Wantage - Part 2

For the pictures taken around the centre of Wantage see Part 1

Just beyond the Church of St Peter and St Paul is The Betjeman Millennium Park in Wantage. Sir John Betjeman, CBE;  (28 August 1906 – 19 May 1984) was an English poet, writer and broadcaster, who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack". He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture. Starting his career as a journalist, he ended it as one of the most popular British Poets' Laureate to date and a much-loved figure on British television.  There is so much history connected to Betjeman and for those interested I suggest they take a look at
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Betjeman

John Betjeman lived in Wantage for many years and wrote a number of poems about the town and the surrounding areas including "Wantage Bells" and "On Leaving Wantage". In the ringing chamber of the church tower is a copy of "Wantage Bells", written in his own hand. It is said that he wrote it for the wedding of his daughter Candida, during which the bells were rung.

The Plaque at the entrance to the park

He also wrote a little-known short historical article describing Wantage Parish Church. He finishes the piece with a plea for donations to help with the upkeep of the fabric of the church. Click HERE to read the article.

WANTAGE BELLS
http://www.wantagebetjeman.com/poem_wantage_bells.htm
Now with the bells through the apple bloom
Sunday-ly sounding
And the prayers of the nuns in their chapel gloom
Us all surrounding,
Where the brook flows
Brick walls of rose
Send on the motionless meadow the bell notes rebounding.

Wall flowers are bright in their beds
And their scent all pervading,
Withered are primroses heads
And the hyacinth fading
But flowers by the score
Multitudes more
Weed flowers and seed flowers and mead flowers our paths are invading. 

Where are the words to express
Such a reckless bestowing?
The voices of birds utter less
Than the thanks we are owing,
Bell notes alone
Ring praise of their own
As clear as the weed-waving brook and as evenly flowing.

Autumn in the park



The leafy path I walked along

to reach Letcombe Brook that runs along one side of the park

 

and under the bridge where the ducks swim, and where the bridge crosses over to Betjeman Lane which leads back up to the church of St Peter and St Paul.

At the back of the church is Mill Street, which runs down the hill to the old Wessex Mill. There, flour is different. It has been milled using wheat grown locally around the mill; you will find the names of the farms on the back of every bag. Above all, it is milled to produce top quality bread time after time.  It is used by over 150 craft bakers and is available to the public through over 500 farm shops, specialist food shops and independent food stores. You will not find it on the large supermarket shelf. It is also available in Dubai, Hong Kong, Hungary and St Helena.

If you are into sourdough and breadmaking, then try the bakery course in Wantage. It includes a tour of the mill.

The bakery is run by food writer William Black, whose passion for baking keeps him from self destruction whilst working through the night.

However, on days off, he will enthusiastically talk bread and extol the virtues of wild yeasts, pre ferments and sponges, while showing you how to make some of the great breads of Europe, and putting them firmly in their own cultural context.

For further history  and recipes see http://www.wessexmill.co.uk/index.html

On market day Wantage is a hive of activity

And last but certainly not least,  the village of Grove, which is on the northern edge of Wantage,  not only includes the Williams Formula 1 motor racing factory, but provides the dramatic sight of a De Havilland Venom jet plane in full flight.  It is a  memory of the Grove military airfield, which was built in 1941.  Little of the original airfield has survived and the land was returned to agricultural use after WWII.  There are a couple of ghost stories attached to the airfield; apparently a ghostly figure in flying goggles and oxygen mask has been seen a number of times!  Perhaps I should take a trip up to the De Havilland at night and see just what goes on there:-)

De Havilland Venom -This is my own photograph

See http://www.wantage.com/museum/Local_History/Grove%20Airfield.pdf for further information on the airfield.

The historic small town of Wantage in Oxfordshire UK. Part 1

As  I promised that I would post at least once a month on places in the UK while I am here, I took quite a lot of pictures of the beautiful small town of Wantage in Oxfordshire the other day. There is quite a bit of historic interest here, so I will stretch the account over two, or maybe three, posts.

The village name could possibly be an early Celtic word, something like Gwynedd-ing, or 'White Hills Place' referring to the Berkshire Downs, just south of the village. Alternatively, it could have have referred to two rivers (the Letcombe Brook and a second parallel one, now defunct), so there seems little reason to doubt the standard interpretation of it being Saxon for 'Waning River'. Wantage Church was a Saxon Minster and the Saxon Kings had a Palace here. King Aethelred the Unready drew up the 'Wantage Code' of laws when the Witan (early court) met there in AD 995. King Alfred the Great (of "burning the cakes" fame) was born there in AD 847. His statue, by Count Gleichen, has stood in the market place since 1877. Wantage is thus known to the literary World as 'Alfredston'. Thomas Hardy sent Jude the Obscure here as an apprentice stone-cutter.  For more history of the town see http://www.berkshirehistory.com/villages/wantage.html

King Alfred the Great

Written at the base of the statue

The site on which the parish of Wantage stands is a very ancient one. It is known from the will of a certain Lady Wynflaed that there was a church there as early as AD 950; and it seems likely that King Alfred was christened in the same building just over a hundred years earlier.

The present building is huge, indicating the town’s great importance as the market centre of the Vale of the White Horse. The nave and base of the tower in the present structure date from the the early 13th century, but the remainder was much altered over the next two hundred years. It is cruciform in plan, with a chunky central tower. The interior seems very light and modern, yet houses some ancient treasures. There are remnants of medieval glass near the entrance in the south transept: saints, including Stephen with his martyrial stones. The nave, to the left , has wall monuments, a 15th century hammer-beam roof on its lively corbel faces and a magnificent dominating organ built in 1997. Going forward, the central crossing acts as a kind of meeting space between nave, quire and small chapels off the transepts. Here, we find, on the vast pillars, a number of tiny crusader crosses, carved by soldiers going to the Middle East to fight in the Crusades. Were they to pray for their safe return or to blunt their swords when they got back? 

For more information see http://www.berkshirehistory.com/churches/wantage.html

Wantage Church

There was a service in progress when I was there but I managed to take this photo from the door with the flash off.

View inside the Church

Shops around the Market Square with the Church in the background.




See HERE for more Information on the Baptists of Wantage (also larger print!)



Wantage Baptist Church

The Bell Inn, and note the French bread shop to the left of the picture - Le Petit Pain



Rowan tree - a couple of days after taking this photo, I drove past and saw that the leaves had all departed but the berries were still there and the birds were having a feast.



The homes just beyond the Rowan Tree