Friday, August 31, 2007

A Tour Of Great Bedwyn

Last weekend we moored at Great Bedwyn. Well known by Great Western travellers as a small station on the main line. It was famous for a while in 1999 as the terminus of the train in the fatal Paddington rail crash.

We were on the K & A at the time on a hire boat from Anglo Welsh called "Silver Dove".


I may have blogged about this before. Silver Dove was in the Bath fleet, run by Bath Narrowboats at Sydney Wharf, until recently. We heard about the crash from a passing boater as we exited lock 60 on the Crofton flight. Strange how life creates coincidences.

Some sort of settlement has been here since the 11th century.


The present church is 12th Century, but one may have stood in the 10th century.


The two pubs are all 19th century and some of the houses are 17th century. One or two of the cottages may even be 15th century. It is reputed that the discoverer of diabetes mellitus, Thomas Willis (1621-75) was born in the village. He also founded the Royal Society.

In St Mary's Church there are some interesting sights. As mentioned in a previous blog - the tomb of Jane Seymour's father, Thomas Seymour.


There are several lovely stained glass windows.


An interesting wall hanging depicts the church.

How about this as a tomb stone?


We saw this at the stone masons in the village. His price list is a bit bazaar!



A Jubilee Cross stands in the centre of the village and further up the road an interesting juxtaposition of cars!


I drove past the turning to Bedwyn on the A4 this week - it was a strange feeling to think that we had been there a couple of days ago on holiday! I certainly prefer the slow approach on the canal.

PS. More videos

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