Tewkesbury Abbey

Tewkesbury Abbey may look like a Cathedral but it is actually one of the largest parish churches in the country. This building is over 900 years old, although a church has been on the site for over 1,200 years.

The Abbey, or The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, to give it its proper name is a lovely building with lots of interesting things to see inside. As usual with churches it has some beautiful stained glass windows. The below example, hardly traditional, really caught my eye. It was designed and made by Tom Denny in 2002 in order to mark the 900th anniversary of the Benedictine Order coming to the Abbey.

But there are of course more traditional windows on display, such as the below beautiful example:

The Abbey also holds some interesting historical pieces such as the Milton Organ, below. Originally made for Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1631, it spent some time in the Chapel at Hampton Court Palace, before finding its home at the Abbey around 1736 and having supposedly been played by the poet John Milton.

The Abbey is also the site of the remains of George, Duke of Clarence and his wife Isabella Neville, in a vault in the only part of the Abbey which is underground. It is under a grate in the floor (which I didn’t bother photographing).