Sunday afternoon and a beautiful day, so we called into Ewelme and had a wander. Very pretty village in the Chilterns, with lots of interesting history, and watercress beds!
We visited the Church, the School and almshouses and then adjourned to the pub for a cooling ale or two.
To give you some idea of the place, do follow the links above. They are all extracts from a book,
Ewelme – A Romantic Village, its Past and Present, its People and its History by Mrs M Prister-Crutwell.
Boadicea's Chariot 
That takes me back a bit, used to play bridge there regularly and lunch in the pub. If I remember correctly you could collect watercress there in the street from a rill with little bridges over it for pedestrian access.
Absolutely right, CO. I forgot to take a photo of the watercress beds. Lovely village, I haven’t been there for a while, but it’s well worth a visit. The church is extremely interesting.
I don’t know this. Looks lovely.
It’s well worth a visit, Nym. It’s not far from Benson and Wallingford.
Many thanks for this Araminta – and I did read and enjoy all the links!
Excellent, I thought you would be interested, Boadicea. 🙂
I’ll put it on my list…
Wonderful pictures, Minty, thanks for posting them here.
Absolutely charming Ara. I shall do a longer comment later today but I can tell you now that I was christened in that font, in March ’47. It was the first time in three months or so that Ewelme had been approachable by road as it lay snowbound in that long hard winter of 46/47. Fascinating that Christina knows the place and played bridge there so may years ago. I don’t think my aunt was up to bridge – she had the cottage at Kings Pool, the bottom of the hill where the church is, now opposite the Village Stores, which used to be the Post Office. Thank you so much for these. i do have the book somewhere in the house. I took my wife and Kojo there just a few weeks ago and just this minute let her see your pictures. She gasped, immediately recognising the place .I have so many memories there of my aunt and grandmother and of the garden at Kings Pool – my head reeks of Ewelme and its Tudor and Elizabethan history and my heart has its home there!
How interesting PG!
Smashing photos, Araminta. The history of England is embedded in the stones of its villages. I’m just reading a fascinating book; ‘The Story of England,’ by Michael Wood. It tells the history of the country through the history of one such village, Kibworth in Leicestershire. I recommend it 🙂
Bravo – Didn’t they do a series on the BBC about Kibworth recently, all about the plague and suchlike? Amazon, here I come.
OZ
That was the series of the book, OZ – can’t get iPlayer here in Kazakhstan, even through a proxy 😦
Mr Wood writes very well.
btw, did I say those are smashing photos, Araminta? Well, they are.
Thank you, Christopher, I’m pleased you enjoyed the photos. 🙂
Hello, PapaG.
What a lovely comment. I did remember your connections to Ewelme and we thought of you while we were there. I’m glad you enjoyed the photos and managed to visit again with your wife and Kojo. I’d love to hear more about your memories of the village. It truly is totally steeped in history, what did Kojo think about it?
Hi Bravo.
Kind of you, and I’m glad you liked the photographs. I have heard about the Kibworth book and the series but haven’t managed to read or watch yet.
Yes, it’s always a fascinating to read about the history of some of our ancient villages and towns, and even more so when they have been so wonderfully preserved.
Thank you to Christopher, OZ and Cymbeline for your “likes”. 🙂
PS.
Bilby took some of the photos, so it was a joint effort! She was responsible for the close ups of Alice’s tomb, which were much better than my efforts.
Another sneaky thought passing through. A vague memory of Chaucer’s wife being buried there?
Phillipa de Roet?
Its either at Ewelme or somewhere just round there.
Yes, CO, you are quite right about a Chaucer connection with Ewelme although I think it was Thomas Chaucer the son who married Matilda so I’m not sure about the de Roet connection.
I will Google it tomorrow.
Ah, Philippa was Thomas Chaucer’s mother, whose tomb was found in East Worldham in Hampshire.
http://members.cox.net/judy-perry/Philippa.html
Chaucer’s wife was Philippa de Roet, his sister in law was Katherine Swynford, nee de Roet. Katherine was the mistress of John of Gaunt, son of Edward III, for a number of years before marrying him as his third and final wife…
It caused a huge scandal! It was fine to have a mistress, and a number of illegitimate children – but not socially acceptable to merry her!
Thanks, Boadicea. 🙂
Interesting. I didn’t realise you married a wife but merried a mistress, although it has a certain logic come to think of it. 😀
OZ
OZ! I won’t go back and correct that – since it would make a nonsense of your rather nice comment!
I didn’t correct your typo for the same reason, Boadicea, it was rather a charming way of putting it.
It was quite unintended!
Heathen Building !!!!!! The church is full of icons, obviously a protestant thing, most unreligious. 🙂