The Bedwyns
Which sounds like a family name from a Jane Austen novel. Again starting where I left off, there was a surprise under Little Bedwyn bridge.
A pair of Muscovy ducks. I had seen a male before but never a female and wasn’t immediately sure who I was looking at. I slowly pushed my bike between the two, which didn’t bother the drake at all but the female jumped into the water and across to the opposite bank, much to the concern of her mate. Looking back, he was only reassured when she came back to him and the only way I can describe what happened next is that they … kissed.
Muscovy ducks, Anas moschata, are domesticated but no one is sure why they bear that name. It may be to do with their musky aroma. They are not from Muscovy, but it might be that their name comes from the Muscovy Company which traded in them to some extent in the sixteenth century. The drakes are pretty weird looking to be honest. It struck me that they have very long claws for ducks. Apparently there is a feral population in East Anglia. In some places they are regarded as pests.
Just a short ride today from Little Bedywn, aka, Bedwyn parva, to Great Bedwyn, less than two miles apart. I had lunch at the Three Tuns in the latter village and then went for a look at the church.
Rather grand – and I do like a stained glass window.
St Mary’s was built in the twelfth century in flint in the Norman style, but there are Saxon remains underneath the present building dating back two centuries earlier. Somehow I completely missed the tomb of and memorial to Sir John Seymour, father to Jane Seymour, one of Henry VIII’s wives, and the tomb of Frances Seymour, Duchess of Somrset (1599–1674), daughter of Elizabeth I’s favourite, the Earl of Essex, but I don’t tend to feel very comfortable inside churches and do not linger long. Wikipedia is a little unclear though as to whether the first two of these are still there or not. They look hard to miss.
I assume this is a yew.
See: Rewild the Church (and I Love Yew) – Animal Wild
My next surprise was the post office, its walls decorated with odd and eccentric pieces of stonemasonry.
It took me a while to remember that these symbols are Ogham, the early medieval Irish alphabet.
I love this last one above and the clasped hands. The people in the post office must have been asked about all this many, many times, but they were very friendly and happy to explain that the building had belonged to a stonemason, John Lloyd, whose family had initially arrived to help with the construction of the canal in 1790. The twenty-first century scion of this multi-generational family business was eccentric himself, they said. Strangest of all was a large dark grey slab engraved with a list of jobs undertaken and prices charged. Entitled “Repairs to a Monument” the list is peculiar indeed. Prices are in shillings and whilst the text is mostly white, some words are highlighted by being coloured orange, blue, red or black (WordPress does not allow me, I think, to colour individual words – not the first time I would have liked to play round with typefaces and colour here). I have followed the sometimes odd punctuation.
Corrected the Ten Commandments 110
Embellished Pontius Pilate and put new ribbon in his bonnet. 20
Put new tail on rooster of St. Peter and mended his comb 25
Replumed and regilded the way of the guardian angel. 155
Washed the servant of the High Priest. And put carmine on his cheeks. 10
Renewed Heaven. Adjusted the stars. And thoroughly cleaned the moon. 85
Re-animated the flames of Purgatory. And restored souls. 27:6
Revived flames of Hell Put new tail on the Devil. Mended his left hoof. And did several odd jobs for the damned. 96:6
Put new spotted dashes on son of Tebias and dressing on his sack. 106
Cleaned the ears of Balaams’s ass. And shod him. 14
Put earings [sic]in the ears of Sarah. 26
Put new stones in David’s sling. Enlarged the head of Goliath and extended his legs. 45
Decorated Noah’s ark. 60
Mended the shirt of the Prodigal Son. And cleaned his nose. 15:6
Total – £38:15:6
There was too much in the way (fruit and veg and so on) to photograph the whole thing. I have found two versions online and it all seems to originate from repairs carried out to a church in Belgium, whose employers had requested a breakdown of a lump sum invoice.
Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 04.pdf/642 – Wikisource, the free online library
Papers Past | Newspapers | Greymouth Evening Star | 13 November 1918 | A UNIQUE BILL.
I am none the wiser as to why this version was created. There are a number of significant differences as well as the alternative currencies used.
I have a vague understanding of how canal locks work and am always fascinated by the mechanics of it, dating back to boyhood boating holidays.
I don’t understand the side chambers and overflows though.
I saw these doves a few times and they seem to live at the art gallery in Little Bedwyn, which I had hoped to visit, but it was closed.
Back at Little Bedwyn, I stowed the bike in the car and took a look at the church there.
This is St Michael’s, primarily from the twelfth or thirteenth century, flint again, with Bath stone dressings and a Bath stone spire. Wikipedia is uncertain … the octagonal font is thought to be either from the fourteenth or nineteenth century.
The interior is simpler than that of St Mary’s.
I liked these organ pipes and edited out the intrusive light but lost some of the details in the process – I do not usually do this at all with my photos, but this seemed worthy of an exception.
This below may be a Whitebeam.
Finally, this the sign on the bridge at Little Bedwyn. It seems extraordinary that they have misspelt the name of the river. The numbers apparently relate to the location in a way I cannot fathom. A day of interesting surprises.
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