Firstly, apologies for the late posting of this blog, I haven't had the energy or focus to have posted this when I said I would... anyhow let's get going!
Believe me when I say this... Wells is a gorgeous city.
It has the right to be called England's smallest city because of the fascinating, awe inspiring and beautiful 13th Century cathedral held within the centre.
I have visited twice since living in Shepton Mallet and will be going again when my lovely best friend comes to visit for a few days this coming week and I'm so excited to take her!
Our first visit was when my husband and I decided we needed to go out for the day. This was on 26th August. So we headed on a walk to the bus stop by Tesco and had a bit of time to spare so of course we picked up some sweets for the road!
The road leading up to Wells on the bus was gorgeous, in the distance we could see the cathedral standing out in the blazing blue skies. We came off in town by about 11.45 and had a little walk round the town first up and down the high street to see what shops and cafe's were around. We found a nice little art shop called Cinnamon Corner and we popped in to have a look. They have a lovely range of handmade gifts, decorative ornaments and figures and beautiful pieces of artwork.
Soon enough we were hungry and hot enough to need to sit down to have something to eat. So we opted for a local café and stumbled upon this lovely little place called Pickwick's Country Kitchen.
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| Drink wise I opted for a cappuccino while my husband went for a ginger beer. |
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| It felt very vintage and countryside which I thought was very apt for the Somerset lifestyle |
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| Lunchtime! Salmon and cream cheese bagel for me and ham and cheese panini for the hubby |
It was a lovely lunch and we then went for a walk up to the Cathedral to have a look at the outside as we didn't quite fancy popping in as we would be having my husband's Dad and Step-Mum coming to visit and thought it better we wait to explore it with them. So we explored the outside instead as it was such a beautiful day.
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| Look how stunning and grand the front entrance is! |
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| And this was the side. |
It was quite hot in the sun and I was started to feel a bit unwell so we headed back home but eager to explore more on the next visit... which only happened to be 2 days later!
Our 2nd visit however did not provide such exceptional weather as the first time. It was the complete opposite. It started fairly lightly just drizzling on our way there, before it let rip at lunchtime in full on deluge of rain. We were hoping to go around the Bishop's Palace and Garden's but the weather didn't really hold out so we only ended up walking around the outside of it via the moat.
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| Entrance to the Palace |
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| Stunning designs in the ceiling within the entrance archway |
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| The Moat |
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| Another view of the moat |
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| And another view, even on a rainy day it's still so beautiful. |
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| This beautiful mosaic art work is the Worminster Dragon. This is a special piece of work deisnged by Somerset Artist Kate Rattay. She enlisted the help of many pupils from a variety of schools in Wells to make the tiles for this mosaic. |
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| The story itself is quite intriguing. |
For more information on this you can visit:
Artist- Blog:
https://katerattray.wordpress.com/ Website-
http://www.rattraymosaics.co.uk/about/
Simple breakdown of the story-
http://primary.naace.co.uk/Paddington/schools/Wells/Dragon.html
Now we come to the beauty of the Cathedral... we escaped into the Cathedral because the rai had become so heavy and it was getting a bit cold. So here are some of the stunning photos I took from inside:
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| Beautiful and intricate detail but you can see where it has weathered in places |
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| After an original tower showed huge cracks and wasn't stable enough, the solution was this stunning structure known as scissor arches constructed by mason William Joy between 1338-1348. |
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| The splendid Jesse Window dated from around 1340 and still fairly intact however is was noted to be deteriorating so conservation became crucial and solutions were made from 2011-2014 to keep it at it's best. |
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| Intricate decoration on the ceiling |
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| And again |
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| Add caption |
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| The Clock- Said to be the 2nd oldest clock mechanism in Britain! |
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| The clock face shows the universe with the Sun and Moon revolving around a fixed Earth. |
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| There are 2 jousting knights here which spin round above the clock at every quarter of the hour |
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| The knights are accompanied by the Quarter Jack here who rings in the quarters with a click of his heels |
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In the Courtyard looking up to the Bell Tower
Thus ends this blog for now, as I said we will be visiting again soon and I hope if you get the chance to visit Wells you should, it has more to offer in the surrounding areas too but with the flowers in bloom on the streets too it really is a city to lift your spirits.
Hopefully will have another blog up soon, maybe about Shepton Mallet itself or any other events or visits to places we go.
Until next time! Love where you live and live to love!
Christine x
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