Bewdley re-visited

Last Wednesday we went to Bewdley with my parents - specifically to have some good British fish and chips - and for me some curry sauce!  The fish in New Zealand is excellent, always fresh and tasty, but they can't do chips as well as England and you just don't get curry sauce - some of the things I miss.  Unfortunately, there were roadworks when we arrived and a leak in the fish and chip shop so it was closed for an hour.  As we were starving we mistakenly decided to go to the Wetherspoon's pub instead and had their fish and chips - not the best choice as we were served half cooked fish and tasteless chips and no curry sauce!  We weren't happy, but there'll be many other opportunities over the coming months.

We visited the excellent Bewdley museum, free of charge to enter.  We recalled a post last year when we went on the steam train to Bridgenorth, talking about 'Bewdiful Bewdley' as we visited on our return journey.  We discovered on our most recent visit that Bewdley does actually mean 'beautiful place' in its Norman French place name - 'beau lieu'

 

 

Clay pipe maker in the museum - free demonstrations on how to make them.  People used to smoke tobacco through these, but they'd only last a few days then they'd be thrown away

 

 

 Some pipes were ornately decorated by their owners

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a rope making demonstration, and my dad got involved with the final process - of course we then had to purchase the rope and we have it on the boat - I don't think we'll rely on it to moor up anywhere though as it was only made from coloured wool!

 

There's a quaint cottage garden with flowers and herbs close to a great cafe.  All in all an enjoyable hour or so on a cool British summer's day.

 

We moved a short way from Glascote last night to just past Fazeley on the Coventry canal, to give Lisa a trip on the boat, and had a wonderful surprise - but more about that in the next post ...