I
have come into Tewkesbury to see it festooned with medieval banners
and ablaze with heraldic emblems. And, it must be said, I saw
a fair number of noble knights propping up its ancient bars after
a hard clay of battle in the fields around. Tewkesbury is a page
from Shakespeare
 It
was in Tewkesbury that Queen Margaret saw her young son, the
grandson of Henry V of Agincourt, cut to pieces in battle. Conspiracy
theorists have him murdered in cold blood in the town. His saintly
father Henry VI was, of course, murdered in the Tower. Even the
most beautiful Abbey Church of Tewkesbury was stained in blood
as the army of the White Rose trapped and destroyed the army
of the Red Rose. Each year the town attracts a fervent army of
fiery knights and an audience of many thousands to its reenactment
of the battle. Each year the town comes alive like Venice at
the Carnival.
So much of the beautiful medieval
town stands that it should rival Bruges, and be, on every holiday
itinerary. A certain amount of "tweaking about' has befallen
the ancient half-timbered buildings of Tewkesbury in the last
500 years. The 18th century provided the town with some nice
face-lifts and sets of sash windows, but if you wander down the
atmospheric alleys you can expect the ghost of a cavalier to
be jostling the ghost of a Dickens character out of the way,
and the ghost of a monk cuffing them for the row.
Charles Dickens followed Shakespeare
in putting Tewkesbury on the map. Mr. Pickwick ate very well
at the Hop Pole. "A Portrait of Elmbury' is by far the best account
of Tewkesbury when its web of alleys were crowded by a somewhat
comic crew of destitute rogues. I cannot think why the BBC has
not dramatised this gorgeous little book. Today, the alleys are
much quieter and most danger comes from a hanging basket or two.
Tewkesbury is, of course, a watery
town. When the floods come it can seem an island. The Severn
and Avon meet at Tewkesbury. When I kept my boat at the superb
Marina, I could see the huge Abbey from the river and it was
every bit as impressive as seeing the great Cathedral of Ely
from the Ouse. When you come down from Upton-on-Severn the water-gate
into Tewkesbury is the splendid iron-bridge of Thomas Telford.
176 feet of pioneering design. To come in to Tewkesbury from
the water is a great treat, you see the towering mills, granaries
and half timbered houses and feel in touch with a way of life
sharply contrasting to our own digital age.
(The
Prince Rudolphus Von Furstenberg, for GlosCounty, 1999) |
