Journey to the Isle of Avalon

Today, we travelled to the mythical Isle of Avalon, which is also the very real town of Glastonbury.

 

But before we hear more about Glastonbury, time for a brief review of earlier in the morning.

Breakfast

As today is our last day in Exmouth, as tends to happen, I woke up earlier than usual at 4.30am. So, having put hot water on my Weetabix, I named and uploaded the photos on to Flickr and drafted the blog post about yesterday and began the process of cleaning up the accommodation.

A few days ago, I mentioned the shower (or rather showers) in the house - there is one downstairs and one upstairs. Both have the kind of showerheads I've only previously come across in hotels. i.e. double heads: one static and one flexible.

Unfortunately, the only photo we have of it, doesn't show the static head, above the flexible one which you can see.

Those who have read my holiday blogs in the past, especially my travels in the USA, will know that static shower heads, very common in that country, don't suit me as they make it hard to get the flow in your armpits and under the groin. I'm not sure, without being able to do handstands, you can use these satisfactorily. So, I'm a strong supporter of the flexible heads, most common in the UK, which allows you to direct the water with more accuracy. Of course, double heads, that allow the benefit of a flow from above and a targeted flow are, to me, the best of all worlds. As already noted, I have seen these in the posher hotels, indeed they had them in Lympstone Manor, but not before in a home shower - guess what is now on my Christmas wish list (or at least on the list for when we redo the bathroom after replacing the window, which is planned to be done.   

Drew got up at 7am and had a bath, between the two of us we completed packing, washed the floor, bleached our cups - drinking tea in areas of hard water means it is the only way to remove the stains and put everything back in the order we found it.

The Sand House has been a great house in terms of location and especially because of the ease of charging the car, the two factors which led us to book it, plus the lovely shower which was a bonus. Every time we looked for something, bin bags, cleaning materials, it was all there. We have been very impressed. There are rooms in the house that we only visited when we took the first photos of the house and checked that all was well at the end, it is clearly too big for us and has crockery and cutlery for ten or more people, but while there was some wasted space, it was excellent in terms of access to Exmouth and the walks in the surrounding area and has been a real home from home.  

Leaving Exmouth

Back and ready we put the key back in the keylock and left the house at 9am. This is the route we followed (for the whole day).  

Selecting the no motorway option on the map we had a pleasant journey through Devon and Somerset countryside and towns until arriving at Glastonbury at 10.50am.

About Glastonbury

Drew, when we had been travelling down the M5 on our way to Exmouth on the first day of the holiday mentioned, as we went past the direction sign, that he had never been to Glastonbury, as it happens neither had I. So, in planning today, with a 3pm check-in at our destination it made sense to stop for a time and we agreed we couldn't think of a better place than Glastonbury.

One of the reasons Drew suggested Glastonbury is that he has recently finished two series of Bernard Cornwell books, that I read some years ago, the first about Merlin, Arthur etc and the second about an archer and his search for the Grail. This focus on the cauldron and grail is like Glastonbury itself, where Celtic (largly Welsh) traditions about the Cauldron (For more on the cauldron read this article) then transforms in a Christian tradition linked with the Chalice in which Jesus turned wine into his blood and which legend said caught the last of his life blood as it dripped from his side (for more on the Grail read this one). The fact that the Grail is linked to Joseph of Arimathea in whose tomb Jesus was buried, before his resurrection, brings the link back to Glastonbury as Joseph the local legend says came to Glastonbury after the death of Jesus with his followers and 'the blessed cup'. 

My own interest in the town had been peaked by three of my colleagues, two of whom, Robin Croft and Heather Skinner, are among my closest friends, writing an article about the way the monks promoted Glastonbury. The article called: "And did those feet? Getting medieval England “on-message”" was in the Journal of Communication Management in 2008 and its abstract is available here. It makes the point that whose relics you had and how significant they might be were key parts in successful monastic development:

Glastonbury Abbey worked in partnership with the Crown to develop a detailed promotional campaign based on powerful narratives. As a consequence, it was able to grow to become one of the wealthiest communities in the country. The Crown, meanwhile, consolidated its position by being able to engender a whole national “brand” around the mythical corpus.

They see the King Arthur 'find' at Glastonbury as part of this story, enabling the abbey to increase revenue at a time when it was in some disfavour with the crown.

Robin went on to undertake additional research which led to the book chapter in Consumption and Spirituality (2001) which is called "The Veneration of Relics at Glastonbury Abbey in the Middle Ages" which discusses the way relics become commodities in monastic houses with the 'better' ones drawing in more money.

In addition, Robin tells me that Glastonbury imported 6 feet of topsoil for their graveyard, so they could add a second story of bodies, as being buried near the relics of the saints made you more likely to rise with them when the Last Trumpet sounds (1 Corinthians 15:52). This was big business in its day.

Glastonbury

As Drew often mentioned as we strolled around the town: "It is a funny place". [Co-pilot's note: I beleive, dear readers, I may have been a little less polite!] As a centre of religious significance since Celtic times it has a strong presence of religion. With Christianity having been the dominant form for most of its known history. Indeed, the hostelry called the George Hotel and Pilgrims' Inn has been a lodging house of Christian pilgrim visitors since the 1400s and welcome peoples of all faiths and none these days.

Many of the shops on the main streets are devoted to some of the varying faiths. Like this example called Star Child, which reflects the hippy, modern pagen, wicca kind of background.

Crystals, chimes and joss sticks seem to be more common on these streets than pasties and bread. But note the pasties and sausage rolls that are for sale have a higher incidence of vegan versions than elsewhere and the bread will include spelt, einkorn and gluten free varieties. Please note I'm not being judgemental I love spelt and einkorn flours and have had some delicious vegan meals. The description is just to give a flavour of the town.

I particularly liked one image in one of the town's shops:

St. John the Baptist's Church

Our first stop in Glastonbury, right in front of the Car Park we used, was in St. John the Baptist's Church.

This imposing Church was built in 950 CE by St. Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury, subsequently Archbishop of Cantabury. The Church was enlarged by the Norman's in the 1100s and the tower built in 1475. The church was designed as a pilgrims' church with the Abbey church being used for visits, but primarily for the monks of the abbey, so a public church was needed in the town. There are 60 photos of the church, including some helpful explanatory boards, available on Flickr. Click on this link and click/swipe left to see the rest. 

Glastonbury Abbey

We arrived at the Abbey just before 11.30am and, after paying our fees, were encouraged to go on a free walking tour with a guide dressed up as a Medieval goodwife. 

The guide took us first to St. Patrick's Chapel behind the current abbey entrance. 

This chapel has some modern stained glass windows celebrating saints connected with Glastonbury - St. Jospeh of Arimathea is in the left pain, with Mary and the child Jesus above; St. Patrick's is in the next frame, with him treading on the serpents as he drove them out of Ireland. St. Dunstan is depicted in the third frame, fighting off the devil who came to Glastonbury to tempt the monks and pilgrims. The right frame depicts St. George and the dragon above and St. Brigid (note the characteristic Corn Cross in her hand. 

Along with replicas of Medieval wall art, this one depicting a number of the Abbots of Glastonbury including St. Dunstan with the Church in his hand and the last Abbot Richard Whiting who was hang drawn and quartered for not reneging on his faith.

The chapel also has a window with small pieces of rediscovered medieval glass form the abbey site.

From St. Patrick's Chapel, we went to the ruins of the Lady Chapel with its great door still retaining some of its original artwork.

It is a large space and the second image below shows how it was likely to have looked if you had arrived a tired and weary pilgrim at this great shrine which competed with Canterbury for being the greatest in England.

From the Lady chapel we were taken to the Abbot's Kitchen. Which was the only building not to lose its roof, and subsequently to decay and crumble, during the Reformation. This was due to the roof being stone, rather than Lead. Lead was a precious metal for builders, so was all taken away, whereas the Abbot's Kitchen survived and became over time, among other things, a Quaker Prayer Room.

Tour over we began to explore for ourselves and between the ruins, the monastic herb garden, the orchard and the monastic fishpond we have 111 photos of the Abbey and its grounds and museum. You can see them all on Flickr, this is the first one, you know what to do to see the rest!

The road from Glastonbury

We left Glastonbury at 1pm and headed to Trowbridge, Wiltshire

This was a little deviation from the direct route, but I'd identified an Instavolt Charging Station there and 89.3 miles into our journey it was a good point to charge the car.

The station was in a retail park, so we headed to the Costa Coffee for a coffee while we awaited the charge.

33 minutes and 17.25 kilowatts later (£9.83) we were back on the road.

We arrived at Whatley Manor, our destination for tonight, at 3.30pm ready for a rest, refresh and dinner. Details of dinner will follow in the next blog post.