Stepping Back in Time

I just got back from Cheltenham after a long, beery weekend there. The sun shone too and, apart from two dreadful hours watching Cheltenham Town dismantle Northampton Town in the match on Saturday, all was pretty perfect.

I also was taken somewhere new. Somewhere I did not expect to be so interesting and somewhere which had to be written about here.

Deerhurst. I know, you've never heard of the place. That's because it's a small village on the River Severn between Cheltenham and Tewkesbury. It's not a particularly remarkable place except that there's a Saxon church there. Now normally, I would try to stifle a yawn, when the conversation turned to churches of the Saxon variety. but this one was truly amazing. Not just the fact that the church really did date back to the 8th century and that various Danish, Viking and Saxon lords and kings had made the place their home. And not because there's a massive limestone font, which dates right back to the dawn of civilisation and probably should be behind glass in a museum, so that people like me don't stroke it too much. It's quite simply a beautiful, well-preserved snapshot of an age, which we know so little about. And not crowded with tourists either.

Then there's the much smaller church nearby named after someone called Odda. It's famous because a dedication stone was discovered here in an orchard nearby in 1675, which tells the tale of Earl Odda and his instructions to build this chapel for the 'soul' of his brother, Aelfric, who died there. It's an amazing place and well worth a visit.

It's all totally free to see and the car park costs just 50p for the whole day. Truly stepping back in time. To top it all, there's a 'goblin' tree nearby, which my brother enjoyed climbing through. I declined the offer to follow, fearing that my embarrassing girth would trap me inside with the goblin.