Abbey to Abbey

Near the Severn river in peaceful surrounding stands Buildwas Abbey, although its past was not always as serene as it looks because it is near the border of Wales and battles between the Welsh princes and the English took place in this area.  One incident was the kidnapping of the abbot in 1406, although perhaps an abbot should be wary here for one was murdered by a monk.

The abbey was founded in the 12th Century as a Savignac order which within a few decades merged with the Cistercians.  When I wandered around the grounds at Buildwas I did not realise there was a connection with the abbey of my home town, for it was a group of monks from Furness Abbey that were sent here to establish Buildwas Abbey.

Furness Abbey also lies in peaceful surroundings (here seen in the Autumn light which highlights its beautiful sandstone). It too was in a border country only this time it was the Scots that were likely to raid and it too would fall into ruin with the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII,

The architectural details are more ornate at Furness Abbey but it was one of the richest abbeys in the land and also built some time earlier, so perhaps more influenced by Norman or Romanesque architecture whereas  

Buildwas was showing the development of a distinctive Early English style.  Like Furness the Buildwas stone is interesting for it is of different shades and alters with the light.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, which has reached its 16th birthday and this  this week is starting all over again at A here.

Sunny Interlude

Furness Abbey

Yesterday as the county was deluged by rain, the rail line was shut and roads flooded a picture of of Furness Abbey in the local newspaper showed it as one of the many places flooded but today, apart from being a little muddy there was, as can be seen, no sign of any water. Those 12th century monks knew where to build.  

View from Cemetery Hill, Barrow in Furness

As the sun begins to set we are promised yet more rain over the coming days, today is but a sunny interlude.

An entry to the skies around the world  on SkyWatch Friday

Furness Abbey

A gloomy Good Friday but the daffodils provided enough sunny yellow at the ruins Furness Abbey, a 12th Century Cistercian monastery.

The wise old owl knows many things, such as

if you have your own woolly jumper then why not have a plastic coat on top.

Lamb protected from the cold and wet.

ABC Wednesday - V

V could be for Verbena, just planted, which requires little care and flowers prolifically, but has to put up with claggy clay soil here. If it had a choice it would probably prefer well drained sandy soil such as may be found round this Village in Kent, a county sometimes called the Garden of England

Villages nestle in Valleys but in more dangerous times it was probably better to know who was coming to see you, and a higher view would be safer. Here is the Iron Age Fort (that bit on the end of Table Mountain in Wales) which gives clear sight.
If you walk along the ridge to Pen Allt Mawr and even better view, nobody can sneak up that way either. Today it is a rather more peaceful scene with a patchwork of little fields.
Yes my V is for Valleys. June is a beautiful time for them when everything is fresh, and subtle and vivid colours lay against each other. The vivid yellow of the flowering rape stands out
but perhaps the subtle yellow of wild flowers in the meadows is prettier.
The coal mining areas of south Wales are usually referred to as The Valleys. A century ago the Dare Valley was one of those coal mining areas. These days have long gone, and in 1970s the land was reclaimed, by removing the coal tips, grassing over some of the spoil heaps, rerouting the River Dare, creating 2 lakes and tuning the area into the Dare Valley Country Park. Nature returned.
All that is left of the 4 colleries are the capped shafts
Yes what could be better than to stand in a valley, lean on a five barred gate and watch the world go by, or really just a few sheep.
The Cistercian monks in the middle ages probably thought that when they built the beautiful sandstone Furness Abbey here in the Valley of the Deadly Nightshade ( a wonderfully evocative name). They grew wealthy from the wool of sheep, and the labour of the local populace, until Henry the Eighth came along.

For a variety of more Vs go over to ABC Wednesday