Abbey Flood

Fabulous sunny morning and thought I would check out Tewkesbury Abbey today and see if the water levels had receded.

I'd seen another photographer yesterday standing in the middle of some flooded sports pitches and wondered if I could get onto them too. Checked out a map to find a vantage point.

Slightly stunned having walked through the cemetery and looked down to the rugby pitch seeing 2 men painting white lines for a game! Amazing how fast the water suddenly disappears.

All the shots show the south west of the Abbey. On the left the massive and fabulous 65 foot high Norman arch of the west window holds glass restored in the Victorian era. Directly ahead there is the south transept and to the right you have the ambulatory off which are the tombs of the earlier abbots. One tomb houses Abbot Alan who died in 1202 and who used to be Prior of Canterbury. It is his first hand account of the martyrdom of Thomas Beckett that is in the British Library and from which we get most of the details of the event.

Had to go with the reflection shot as I did like the colour here especially in the sun!