of five parks in Worcester..

 

[Cap'nSacto]

Very nice, Merlin. What I noticed straight away is a LOT of park benches, which you don't see in California, and no squirrels, which you do see in California in great numbers.

I think that, probably, the reason our parks have no more than 2 or 3 benches throughout is to discourage homeless people from sleeping on them. Why we have so many squirrels, I don't know, but it's likely the comfortable temperatures and the abundance of food.

Also, I've never seen a restaurant in any of our city parks. Some state and national parks sell refreshments, but it's preferred visitors eat outside those parks, so as not to attract bears and other potentially dangerous wildlife.

 

[Aputernut17]

Here's a slideshow w/music, I made of our charming little southern town, after hurricane charley did it's destruction and our big come back.
Enjoy! https://www.dropbox.com/s/nd31enzbb5hg7kz/PG newest slide show.wmv?dl=0