5/7 left early, discovered Ombersley, Ludlow, beer tasting,

It's Saturday, May 8th and we left London yesterday at 6:45 AM for our 3 day weekend in Ludlow at the Beer, Bangers (that's sausage to us) and Bread Festival.  I had spotted an ad for this festival back in January in one of the British magazines I get and since we knew we were going to go on this trip I went ahead and made a reservation at a B&B here.  John was a bit hesitant about this trip being three months long but when I told him about this festival, it kind of swayed his feelings a bit! Also, I found out while here that this B&B had been booked for months as had been most in town.  So I'm glad we made our reseervations then!

Ludlow is about 3 hours from London and our English GPS system that we brought with us took us off the major highway (the M40 - M for motorway which is a 6 lane highway) onto A439 (A being a 4 lane divided highway and sometimes a two lane) about halfway through the trip.  After awhile we were on the A4133 and when you get into 4 numbers you are now on narrower two lane roads.  In fact, sometimes two lanes is questionable!  (And then there are the B roads with 4 numbers but we won't get into that!)  While going around one of the many roundabouts (which is their solution for two or more roads converging in one spot - much more efficient than ours, I think) I happened to glance down the first road on the left and saw a small village that appeared to be all black and white timber framed houses which usually indicates Tudor period architecture (1400s, 1500's,  early 1600's).  I got ALL excited and insisted John find a place to turn around and go back - not always an easy thing to do on an English country road!  And since I had already had him turn around once before about 30 minutes earlier for something else, I wasn't sure about his enthusiasm for this idea but I was so excited, he really had no choice!  Well, we found a little gem when we found the village of Ombersley.  Sure enough, it was Tudor period.

We love to explore the churches so we went into the church yard where we saw an orange MGBGT  parked.  Now since we own an MG Roadster and we used to own a BGT, we easily spot these when we see them and we had seen this one when we were going around the roundabout on the return.  Inside the church were four of the most gracious "little old" ladies and one gentleman who were dusting the pews and choir area getting ready for Sunday church.  One of these "little old' ladies was the driver of  the MGBGT!  They were delighted that we were visiting and stopped work to chat and tell us wonderful stories about the church and village.  The church was built in 1862 after the Napoleonic wars when Parliament granted all the churches money to rebuild if they needed to (remember - the state supports the church here) so Ombersley took advantage of this since their original church which dated from about 300-400 years earlier was a bit in disarray.  In fact, what is left of it - the narthex - is now the family mausoleum for the Sandys family, the lord and lady of the manor's family.  We could only peek through the key hole of that later!

The women were so friendly - just as we have found almost all the English to be.  One of them asked if we would join them, they would make some coffee.  We politely declined mentioning our schedule.  We then began to explore the church.  When it was built, someone (I forgot who they said) insisted that each family have it's own pew.  Each pew was surrounded by a paneled wooden "fence" and had it's own door into the space.  On each pew was an embroidered piece of thick fabric and on the floor 3-4 matching kneelers.  On EACH pew!  I asked about that and was told that one women organized that for decades, well into her nineties, until each pew had a set!

Also, the Lord and Lady's pew was in a corner also behind wooden walls and with a private entrance.  I was about 6x7 feet with it's own corner fireplace!!  Right now the wheel chairs are being stored in it.  I don't think that indicates that they don't come to church.  Since the minister is on a rotation and only comes every four weeks, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say its temporary storage!

A  few minutes later, the lady who invited us for coffee said they would love to have us come over to the house for tea.  Again we graciously declined.   We left and  after a stroll through the cemetery, it was time to move on.  I think if we had stayed longer our new BFF would have asked us to spend the night!

An hour later, we had found our B&B, driven through Ludlow which is even more Tudor period (a lot later covered over in the Georgian period and now being rediscovered hidden under all their plaster) with a wonderful market square and castle, one of the best preserved ruins we have ever seen.  With a little imagination, you could really imagine how the people lived in them.  John took this shot looking down into some of the rooms.

It still has one occupant, though, and as we all went cautiously up and down the darkened circular stairs, we would pass the word - "Watch out for the nesting pigeon."  Don't step on the pigeon!"  We were all very concerned and she must have been terrified, but she did not move at all!!