Posted in Britain, History, Kate Cotoner, Places to visit on May 4, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday we braved the typical bank holiday weather (i.e. rain) and visited Roche Abbey, which lies close to Rotherham in South Yorkshire just off the M18. A small site tucked into a sheltered valley, Roche was the first ‘romantic ruin’ to be ‘enhanced’ by Capability Brown in the 18th century.
The inner (great) gatehouse with medieval road beneath
Posted in Britain, History, Kate Cotoner, Places to visit on March 16, 2010 | 1 Comment »
This month we’re in the beautiful border county of Shropshire. Here’s one of my favourite non-Yorkshire monastic buildings, Wenlock Priory, which belonged to the Cluniac order.
Posted in Britain, History, Kate Cotoner, Places to visit on February 21, 2010 | 3 Comments »
This month we’re visiting Jervaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire. Jervaulx is one of the few privately-owned Cistercian monasteries in the UK, and it’s one of those places you stumble over on a random Sunday afternoon drive. The abbey ruins are slap-bang in the middle of a field for grazing sheep, and the effect is very picturesque—which was the intention of Jervaulx’s 19th century owners, the Earls of Ailesbury. The first earl imagined the ruins as the setting for a romantic (and indeed Romantic) garden, and the proliferation of undergrowth climbing over the stonework has actually preserved rather than damaged it over the years.
The lay brothers’ night doorway into the church. This is the oldest part of the abbey, dating from the mid-12th century.
Posted in Nicole Gestalt, People of Britain, Places to visit, Uncategorized, tagged Beddgelert, Gelert's Grave, Rupert, Snowdonia, Wales on January 26, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Nestled within Snowdonia National Park Wales is a small little village that thousands are drawn to every year. In a deep valley surrounded by hills and mountains sits Beddgelert.
The literal translation of the name is Gelert’s Grave. Although this may in fact be a mistranslation and the origin of the name is somewhat murky, possibly relating to a seventh century saint known as Gelert or Celert. The most popular belief comes from a 19th century tale, the story of Prince Llewelyn and his faithful hound Gelert.
The tale, which can be read on a large piece of slate, speaks of the day Prince Llewelyn left on a hunting trip leaving behind his beloved son and his favourite hound Gelert, whom for some reason he couldn’t find. When he returned from the hunt he found the door of his house opened and to his horror he discovered the babies crib covered in blood with the swaddling ripped.
From a corner happily bounded Gelert whom was also covered in blood, believing that his favoured hound had killed his son he drew his blade and slew Gelert. As the dog howled his final breath his howls were responded to by cries from the baby.
Investigating the Prince discovered the baby safe and unharmed, a body of a wolf laying near by.
Realising he had jumped to the wrong conclusion he became overwhelmed with grief and buried Gelert in his favourite place.
It may be only a story, but it is one that draws people to the village over and over. However from one village many stories can develop and Beddgelert is also famous for being the home of the creator of the endearing bear Rupert. Many of the paintings used in the cartoons were based on the mountains all around the village and trails can be taken to visit those areas.
More about the area can be found here: http://www.beddgelerttourism.com/gelert/
If you ever get the chance to go to Snowdonia, make sure to stop by!
Posted in Britain, History, Kate Cotoner, Places to visit on December 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This month we’re visiting Croxden Abbey in Staffordshire. It’s not far from Lichfield and played a very minor role in one of the Brother Cadfael books – though for the life of me I can’t remember which one!
Though it’s not the most glamorous of the ruined abbeys, Croxden has a quiet charm. The pictures were taken in what my brother likes to call ‘a slight precipitation’.
[randomly, the pictures show up larger than they actually are on my screen, but if you refresh the page, they go back to their normal size!]
Posted in History, Kate Cotoner, Places to visit on November 2, 2009 | 3 Comments »
This is the first in what I hope will be an occasional history-and-picture series of posts relating to interesting places to visit within the UK. As a historian, and as someone who loves religious history, most of my posts will be about ruined abbeys or ancient churches, and as I’m based in Yorkshire, I’m going to be pretty partisan! However I’m aiming for a broad range of sites that might be of interest.
First up: Spofforth Castle.
