Lechlade-on-Thames - The Christmas Shop and Mild Death.

We began the walk through the churchyard of St Lawrences Church in Lechlade-on-Thames. There is a plaque to say that this is called 'Shelley's Walk' after the poet wrote 'A Summer Evening Churchyard' here.

The walk then followed a tree lined path beside a steam or ditch. The air was crowded with small flies and midges, a sign that Spring had arrived. Birds sang and could enjoy the easy pickings of so much food .

We crossed a wooden footbridge beside a screen of poplars.

Then followed the Thames Path back through St John's Lock, the highest lock on the River Thames, where a statue of Father Thames lay without the expected trident but with a plastic paddle.

The ground was soft and the driest place to walk was near the bank of the River Thames where we passed several fishermen. The spire of St Lawrences could be seen across the even land.

I wondered whether it was the same St Lawrence that I knew from Caterham Surrey. There are a number of St Lawrences: Saint Lawrence (d. 258), the Christian martyr, after whom all others are named; Saint Laurence of Canterbury (d. 619), second Archbishop of Canterbury... (wikipedia)

We walked under the footpath arch next to the Halfpenny Bridge, so called because until the town's people protested and got their way, a half penny was charged for going over the bridge.

Walking on from there, along the River Thames, we came to another wooden footbridge. Larger barges and river craft do not usually go beyond this point. We headed back to Lechlade over a path called 'The Seven Styles Walk' - here were no styles, just open gates separating small fields.

Back in Lechlade I took a picture of the Christmas Shop. It is open all year round, but was closed when we went by. The business first started in 1985, selling traditional German Christmas products. Nearby in the post office there were some knitted decorations and ornaments for sale - some of those  for Christmas. Christmas all year round could be an eccentricity of Lechlade.

We went inside St Lawrence's Church where there was an interesting painting 'Presented to Brigadier John Cooper by the congregation in gratitude for his ministry - August 2010'. We visited the Londis store where there were plenty of toilet rolls available. Abingdon has run out due to Coronavirus panic buying. Some locals had a broad Gloucestershire accent.  In the community library was an information centre where we learned more about Lechlade from the friendly volunteers. We had some excellent soup and sourdough bread at Lynwood & Co. There was a good antique shop and a hall given over to antiques. The lady at the desk was coughing so we did keep our distance.

I read Shelley's poem when I got home. It describes the coming of night in the churchyard:
...Thus solemnized and softened, death is mild
And terrorless as this serenest night...

Faringdon and Folly

Faringdon Old Town Hall has been there since the late 17th Century. It comprises one room on sturdy doric columns.

Faringdon Corn Exchange was hosting a large Country Market on the Friday we were visiting.

Faringdon seems a normal and very pleasant market town until you approach the Pump House where there is a stone diving helmet and some words that when you first read them do not make sense ... 'a man who never has an occasional flash'  ... 'of'  ... 'silliness' ... 'Mistrust'.

But start at the right place and you get 'Mistrust a man who never has an occasional flash of silliness.'

Inside the town's pump house museum there is more than an occasional flash of silliness.

There is an exhibition about Lord Berners who lived in Faringdon House. He was a composer , painter, and author. Besides writing an opera and five ballets , he composed the film music to "The Halfway House " in 1944. As an artist he staged at least three exhibitions in various London galleries. His writings included First childhood, The Camel, The Girls of Radcliff Hall, Far From the Madding War, Percy Wallingford and Mr. Pidger, Count Omega, The Romance of a Nose and A Distant Prospect. To his parties were invited many famous people we still know of to this day, such as Igor Stravinsky, Salvador Dalí, and H. G. Wells.

As well as being a composer, painter, and author, he also built the last ever major folly tower in 1935.

The museum has displays to remember how he dyed pigeons at his house in Faringdon in vibrant colours and entertained Penelope Betjeman's horse Moti to tea and painted its portrait.

He built the folly tower on the hill overlooking Faringdon.

He liked silly notices and there is a notice 'Members of the public committing suicide from this tower do so at their own risk.'

Nearby is a piano. The keys no longer play after a long time out in all weathers but you can strum the strings. Lord Berners had a small clavichord keyboard in his Rolls-Royce.

When you look about you can see that Lord Berners continues to influence the people in the town in the number of dyed pigeons and silly notices.

Pitts Rivers Museum, Oxford - Body Arts

A display of Body Arts can be found on the first floor of the Pitts Rivers Museum in Oxford.

The displays are divided into 'Temporary Arts', such as cosmetics and body painting; 'Permanent Arts', such as piercing and tattooing and body shaping; and 'Lifecycle Arts', with ornaments and dress worn at ceremonies marking: birth, puberty, marriage, adulthood, and death.

Local tattooist, Bob 'Eagle' Smith, donated some of his old equipment to the museum, including tattoo needles and a tattoo machine and inks, together with photographs of him at work in Oxford, England in the 1990s.

There were designs used by people in Nigeria to paint their bodies, using the seeds of uli plants.

Next to a variety of combs from around the world were some false eye lashes. Eylure 107 is an angled lash with a smooth, vintage finish.

A 5,300-year-old mummified body in an Austrian glacier was found with a large ear piercing, and to this day piercings are popular. From Oxford, England body piercing equipment, donated in 2001, was on display.

We may think it strange to see the cane belts used in Nagaland India to reduce the size of these men's waists but the ideal body shape continues to change. In our own culture, bodybuilding, using extreme diets and exercise; and breast enlargements, using surgical techniques, allow people to change their body form closer to their ideal.

In some places binding has been used in very young babies to permanently change the shape of skulls. In Ancient Peru people aspired to have a beautiful head shape and aimed to look a bit like the exaggerated form of the model.

Look at the museums own web site body arts to go into much more detail.