It's funny where life on Hive takes you. Last month it took me to a little town called Crewkerne about 50 miles away from me. We have many pretty little towns and villages nearby, but normally I don't get to visit most of them. Crewkerne turned out to be the exception.
Crewkerne is a very old town and there is written documentation of it from as far back as 899. The first main building I saw when I arrived was the Town Hall, situated at the centre of the town. This Grade II listed building dates back to 1742. In the past it has served all sorts of functions for the community, such as the courts, museum, library, and of course the administrative place. Today I think it is the tourist information centre, and it may have some banking services inside as a lot of the high street banks have shut down around the country due to less people using them.
There's a sign at the side of the building to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee visit to the town by our late Queen in 2012. That was when she became Queen for 60 years, and there were a lot of celebrations around the country, including the London Olympics, and the Queen made a lot of trips around the country to visit as many places as she could. Crewkerne was one of them.
I walked around the town a little, it was very quaint, and at times I could almost imagine I wasn't in modern day.
No matter how big or small English villages and towns are, you'll always find a church in it. They're normally in proportion to the size of the place. Crewkerne was quite surprising. Its church is quite large given it's village population of 7000, and an impressive one.
There has been a church at Crewkerne since the Saxon times and this particular church, the Church of Bartholomew was built in the 15/16th century, that makes it over 500 years old. Back in the old days, Crewkerne had a prosperous textile and wool industry hence having a lot of funds to build this beautiful church.
The stained glass windows were particularly impressive.
After a little walk around town, it didn't take long to be honest - the town centre wasn't that large, we headed off to lunch at the local pub called the Crooked Swan. The Crooked Swan is another old building in Crewkerne, but not as old as the church. This only dates back to the 18th century, relatively young by local standards.
We sat outside at the back courtyard, it was beautiful, and quiet, perfect for a chit chat to catch up with friends.
Oh! Did I not tell you my reason for coming to Crewkerne? My good friend Sara @sjarvie5 was here from America, how could I not come to see her! We had a lovely time catching up since the last time we met in HiveFest in Amsterdam, let's hope it won't be so long next time!
Image credit : Sara
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