The building dominates the town and we could easily see the layout of Vines Park and the canal immediately below. Originally this was a medieval church somewhat larger than kit is today. During the Civil War, the church was involved in fighting and was badly attacked and much damaged.
It was re-built in the 18th century using some of the old stones but had probably lost much of the original design integrity. Later modern additions, whilst functional, do not do the eye any favours. Alas, the doors were locked so we could not see inside and see what the Victorian re-ordering did to the interior. (We had to make do with this instead)
This corner shows the older stones along with the newer material for the main walls.
In the churchyard we found a few 18C grave stones, including a rather unusual one. Although its date was just visible (albeit a bit arguable about the third digit!) much of the inscription on the other side is hard to read. Others from the same period have survived a little better - one had the slightly unusual grammar: May Her Rest In Peace.
The main activity of the day was this afternoon when we decided to take a look at the stoppage works on the Tardebigge flight. When we came on this visit to the boat we knew that our cruising options were restricted even before the ice arrived. Several tasks are being worked on at the Tardebigge and Stoke flights.
It was a warm and sunny afternoon as we drove over to the nearest bridge - the satnav took us along some quite narrow lanes and there were still plenty of signs of just how blocked they roads had been by snow drifts. When we were within half a mile of our planned destination down a very narrow cul de sac road that terminates at the canal bridge close to Tardebigge Reservoir, we finally came to a halt with a deep drift still not melted and blocking our way. We had already crossed the canal a couple of bridges further down and seen that there was room to park on the roadside so we turned around and went back.
Leaving the car, we walked up the towpath from Lock 41. Most of the pounds were iced over - quite thick as testing with a precision device showed!
It took a little while as the first set of works were ten locks up beside the reservoir. Independent contractors were at work repairing the towpath wall in the short pound between two locks. In the stoppage notice the problem had been described as a rotating wall so we were keen to find out just what this meant!
Actually, the workers on site had never heard this expression which seems to mean just a collapsing wall! The work is well advanced and the final layer of coping stones was being laid. They expect to complete by the end of next week. There was a team of 6 or 7, all but one were standing observing what the one was doing!
We continued up a few more locks to No 55 where CaRT were at work replacing a pair of bottom gates. We had quite a chat with one chap who was waiting for water levels to adjust. He expects that they will be complete in a couple of weeks. (The gates have been fitted but the railings made it hard to catch a clear picture) Interestingly, it turned out that his first major task when he joined CaRT a decade ago was fitting gates to the new staircase locks just below the marina on the Droitwich Canal.
In the empty pound below the works we spotted the remains of a old boat rotting in the far hedge. Probably easy gto miss when the pound is full and the hedge ion full leaf.
By now the temperature was dropping quite quickly so we turned around and retraced our steps back to the car. We debated whether to wander further down the flight as it looked as if more work was taking place about 4 or 5 locks below. However we were glad that we decided against doing this because as soon as we climbed back into the car, rain arrived - which gradually became rather heavy and is now set to last all evening.
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