Septuagint

This link opens an account of a walk series in which Thornbury Rambling Club participated with Thornbury Wayfinders on the penultimate Sunday in February 2025 written by Councillor Chris Bloor (well worth reading!). Septuagint – Thornbury Wayfinders 

I think we come out of it quite well [Ed]!

Horse Theft on May Hill

Read this headline carefully. It is a bit like `Man Bites Dog` because this time the thief is the horse!

After God, there is May Hill to be worshiped from afar. Our expedition climbed her flanks, swishing through the leaves of the Autumn bounty covering her skirts until finally we met the keen north wind at her summit. We dispersed to occupy the benches overlooking magnificent views of the Severn Vale and the Welsh heartlands. Lunch was consumed and for one party there was soon the company of some magnificent horses.

A rambler takes up the story…

The luxury of a dry metal bench to sit on at the top of May Hill was most welcome for three of us to enjoy our packed lunches. A hard-boiled egg, salad rolls, cake, fruit and a box of raw sliced carrots were all removed from our rucksacks. Oblivious to the magnificent views we tucked in .... not noticing the rather quick approach of four inquisitive hungry horses. They had smelt the food and battle now commenced.

There we were. Enjoying our picnic lunch on May Hill. Along came the ponies thinking they could join in!!!!!! Did we share our picnic. No.  We laughed and shouted and tried to push them away, but we had to move because mobile phones and sleeves of fleeces (still being worn) were fair game. So in revenge the larger of the ponies decided to pinch a rucksack and run off. There was Janet chasing after said pony.   All the stuff falling out of the rucksack. Obviously didn’t taste good. Funny. All’s well that ends well and a good laugh was had by all. 

Another memorable ramble for TRC!

Bob, Janet and Mo

England's Longest Path

Ever wondered how far you could walk across England? Follow this link to find out more. Path and website designed by Bob Prince.

Melbourne

Walking holiday June 2024

There are no skyscrapers in Melbourne unless you count the bell tower of the 10th century parish church, and the only beach is occupied by a skein of Canada geese. Melbourne, Derbyshire is almost literally in the middle of England situated 10 ½ miles northeast of the point furthest from the sea which is at Church Flatts Farm (70 miles). Typical middle-england also describes the town and surrounding countryside with brick and stone cottages, stately mansions, gently rolling hills and woodland. It is a very pleasant place to ramble. 16 Thornbury Ramblers met up at the car park at Staunton Harold reservoir outside the town for our first day’s walking led by the venerable Tony Kite. Melbourne is too small to host a group as large as ours in one venue and therefore we arrived from accommodation scattered across the area. Huddled in our hoodies we listened to Tony’s plan for the day. Flaming June? 

 A light shower proved to be the only rain we encountered for the rest of the holiday. From then on things brightened up and as the sun appeared, the temperature rose to a perfect level for walking. This was a gentle walk in the grounds of Calke Abbey and proved an excellent introduction to what was to follow.

In past times the Melbourne area was home to light industries including pottery, shoe making and lace manufacture of which very few traces remain except for lime pits and limekilns used to make mortar revealed as shallow pools in the woodlands surrounding the abbey. As with much post-industrial landscape nature has returned to fill delightful pockets in between the farmer’s fields. Bird life was evidently thriving as we delighted in `forest- bathing`. As regular walkers we are well aware of the benefits to physical and mental health that membership of our club brings. It is amazing that not far away in Derby is one of the most significant industrial centres in the world where jet engines are produced by Rolls Royce. Down the road is Donnington Park which describes itself as “the Heart of British Motor Sport” and nearby is the busy East Midlands Airport, all of which are forgotten as we amble along, deep in conversation, bathed in dappled sunlight.

Calke Abbey is a National Trust property and lunch was taken on the picnic benches next to its extensive car park. We didn’t visit the house which was built upon the remains of the abbey after it was bought by the Harpur family in 1622. The house remained with the family until it was taken over by the Trust in 1982. Calke Abbey's history | Derbyshire | National Trust. We have that treat to come…

A recurrent theme amongst our ramblings in this area seems to have been cattle and after lunch we encountered a delightful herd of English Longhorns on our way to the finish of the first day’s walk back at the Staunton Harold Reservoir Café where we indulged in a welcome cuppa, cake or ice-cream.

Next day we started from the village of Ticknall which, according to the noticeboard in the village hall carpark, was once the centre of a thriving pottery industry until it was superceded by the potteries of Stoke on Trent. We saw no evidence of this as we set out on our second day’s walk. Once again, we entered the grounds of Calke Abbey and fairly close to our starting point we discovered a tunnel which had been used in the past by a horse-drawn tramway for hauling limestone from the lime-pits to the kilns.

 This figure of eight walk led us past ponds populated by swans, cygnets, grebe and herons up the hill to a raw-milk (un-pasteurised) dispenser surrounded by recycled cattle-themed metal sculptures. 

After this odd encounter we descended to the magnificent, privately owned, Staunton Harold Hall and took refreshment in the Ferrers café situated in what had once been its stableyard.

On our third and last day we were led (very competently) by Frances Bover out through the suburbs of Melbourne. We met in the square in front of the church next to Melbourne Hall. If you are ever in Melbourne, you must pay these two places a visit. The church, which describes itself as one of the first parish churches built by the Normans in England is a delight. The interior is reminiscent of its near contemporary, Durham Cathedral. In the apse there is an unusual wheel of bell ropes which is a work of art in itself, the like of which I have never seen before. I only regret not being there when they are played which must be an uplifting experience. There is also a fragment of the original wall painting to remind us that the austere stone interior was once highly decorated. Similarly, the carved capitals of the pillars hint at something more elaborate than its post-reformation façade. At the rear of Melbourne Hall there are cafes and shops occupying the outbuildings and in one of these is a small exhibition describing the history of the hall and the family that now occupies it (nice family photos).

We all know about Melbourne, it’s in Victoria, Australia, right? Queen Victoria had an obsessively protective mother, née Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld wife of the Duke of Kent. In the Machivellian atmosphere at court following the death of William IV without a male heir, Victoria’s mother and Sir George Conroy schemed to influence the course of politics and took deeply controlling measures over the heir to the throne Princess Victoria’s way of life, which they dubbed `the Kensington System`. To cut a long story short, on succession to the throne Victoria was having none of it and was rescued by her first Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne who tutored her in the art of politics and she granted him the honour of naming a town after him in the penal colony of Victoria in Australia (in 1837).

After leaving the streets of Melbourne we joined the disused railway track of the Ashby de la Zouche to Derby line for a spot of geocaching and crossed the Trent for the first time. Easy walking to the Trent and Mersey canal through little villages was followed by `coffee` on the canal side where, right on cue, a narrow boat sailed under the bridge to complete the scene. Further along the canal to our left we saw an unusual looking building, the Swarkestone Pavilion (1632) standing in a field called the Cuttle. Other than its use for leisure, no one seems to know what it was for. We watched a man fill a lock which was quite exciting (at first) and then moved on to a large garden centre where toilet opportunities delayed us.

Swarkestone is the site of an extant medieval bridge and marks the point where Bonnie Prince Charlie turned back to Scotland from his unsuccessful invasion of England (he was probably scared of the cows). We picnicked in a field penned off for horses under a grey sky at lunch time accompanied by the honking of geese on the Swarkestone sailing club lake. Thereafter we returned through fields and footpaths to a celebratory tea in the Melbourne Hall Café. Thank you Tony for this excellently arranged introduction to ‘The Heart of England ‘on yet another memorable TRC holiday.

Bob Prince

Three Sodburys

A cool, windy, February day. In Rock Street Car Park, strangers were putting on their boots which slightly confused us until we found that they were from Bristol Ramblers setting out on a walk to Littleton. When we arrived at the first Sodbury on our list there seemed to be a good number who had travelled independently and when we did the count it turned out there were 28 of us. Alan Rogers, our leader muttered to me that he had plenty to say and that it was going to be difficult to be heard by such a large number. Fortunately, our route that day had relatively few stiles which made keeping together relatively easy. The first section was across flat, open fields and proved easy walking. The wind had dried off the ground and there was little mud. We climbed the hill to Old Sodbury Church (St John the Baptist) accompanied by the tolling of the church bell summoning worshipers to Sunday service. The coffee break taken from this vantage point afforded us a splendid view out to the west and, as I tediously claim,” it’s always a good day when you can see May Hill!” which was visible sharp as a pin up to the northwest. Unfortunately, Wales was obscured by low cloud. Alan gave the first talk of his well-researched itinerary in which he explained that the Lord of the manor in Old Sodbury, David Hartley, was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and that they drafted and were co-signatories of the Treaty of Paris (1783) between the United States and Britain which settled the American War of Independence [first signature].

From there we walked further up the hill to Old Sodbury Roman Camp (Soppa’s Camp) which, blasé to our deep sense of history, we hardly took note of (oh, you know, that old thing). Actually, it’s bronze age and was refortified by the Romans, so, it goes back a bit… and then down to Little Sodbury the third of our Sodburys, where a really big part of world history was initiated, as Alan explained... Sir John Walsh Champion of King Henry the VIII at his coronation, owner of Little Sodbury manor, engaged William Tyndale as tutor to his children. Newly graduated from Cambridge, William Tyndale a cleric, theologist and linguist is believed to have been inspired in the chapel (built 1420) attached to the manor house to translate the Bible into English. Tyndale had a low opinion of many of the priesthood at the time, who were often poorly educated and barely knew the basics of the religion which they practised. He faced strong opposition to the project from the religious establishment in England and fled to the continent to do the translation which was subsequently published. Only two copies remain in England of his original Bible. His work lives on in The King James Edition, of which 90% is Tyndale’s translation.  Eventually he was betrayed and burnt at the stake for heresy. His translation of the Bible has been highly influential in its contribution to the English language and we still use many of the phrases he wrote today (see below).

We lunched in St Adeline’s Church just down the road. Much of the Victorian church was built from the stone recycled from the demolition of the chapel attached to the manor house. The church was rebuilt at the bottom of the hill because the ground on which the original was built was too hard to dig a graveyard and burials had to be carried out at Old Sodbury. Apparently, the difficult journey for the hearse in icy winter conditions led to some gruesome accidents. Something I noticed in this church, which I had never seen before, was a plaque recording that everybody serving in the Great War had returned unharmed. I’m told such places were called “the Thankful Parishes” and were sadly very unusual.

The first stile on the return journey was a difficult old stone one (nice to see, but slow going for the 20 + pensioners on the walk). From there we sailed along (almost literally), passing through the bonus Sodbury of Sodbury Common back to our start point in Chipping Sodbury. Well done Alan and thank you for your interesting and informative additions to our rambling adventures.

Tyndale’s phrases copied from Michael Stephenson’s booklet, St Adeline’s Church Little Sodbury and The Life of William Tyndale 2015.

“under the sun”, “sign of the times”, “let there be light”, “my brother’s keeper”, “fight the good fight”, “filthy lucre”,” eat, drink and be merry”, “ye of little faith”, "a man after his own heart”, “fall flat on his face”, “the land of the living”, “pour out one’s heart”, “a law unto themselves”, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”, “the powers that be”, “the salt of the earth”, “the apple of his eye”, “fleshpots”, “go the extra mile”, “the parting of the ways”.

Bob Prince

Time and tide wait for no girl...

Not all of our walks are incident free! This one started on a fabulous warm September day. We met at the Park and Ride under the Avonmouth bridge. We were routed by the side of the Avon on a path which winds its way miraculously between the river and the Portway  in seemingly in pristine countryside, although we were constantly serenaded by moving traffic from the M5, the A4 and the Severn Beach and Clifton railway. At the Lamplighters pub we were treated to a picturesque view of the village of Pill with its buildings reflected off the river. We followed the riverbank on the Severn Way past the stretch of river called the Hung Road. At the end of this section the path rises to a magnificent viewpoint eastward toward the Avon Gorge. The river was full and therefore all the more glorious than the usual muddy gutter commonly confronting walkers at this point. After passing under the railway bridge we set out across the salt marsh in the direction of the bridge at Sea Mills. It occurred to me that the tide was exceptionally high and I shouted to Mo who was leading the walk, “Have you checked the tide tables?” more as a joke than in any seriousness. We saw plenty of wildfowl and the place we were walking across seemed quite special, although I did notice that water seemed to be seeping from the river onto the path. After about half a mile it was evident that the head of our column had stopped. The path under the A4 bridge over the river Trym was under water. Mo got a `sogger` as she inched forward next to the fence. There was no way forward.

At this point it is fair to say that every other time we have passed this point and even on Mo’s walkout, this section had presented no problem. Indeed, if you look at the OS map most of the Trym river is above the `High-water mark`. However, we have recently had a Blue Moon, a rare close encounter with our moon (hence the saying). This causes exceptionally high tides. The day before our walk the tide table for Portbury indicates a High tide of 14.58m! above low water, which it indicates as minus .17m below normal sea level. The day of our walk these figures are given as a mere 14.39m and .04m respectively. We had arrived exactly at the time of the most extreme of high tides at that point on the river. Incidentally, I couldn’t work out what time that would be in relation to Portbury so we might not have been able to predict the timing of high water before we set out even if we had the information. We had no option but to return to high ground, consume the excellent cakes supplied by our leader with our coffee in celebration of her 21st? birthday and walk across the Portway rugby pitch and A4 back to the Trym bridge.

Really that was most of the story, except that I had to prevent Mo from taking a nosedive over a cliff when a fence collapsed on the Shirehampton Golf course (grabbed her by the rucksack). All in all, an interesting and ingeniously devised ramble. Except for, `once in a blue moon`… it didn’t quite work out as planned.

Bob Prince

Weymouth 2023

[A set of photographs taken by members  on this holiday is available on the Images page]

This is the best of England. A seaside town, good fish ‘n chips, rolling downland, lots of history. The TRC holiday this year was blessed with clement weather. Peter led the walks and we never got lost once!

On the first day we set out from Abbotsbury which we reached by bus. A yellow sign advertised “baby swans”. Cygnificant I thought. Maybe Ofsted should take a look at it? The later start meant we had our coffee break soon after we set out, sitting in a meadow under St Catherine’s Chapel. As we descended through a small woodland in the direction of the Swannery we passed a beautiful large plane tree. We turned off this track to climb Linton Hill giving us a magnificent view of Chesil Beach and The Fleet. In the valley we could see that a massive haymaking operation was in progress. No scythes and cider here. Thomas Hardy would have been amazed to see the gigantic mowers and large hay wagons clearing vast acres of grassland in minutes. At the end of this ridgeway we climbed to one side of an awkward stile to avoid some mud. Janet had broken her wrist on the Sunday walk before our trip and very bravely decided to come on holiday with us. Three of us helped her over without any problem. As we continued down toward The Fleet we passed through an interestingly embellished war memorial gate and shortly after had lunch beside Wyke wood which provided some welcome shade.

As we picnicked a couple passed by with their dogs which Alan made a fuss of. Remarkably, the man had one of those modern artificial legs and said they were section walking the South West Coastal Path. Down by The Fleet our view of the sea obscured by the shingle bar of Chesil Beach we saw shelduck and rooks but very few other species of bird. The land-facing side of this bar has several small boatsheds which look quite picturesque. From The Fleet we made our way inland to catch the bus back to Weymouth at Chickerell. At the top of the hill was a curious circular patch of plants with red seed heads which Pete thought was a kind of sorrel. He later identified it as Sheep's Sorrel, using the Seek app on his phone.

Day two we walked around the Portland peninsula. We avoided the three hundred foot climb by taking the bus to the top. From there the coastal path descends gradually to sea level at Portland Bill at the southern end of the `island`. At a couple of places, the cliff path had collapsed leading us to a couple of interesting diversions through the quarry lands. Portland stone was used for much of the reconstruction of London after the Great Fire. Sir Christopher Wren was MP for Weymouth and Portland 

At coffee time we stumbled on a sculpture park at Tout Quarry Tout Quarry - Wikipedia. The park was full of all sorts of carvings in various states of completion. One, a massive circular table block had a ball you could roll in a groove which produced a curious sound. It kept Alan amused for ages. Because the path diversions became challenging, a small party sought an easier path and accidently came across St Georges Church. It seems the main party missed a trick since this was well worth a visit St George's Church, Portland, Dorset | The Churches Conservation Trust (visitchurches.org.uk) .

We had lunch on the foreshore of Portland Bill in the shadow of its magnificent lighthouse (convenient for café and toilets) where we watched a crowd of gulls on the water as we ate and drank. After lunch we walked back northward passing a village of interesting looking holiday sheds. The next section was road walking, fortunately provided with a pavement. Rather than descend on the coast path it was decided that it was easier to make our way into the village of Easton and re-join the path from there. Easton has a museum which sells ice cream and we were invited into the pleasant garden at the rear to partake of a welcome refreshment. From this point on the eastern coast of the `island` the path gets wilder and a few of us were rewarded with a sighting of a seal. The climb out of this section was steep and at this point we met a large party of year six or seven school children, accompanied by teachers carrying climbing ropes. Did they know they were climbing up towards the young offender’s prison at the top of the cliff? I hope not. This daunting looking institution represents a less happy era in our history when prison sentences carried a tariff of hard labour in the quarries on Portland. This northern end of Portland also contains the formidable Verne Prison converted from the citadel defences of Portland harbour (notable former inmate, Gary Glitter). Before we got there at Fancy’s Farm, we had a surprising encounter with Wallabies. They all seemed to be asleep or dozing. On our return journey the top deck of the bus provided exciting views of Chesil beach as we descended the precipitous hill toward Weymouth. To our right (N) it was possible to see a couple of the massive concrete caissons which made up the Mulberry Harbour for the D Day landings in WW2. Fish `n` chips on Weymouth Beach for supper, an unforgettable experience to end the day. Magic!

We caught the bus to Durdle Door on the final day of our short holiday. It was gloriously sunny. Durdle Door is a natural sea arch formed in the chalk cliffs of the Dorset coast. A spectacular setting.

From there we made our way west in the direction of Weymouth. Maybe that is an understatement. The first hill was one of the steepest we have encountered on rambling club expeditions and that was followed by two more as the white cliffs rippled along the coast. We coaxed our team up and over them and naturally were rewarded by beautiful views over Weymouth Bay. At some point I’m sure I saw a pirate ship (of which, more, later). The descent was glorious, shallow and accompanied by the trill of larks. We passed Burning Cliff where on occasion, natural oil and gases catch fire. Although it was not burning as we passed, there was a strange smell quite unlike the smell of the sea or plant matter that we had experienced on the rest of our journey. We descended into Ringstead and discovered a perfectly situated café and shop at which we consumed yet more ice creams. One notable section of the path following this pleasant interlude wended its way through a jungle like area covered with moss and stunted trees. We were fortunate to have encountered it after a period of dry weather because it looked to have the potential to be very wet and muddy. After this section the vista opened out and to the north we passed the image of a horse and rider etched into the Dorset hills known as the Osmington White Horse Osmington White Horse - Wikipedia . Surprisingly, although from Weymouth this looks to be on the coast, it is in fact on a row of hills behind.

Finally we reached the back streets of Overcombe and the short cut to the seafront over the delightfully named Furzy cliffs proved the last obstacle of note. Pete is excused from blame for this steep and tricky descent since we chose it ahead of him. It ended in an intimidating looking man-made all-weather surface. In fact, it was quite grippy, but a fall would certainly have been painful. The more timid members of our party walked around this to meet the two mile long paved promenade into Weymouth. We retired to our accommodation and gathered in Weatherspoons for our final meal.

The `Pirate Ship` was the Galeon de Andalucia. Later that evening it was moored in Weymouth harbour. Galeón Andalucía - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre

Bob Prince

Walking on Water

Saturday, April the 1st 2023, was April Fool’s Day and it never stopped raining.

I bet our leader on the Sunday walk thought he’d got away with it…

Sunday the 2nd was cool and the slight rain ceased before the walk was started.

On Alan's walk to `The other Saint Arild(a)'s church he promised us an “easy flat walk”. At some point he mentioned walking on water, which seemed to me to be a religious allusion. I didn't think he meant it literally. As we drew up to the allotted parking place at the start of the walk, we passed through an ominous flood on the main road causing a major diversion to our route. Unfazed by this, Alan adapted the plan and we walked up the visibly affluent Didmarton, High Street, instead of the flooded back road. We passed a leisure area frequented by waterfowl swimming around some picnic benches.

The next section on the way up to St Arild’s, Oldbury on the Hill, required the fairly easy fording of a minor road. Despite my comic difficulties with the turnstile into the churchyard I thoroughly enjoyed my coffee break in the pews of the eponymous Church. I was slightly disappointed that no one could be persuaded to preach from the pulpit. The congregation, much refreshed, innocently progressed on the next section of the walk. On exiting The Duke of Beaufort’s woods on the Badminton estate we saw to our dismay yet another barrier to our progress. Both the road and field were flooded.

By good luck and careful steps were able to pick our way through this obstacle without getting too wet. We made our way toward Sopworth which might well have been named `Soppingwet`, given the state of the fields. What is it about this part of the Cotswolds that it has so many horses? Anybody would have thought Badminton was nearby! Having braved our way past a couple of particularly frisky equine residents we threaded through a magnificently drystone walled alleyway to take lunch in St Mary the Virgin churchyard, Sopworth.

Wiki: Doomsday Book:

Hugh holds Sopeword of William. Ælfric held it TRE, and it paid geld for 5 hides. There is land for 6 ploughs. Of this 3½ hides are in demesne, and there are 2 ploughs, and 6 slaves; and 3 villans and 5 bordars with 3 ploughs. It was worth £6; now £4.

How times have changed! You won’t get many hides for £6 in this neck of the woods nowadays. That’s more than a million% inflation since 1086.

As we exited the churchyard I overheard a conversation between the map wielders about the possibility of a stream crossing our path on the next section of the walk. Maybe I should have paid more attention.

John and I did comment on the great length of the field that formed the footpath we were strolling along after the churchyard break. On the map the stream ahead was marked as a sinuous - blue line and the lie of the land, meant it was hidden from view. As we walked along that endless field, my first reaction as it came into view was we’d forgotten to bring the canoe. - There was no way we were going to hop across the lake that confronted us - there was nothing for it but to slog back the way we came. It doesn’t matter how well you plan the route, when it comes to the day, the weather will have the last say…

The moral of this story is,” you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it leap” [a case of mixametaphortosis?].

Nevertheless, it wor `a grand day out`. Thanks Alan!

Simon Likes Maps

Recently, I discovered that a website I have used regularly called Walkhighlands, which allowed you to plot a route on an OS 1:25,000 maps throughout the UK has now restricted its service to Scotland and the far north of England. On the Forum page of that website I posted a comment to the effect that, although I regretted the restriction of area I understood that the site was aimed at Scottish clientele. I had always considered it a bit of an anomaly that you could get access to OS maps UK for free which otherwise might have cost (in the past) upwards of £200 for commercially available maps. Whilst reading through the Forum posts it was evident that a great number of us from southern England and Wales had been using the site. 

One post on the Forum came up with an unlikely sounding suggestion: https://www.simonlikesmaps.com/  I have just tested it out and have to say it is excellent.

You will need a Google account on a PC to sign in (unfortunately).

The site enables everything you would like to do when planning a route on a digital map. For the novice it allows you to plot a point to point route on a 1:25,000 OS map. I think it is a pretty useful discipline to learn even if you don’t use a GPS or routes on your mobile. You can then print the map out, save it as a JPEG image or, make it into a GPX file (Global Positioning  eXchange file). 

When you open the site it looks like this...

To plot in OS maps select, Go to the maps! and use the dropdown menu MAPS ˇ OS via Bing option. The map list seems to allow you to plot pretty much anywhere in the world.

New Route ˇ will enable you to click on the map at each point you wish to go through. Hold down the mouse key to drag the map to where you would like it centred. Points can be moved added to and deleted as you go along. You can also upload a pre-made GPX track and superimpose it on the map.

All this and it’s free!

Bob Prince

“About Simon Like Maps

Simon Likes Maps was created by someone really called Simon who really does like maps.

I wanted a simple way to draw a line on a good map that has contour detail and send it to friends as a suggestion for a walk, run, bike ride, ski tour or anything outdoors. It is primarily for the UK, but works for trips in Europe and elsewhere. The routes should be accessible on a simple mobile app that uses minimal battery to run.

So far as I know, even in 2022 there's no other way this can be done in one place. OutdoorActive (now incorporating ViewRanger) is close, but is missing some route planning features (gradient profiles, satellite spy) and has a fairly heavy mobile app.

I am a freelance web developer in New Mills (UK). I build modern web sites and apps, like this one. I am always interested in hearing about new projects, especially if they involve maps. ”

A Quick Sketch

If you took a photo of this scene from where I am sitting (on my folding stool), it would be much more stretched out, but my perception of being there meant that I drew the church closer to the Tyndall monument than the objective perspective of a camera lens.

These are earlier sketches I made from the car park on Stinchcombe Hill. They are much more subjective but still relate to what I am seeing.

The dog really was there!

Bob Prince November 22