Woolly says – After a couple of days basking in the delightful sunshine and supervising the humans at work, Alfie the Dog and I were excited to head forty minutes away from the site to meet up with Nanty Carys, Nuncle Les, Zoe and her partner for lunch. My planning also involved us arriving earlier to enable us to have a look round the small town of Upton on Severn.
Upton upon Severn is in the Malvern Hills District of Worcestershire situated on the west bank of the River Severn and is well known for regular flooding leaving the town cut off at points from everywhere else. The town is perhaps most well known for its three major music festivals, with the spring folk festival, and the summer jazz and blues festivals, Nanty Carys and Nuncle Les had been enjoying the folk offering over the bank holiday weekend. For those of you that enjoy motor racing it was also the birthplace of Nigel Mansel the British racing driver.
Having parked at the rugby club we headed straight over the road to the immensely tall tower that belongs to The Church of St Peter and St Paul. Built by Mr T Collins from Tewkesbury at an estimated cost of £12,000, it was consecrated on September 3rd 1879. Standing at the bottom I found it was hurting my neck to keep looking upwards to its immense height so wandered the exterior until we could find a way in.
Inside was cool after the sunshine with flecks of lights coming from the traditional stained glass windows. A lovely wooden screen sat below the high wooden framed ceiling.
A huge font, possibly big enough to fit me, barking boy and the human in stood covered beneath a large, flagged memorial plague.
The walls seemed full of commemorative plates, both wooden and stone.
The alter was small but with a large stained glass window to bring more light in along the window at the opposite side of the church.
We headed back out and strolled along the main town road passing some black and white properties as well as a brilliant post box topper.
A tiny alley led us to the Baptist Church which had a welcoming outside area, sadly the doors were closed and we moved on.
The green toned Memorial Hall stood on the opposite side of the road, the building was commissioned by the authority of an act of parliament as the local market hall. It was designed in the neoclassical style, built in brick and was completed in 1832. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing onto Old Street. The building was arcaded on the ground floor so that markets could be held with an assembly hall on the first floor. The assembly hall was used as courtroom for the petty sessions as well as a town hall, and there was a jail in the cellar. Today it is used by the community and no one gets jailed there anymore.
Passing lots of independent shops and different buildings we particularly liked the dinky fire station and the small garage opposite.
Just as we were heading to the river bank a cry of ‘Joooooo, Alfieeeeee’ reached my ears, Nanty Carys and Nuncle Les had arrived, after quick hugs and hello’s we agreed to meet up in a few minutes once we had checked out the river. A large cruiser was moored on the banks just down from the main bridge into the town. Until the latter half of the 20th century, the bridge at Upton was the only one across the River Severn between Worcester and Tewkesbury, the present bridge was built in 1940. Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers crossed the Severn here to win the battle of Upton before the main Battle of Worcester in the English Civil War.
Leaving the river behind we rounded a corner to take in the most famous building the town had to offer, The Pepperpot. The Pepperpot started out as the tower of Upton’s church and was a plain medieval sandstone structure topped with a spire and with buttresses at the western corners. In the 17th century the church was the scene of fighting when Royalists tried to stop Parliamentary troops crossing the nearby bridge over the Severn. In the 1750s the medieval church to the east of it was rebuilt in classical style and in 1769–70, when the spire became unsafe, the octagonal pepper-pot, copper-clad dome, and tiny openwork lantern on top were added, to make the tower look more in keeping with the rebuilt church.
It was a beautiful structure set in a lovely garden area where we rejoined the family to sit and admire both the tower and the flowering mouse/dog.
A few snaps in the bag and we headed back to the main town road to the White Lion Hotel, a 16th century coaching inn, where parts of the building date back to 1510. Reputed to have played a part in the English Civil War, where soldiers from both sides are alleged to have enjoyed the hospitality of this popular local hostelry prior to the Battle of Worcester. Today we were lucky enough to enjoy their hospitality for a wonderful lunch and catch up with everyone, its good to spend time together.