Elgar Museum

On Saturday I took two of my sons and four others to a camp reunion in Worcester. I quite enjoyed last year's trip but the constant rain this year combined with one or two other things to make it not quite so hot a trip. The best thing perhaps was stumbling across the very impressive Elgar Birthplace Museum in Lower Broadheath. I'm not well up on my Elgar (1857-1934) and the following things struck me.

1. Though very much a Worcesterhsire man his parents had moved there from elsewhere

2. His dad was a piano tuner but Elgar was largely self-taught

3. He was not really famous until he was in his forties

4. He lived in 25 different places including Hampstead (Severn House has now been demolished)

5. His wife was 9 years older than he and not a Catholic by birth

6. She was in fact the grand daughter of Sunday School founder Robert Raikes (no wonder the family refuused to attend the wedding)

7. he had an excelent sense of humour evidenced in various visual jokes on display

8. He was one for fads including bicycling and chemistry at different times

9. He was very interested in gramophone records and made several recordings; he opened Abbey Road Studios in 1931

10. Despite many honours including a Lordship he thought of hismelf as an outsider (as I have remarked before this is just the way some of us feel - it was not due to his being RC, etc, I'm sure).

Worcester

I took two of my boys and 4 of 6 other young people from the church through the fog to a (CCIW) camp reunion in Worcester today. We left around 8.15 this morning and I dropped them off at the Wood Green FIEC church where they were until 6 pm. About 50 young people came there to use their excellent facilities.

As for me I spent the time in Worcester itself exploring a town I don't think I've visited before. I had a coffee first in the Caffe Nero and then did the Cathedral (described on its website as possibly the most interesting of all England’s cathedral’s although I'm not sure why) and a walk along the Severn. King John is buried in the cathedral, which stirred my interest. There was also a plaque to Elgar. One recent former bishop was descended from Thomas Charles I noted. Oswald and Wulfstan were their big stars. Cathedral life is a whole world quite outside my ken. One hopes someone is bringing the gospel to such people, surrounded as they are with so many prompts. An odd thing with me is that such a setting doesn't stir me to pray much. I think it is the lack of association in my mind - or proof of indwelling sin.

It was cold, of course, but it didn't rain. Worcester is a moderate sized town with a bit of history. Some buildings go back to Tudor times and there are plenty of Georgian ones. It was important in the Civil Wars. I didn't cross the Severn and most of the town seems to be on the north side. Quite monocultural the local accent seemed to be a cross between west country and brummie. There were plenty of Welsh accents too (even one pair speaking Welsh). They come up on coach trips for the Christmas shopping. Quite an effort had been made with lots of stalls and a fair (ferris wheel, carousel, etc). I saw men on stilts and a man juggling fire, etc. There was also a sally army brass band that stopped each time I came near for some reason. Some sort of celtic combo was performing in the street too. Along with the bells of the cathedral and the music from the fair there was quite a lot of pleasant noise.

I also did a little reading and praying and some preparation for tomorrow on the laptop and the time soon passed. We got home about 9.30 pm. What a pleasant day. God is good.