Bright Spot

Malvern continued to charm us. Working gaslights in the churchyard (electronically ingited at sunset - a thought-provoking twist) might have been an inspiration for C S Lewis. A display in the church thinks so: a gas-lamp, a wardrobe and a carved lion's head - a witch was a bridge too far, I suppose

The churchyard also has a mysterious tall brick chimney that dominates the view west, but remains completely unremarked on any guide or web site I can find - like a guilty family secret hiding in plain sight

The interior of the huge church building reveals a symphony of stained glass - much of it over 600 years old, but some recent, inventive and interesting. Medieval tiles, medieval misericords with carved grotesques worn smooth by 20 generations of choristers. The central aisle is supported by a dozen of these Norman columns, worthy of an oil rig, undaunted by another thousand years. And for us, on this day, they carried this display of filtered spring sunlight. A place and a moment to think about the ebb and flow of empires