Saturday, December 01, 2012
Monkweamouth. Glass and St Peter's Church
Having walked along the River Wear, we stopped at The National Glass Centre - a mixture of museum, studios and galleries.
We played in front of some crazy mirrors.
There was much to learn.......but of course, we played!
We spent a while with a man talking us through the process of making some Christmas tree danglers.
First he heats a small clear glass rod until it is red hot.
He adds melted coloured glass in thin vertical lines and then turns it so that it coils round.
Doing the twist.
Making a hook.
I bought two finished danglers.
They can hang with the glass decorations that we made ourselves at Nymans last year.
We spent a while admiring all sorts of other exhibits.
I particularly liked the circular little "camp" made of small glass bricks.
As we began to go downstairs, I was reminded how close we were to the river.
And we could see the river from the roof, too. Windy up there, it was.
Also we could see through the roof down the three storeys to the ground floor area below.
Time for some warmth and a sit down.....and some lunch.
We walked the short distance to St Peter's church, first built in 674 by Benedict Biscop. A small part of that building remains.
The venerable Bede was brought this church at the age of 7 to study to be a monk.
The base of the tower is 1300 years old - and the tower itself is almost as old.
But first - lunch, in the church hall.
Good home cooked food and hot drinks.
Through the Saxon door way.
The building through the door was restored very thoroughly by the Victorians (as they did) in the 1870s.
Bill rings the single bell in the tower.
The font was made from black marble from Italy - full of fossils.
Looking back to the Saxon door.
We enjoyed our visit - chatting with Phyl, one of the parisioners who guided us around telling us history and pointing out things of interest.
I must just finish with a note to family and friends who read my blog regularly. There are 2 blogs today and I posted them not as I intended. I presume you will find the other one.
We played in front of some crazy mirrors.
There was much to learn.......but of course, we played!
We spent a while with a man talking us through the process of making some Christmas tree danglers.
He adds melted coloured glass in thin vertical lines and then turns it so that it coils round.
Doing the twist.
Making a hook.
I bought two finished danglers.
They can hang with the glass decorations that we made ourselves at Nymans last year.
We spent a while admiring all sorts of other exhibits.
I particularly liked the circular little "camp" made of small glass bricks.
As we began to go downstairs, I was reminded how close we were to the river.
And we could see the river from the roof, too. Windy up there, it was.
Also we could see through the roof down the three storeys to the ground floor area below.
Time for some warmth and a sit down.....and some lunch.
We walked the short distance to St Peter's church, first built in 674 by Benedict Biscop. A small part of that building remains.
The venerable Bede was brought this church at the age of 7 to study to be a monk.
The base of the tower is 1300 years old - and the tower itself is almost as old.
But first - lunch, in the church hall.
Good home cooked food and hot drinks.
Through the Saxon door way.
The building through the door was restored very thoroughly by the Victorians (as they did) in the 1870s.
Bill rings the single bell in the tower.
The font was made from black marble from Italy - full of fossils.
We enjoyed our visit - chatting with Phyl, one of the parisioners who guided us around telling us history and pointing out things of interest.
I must just finish with a note to family and friends who read my blog regularly. There are 2 blogs today and I posted them not as I intended. I presume you will find the other one.
