Entertaining friends' in the Cotswolds

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32789, 14 December 1971, Page 7

Entertaining friends' in the Cotswolds

(By

SYBIL M. WOODS)

BROAD CAMPDENE, (Gloucester). We have had several New Zealand friends to stay with us in our Cotswold Cottage. They have included Mrs H. G. NorIris (widow of Archdeacon Norris), who is taking a course on old china, silver, and furniture at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and her younger son, Michael, who has established a flourishing advertising business in London. Other guests have been 5 Pamela Mann, formerly of Merivale, who is now head

of the. extra-mural social welfare department at Shef- ( field University; Alex Macallen, of New Plymouth, and Anna Cottrell, of Christchurch, who are over here on working holidays; and Rebecca and Judith Chapman, of Timaru. All have arrived exclaim-1 ing at the beauty of the Cotswolds —the little villages nestling in the folds of hills; each one fitting unobtrusively into the background of stone-walled fields, ploughed lands, and wooded . crests. From our spare room our guests can lie in bed and 1 enjoy the sight of black-faced sheep cropping a hillside. In the autumn they can stroll with us up the bridle-path to pick bowls full of luscious blackberries from the hedges. Our younger son, Christopher, who is working for Reuter’s Economic News Service, and divides his time between Africa and Fleet Street, drives down from London on the fast motorway in time for a latish Saturday morning breakfast. All of them, and our many English visitors, revel in our quiet country surroundings. Yet we are by no means “buried” in our country retreat. A 20-minute drive down from the northern edge of the Cotswold uplands into the valley of the River Avon —with farms all around us, many of them orchards in this fruit-growing Vale of Evesham—and we are in Strat-ford-upon-Avon. “THEATRE-GO-ROUND” We recently took Christopher, and two friends to a performance of “Henry V,” in the Stratford Memorial .Theatre. It was a “theatre-go-round” production by the Royal Shakespeare Company. They used a minimum of costume and stage props, and no back-drops. The actors wore turtle-necked jerseys and slacks. The Archbishop of Canterbury was distinguished as such by the mere donning of a mitre and stole; Henry V by wearing a crown. The object of these productions is’ to show that Shakespearian plays can be presented with real dramatic effect all over the country in little village halls or schoolrooms. The chief requirements are Shakespeare’s incomparable words —well-spoken, evoking the mood and the scene—and a ■receptive audience willing to exercise their imagination. VALE OF EVESHAM A half-hour drive to the West through Broadway and the Vale of Evesham (Sir Waiter Nash’s country) brings us to Tewkesbury, where the Avon joins the Severn. Here you may enjoy pleasant strolling along the grass paths on the river bank, watching the Cheltenham boys out rowing; or you may walk more vigorously the three miles downstream to the tiny Saxon village of Deerhurst, with its ancient chapel and parish church. Back in Tewkesbury, there is tea to be had in fifteenth and sixteenth century tearooms or in the old mill, described by Mrs Craik in “John Halifax, Gentleman.” A few weeks ago we had driven friends over on a Saturday afternoon, and on entering the magnificent old Tewkesbury Abbey we found there was to be a special Evensong, sung by the choir of Gloucester Cathedral, to mark the eight hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Abbey on October 21, 1121 A.D. Needless to say, we stayed. The arches of the great Norman nave, and the highvaulted thirteenth century ceiling rang to boys’ clear voices singing “How Lovely are Thy Dwelling Places, Thou Lord of Hosts.” Yet they were grim reminders that respect for such shrines may never be taken for granted. Cromwellian troops once used the nave of the abbey for a dormitory, and stabled their horses in the side aisles and : transepts. BIRMINGHAM In just over an hour we can be in the heart of industrial Birmingham, as we were last week for a con-

cert by the City of Binning-: ham Choir and Orchestra. Towering above the audi-: torium were the richly ■ decorated pipes of the organ ] which was played for the first time by Mendelssohn in 1834.

Birmingham has almost (entirely rebuilt its civic centre since World War 11. Like Christchurch, it has seen the advantage of having a cultural centre near the heart of the city. Concert hall, town hall, library, art gallery and adult education centre form a close complex. An intricate under-and-over maze of roading keeps the traffic moving freely. Oxford is another city which can be reached in an hour from Broad Campden. We drove there recently by way of Woodstock, where we strolled in the grounds of Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. We lunched cheaply and comfortably in the bar of a little pub near the palace gates—hot soup, toasted sandwiches, and draught cider by a glowing fire.

In Oxford, we walked through some of the colleges, including Brasenose College, where our son Richard had followed in the footsteps of his former headmaster at Christ’s College, Mr H. R. Hornsby. In the evening, we went to a recital of sixteenth century Italian chamber music played by the Consort of Musicke, a quintet made up of two lutes, two violins, I and a viol. Other towns within an hour’s range or less are Cheltenham, Malvern, Bath, and Worcester. So we have the best of both worlds—rural, seclusion, and the intimate personal interchange of a small village, as well as the wider world with its varied interest and intellectual stimulus right on our doorstep. VISITORS We shall soon be hosts to John Cottrell, Registrar of the Diocese of Christchurch, who will be in England as a member of the world executive of the Anglican Consultative Council. David and Pam Tennant, known to many viewers of CHTV3, will be with us early in the new year on holiday from Westcott Theological College, Cambridge.

In March, our daughter, Sarah, who has been completing a thesis for an M.A. in history at the University of Canterbury, will arrive via Rome, where our elder son, Richard, is First Secretary in the New Zealand Embassy.