…..like the rum ad claims, and there may be a little of him in the cemetery I visited this afternoon. Today is Thursday and I’ve almost finished the third of four weeks over here. This has been another good group to work with and they have gone out of their way to show me this area. After work today I returned to the hotel, changed clothes, and drove back to Uphill Village with the old Norman church. Again the weather was perfect and I climbed the hill and took some more photos. I’ve been told it’s rumored, but not verified, that Sir Henry Morgan, the infamous pirate, privateer, and rum entrepreneur, is buried in the church cemetery. The reputed stone, however, has long been deteriorated and nobody really knows for sure if the story is true. I’ve marked it with a red circle on the photo to the left. In the photo look to the left side and the roof is missing. This dates back to the period of the Dissolution of the Monasteries which took place in the mid-1500s when Henry VIII confiscated the Catholic properties in England, Wales and Ireland. At that time Parliament made 
him the Supreme Head of the Church of England and the Dissolution edict was a direct challenge to the church in Rome. Because the churches were so solidly built and difficult to tear down, he ordered the roofs removed which resulted in the destruction of the interiors. As the political tides changed back and forth over the centuries, many churches rebuilt the roofs and part of this church did so but left the other half uncovered as an open-air entrance to the chapel.
After visiting the church again I walked back down the hill and wandered around the village for a while. There are stone structures everywhere—fences, buildings, bridges, t
unnels—and that’s due to the fact that until recently there was a quarry here. If you look at the photos you’ll notice the granite is very dark, almost blue. The closer you get to Wales (which is just across the bay) the bluer the stone becomes. Welch blue granite is considered excellent stone for construction. In fact, some of the huge stones at Stonehenge have been tested and verified to have been transported nearly 240 miles from Wales to their present location. Again, nobody knows how. Maybe aliens from outer space really did build Stonehenge. Here, though, almost everything is built of
stone--sidewalks, walls, buildings, the schools, churches, the post office--and since they don't "wear out," many of these buildings are very old and still very servicable.
After wandering around taking pictures I stopped at another old pub called The Dolphin. I really have a “thing” about old pubs and this was another really neat one. I’ve put some photos of pubs on the right—you can click on them to enlarge the photos. The UK recently banned smoking in pubs and it’s created havoc with a national institution. Now the pubs are cleaner on the inside but since most drinkers also smoke, these beautiful old
buildings have put picnic tables around them on the outside for the smokers and it really spoils the ambiance. Because of the constant rain, some pubs have put up shelters behind with the cheap corrugated plastic that looks like something out of West Virginia. It’s the “sports” or “proper” pubs that got hit the hardest with the smoking ban. As one of my students at Chelmsford told me last week, once the smoke cleared out of “proper” pubs they all smelled like urine and body odor. Everybody preferred the smoky atmos
phere.
This one was built on the slope of the hill there were at least six floor levels in the building creating a maze of stairways to various dining areas. Having satisfied my desire for a ploughman’s lunch earlier, I tried a second dish I’d wanted….fish and chips. When I was a student here, it was common for students without money to subsist on fish and chips. Unfortunately the fish and chips industry is quickly disappearing in Britain also. The cost of fishing, and therefore the cost of North Sea cod, has skyrocketed and many of the sidewalk restaurants are actually using previously
frozen fish from Asia. A true cod fish and chips dinner is extremely expensive now and the one I had tonight was ok but nothing special—and it was expensive.
him the Supreme Head of the Church of England and the Dissolution edict was a direct challenge to the church in Rome. Because the churches were so solidly built and difficult to tear down, he ordered the roofs removed which resulted in the destruction of the interiors. As the political tides changed back and forth over the centuries, many churches rebuilt the roofs and part of this church did so but left the other half uncovered as an open-air entrance to the chapel.After visiting the church again I walked back down the hill and wandered around the village for a while. There are stone structures everywhere—fences, buildings, bridges, t
unnels—and that’s due to the fact that until recently there was a quarry here. If you look at the photos you’ll notice the granite is very dark, almost blue. The closer you get to Wales (which is just across the bay) the bluer the stone becomes. Welch blue granite is considered excellent stone for construction. In fact, some of the huge stones at Stonehenge have been tested and verified to have been transported nearly 240 miles from Wales to their present location. Again, nobody knows how. Maybe aliens from outer space really did build Stonehenge. Here, though, almost everything is built of
stone--sidewalks, walls, buildings, the schools, churches, the post office--and since they don't "wear out," many of these buildings are very old and still very servicable.After wandering around taking pictures I stopped at another old pub called The Dolphin. I really have a “thing” about old pubs and this was another really neat one. I’ve put some photos of pubs on the right—you can click on them to enlarge the photos. The UK recently banned smoking in pubs and it’s created havoc with a national institution. Now the pubs are cleaner on the inside but since most drinkers also smoke, these beautiful old
buildings have put picnic tables around them on the outside for the smokers and it really spoils the ambiance. Because of the constant rain, some pubs have put up shelters behind with the cheap corrugated plastic that looks like something out of West Virginia. It’s the “sports” or “proper” pubs that got hit the hardest with the smoking ban. As one of my students at Chelmsford told me last week, once the smoke cleared out of “proper” pubs they all smelled like urine and body odor. Everybody preferred the smoky atmos
phere.This one was built on the slope of the hill there were at least six floor levels in the building creating a maze of stairways to various dining areas. Having satisfied my desire for a ploughman’s lunch earlier, I tried a second dish I’d wanted….fish and chips. When I was a student here, it was common for students without money to subsist on fish and chips. Unfortunately the fish and chips industry is quickly disappearing in Britain also. The cost of fishing, and therefore the cost of North Sea cod, has skyrocketed and many of the sidewalk restaurants are actually using previously
frozen fish from Asia. A true cod fish and chips dinner is extremely expensive now and the one I had tonight was ok but nothing special—and it was expensive. 
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