Westminster - Maidstone



Early to rise, I skipped matins, but attended Mass at 7.30am, breakfast in silence after. Then we said our thank yous and farewells and headed for the Abbey. Dean John greeted us at 9am at the west door, we paused for a photo, and exchanged greetings from the Dean of Hereford. The abbey was not yet open to the public, a great chance to see the splendour of the building, we then made our way via the sanctuary to the shine of St Edward. I'd mentioned to Jeffry that I hope we had chance to see the great 13th century sanctuary pavement now being restored. Well I got my wish, we actually stood on it, I had great conversations with the head of conservation and had a completely breathtaking site of the pavement at close quarters. The shrine of Edward is just behind the high altar. Here we paused, Dean John led us in prayer, thanking God for Pilgrimage and praying that we may as a church be willing to grow as he would have us do. A very poignant moment, particularly with Ludlow in mind.


We also stumbled across an old friend who was head verger when I studied the organ at Bristol Cathedral as a boy, Martin is now Head Verger at the Abbey, and looking very well! We also checked out Housman's memorial, so many enquiries from torists to Ludlow; it is only a memorial at the Abbey, he is buried at Ludlow.

A quick coffee with Ellie, Jeffry's daughter, as well as a trip to Watts to buy new altar linens, oh how the sacristan will be pleased. We also had a long discussion with one of Watts staff about the Ludlow altar frontals, he identified many of the fabrics, their designers and manufacturer's and we managed to focus some approximate dates.

We left at about 11 and headed for Blackheath, gosh there was a lot of traffic. I then lost the a20 and Jeffry for a while, a phone call to Peter and I was back on track. The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful, arrived in Maidenhead about 5, a long journey.

Following the advice of a great chap in Westminster bike shop, I purchased some white spirit and degreased my chain and gears, which were full of gunk. I found a hand car wash and these really enthusiastic guys from Kurdistan, scrubbed it clean and jet washed all the gunk off. I adjusted gears, applied lubricant and all was well of the last leg. The guys refused to charge me, but I insisted they have something, they had a touching generosity.


I know it's naughty, but we had fish n chips in a classic local family fish restaurant; my excuse I needed the salt, Jeff's he couldn't resist the puddings, well it was good!