Pershore - County Game 5

Friday 10 August and we were off to Pershore in Worstershire for a cricket match.

The ground is part of the Pershore Sports Club.

A billiard table and table tennis table are located in the clubrooms.

The Pershore Cricket Club has been in existence since 1871.

When we arrived the covers were still on the ground and the weather was overcast.

However the players went through their normal warm up procedures

Australia batted first and were 2 for 221 at the end of the 45 overs. Tom Woods, John Stackpoole, Ian B Gibson and Stirling Hamman all retired at 40. There was a delay in play due to rain but then the weather remained fine for the rest of the day.

Ron Kasputtis (1 for 12 off 7 overs) and Tim Spear (0 for 20 off 7) opened the bowling for Australia. They were followed by Phil Smith (3 for 14 off 8) and Robin Court (2 for 10 off 8). Worcestershire ended on 8 for 92 off 45 overs.

A good effort by the Australian team.

Pershore

Pershore is a market town on the banks of the Avon River in Worcestershire. During the cricket match I spent some time exploring the local area.

Across the road from the cricket ground is Abbey Park.

The Pershore Abbey was founded in 689. In the 13th century a fire destroyed much of the abbey but it was subsequently rebuilt. There have been many alterations to the building over time.

Like so many other religious buildings we visited the abbey has impressive pillars and a wonderful ceiling.

There is a war memorial in one of the chapels.

 Outside the abbey is this sculpture carved into the remains of a tree in the park.

When I first set out to explore Pershore it was raining but within a short time it was a pleasant sunny day.

Once again there was a variety of architectural styles to be seen in the town.

The above buildings are in the street behind the abbey.

Pershore streetscapes also have many attractive and interesting buildings.

 From the cricket ground there is a good view of the Malvern Hills.

Taking a path at the back of the cricket ground leads to the Avon River.

Across the road there is a good view of the old bridge, parts of which date back to 1413.

Records show that there has been a bridge crossing the river at this location since the 11th century.

Malvern district

Wednesday 10 August
At 5.30am heard a commotion of ducks and looked out the window to see what appeared to be all the ducks scurrying from the pond across the grass under the oak tree to somewhere known only to them.

This was to be a family history day. It began with a visit to Mathon Street where Robin and his family had lived.

The next stop was Malvern College  where the Telecommunications Research Establishment  was stationed from May 1942 until the end of the war. The archivist was not at the school until Friday but we were given permission to walk around and take photos.

We located the site where a photograph in our collection was taken during the war. The door has changed but otherwise the building is the same.

We then went to the Malvern Museum of Local History . They were unable to locate their folder on TRE but had some information in one of the display rooms. We purchased a book by a scientist who had worked at TRE and then had a look around the museum displays. Pale Manor was mentioned as another TRE location so we went back to the information office where Anne told us where to find the house.

After taking a photograph of the house we then started the search for other family connections.

At Cropthorne

we visited St Michael’s Church

and found two gravestones for members of the Guise family. We could not locate the names of people that we knew but the inscriptions on many of the graves have long disappeared.

The church was opened for us to see inside and we were told that Guise was a common name in the area.
There has been a church on this site since Saxon times with the current building more than 1,000 years old. It is a beautiful church and one wall includes part of a medieval mural that was whitewashed at one time and was unable to be fully recovered.

The next stop was Broadway to look for members of the Cotterill family.

The large Anglican church is another St Michael’s but does not have a cemetery. It was built in the mid 1800s. Further down Church Street is another Anglican church, St. Eadburgha's, built in the 1200s. An earlier church was built on the site during Saxon times. We spent some time exploring the cemetery unsuccessfully for Collier gravestones.

At the information centre in town we had once again been told that the name was common to the area but the inscriptions n the older stones were often worn and / or covered in moss. We therefore took some atmospheric photos before returning to the hotel.

Hanley Swan and Malvern

Tuesday 9 August
We visited the Mersey River - impressively large - before heading south for Malvern.

On the way 10 police vans from the Lancashire constabulary passed us on the way to London to help with potential rioting and looting in the city.

We stayed at the Swan Inn at Hanley Swan,

a small village with hotel, general store, butcher and bakery. The fish van called into the pub in the afternoon.

There is an oak tree outside the hotel that was planted in the 1840s.

A duck-pond is a feature of the village.

An impressive church building, St Gabriel's Church, with cemetery is around the corner. Bell ringing practice took place at 8.15 pm .

In the afternoon we went to investigate Malvern. At the information office Robin spoke to Anne whose father worked at the same radar establishment as Robin's father during World War II. We went to check some possible locations and had a look around the town, including locating the auction rooms of Philip Serrell.