We visited the town of Dursley today on one of our jaunts. We’d never been there before but someone had mentioned it to us and we thought we would go on a little tootle and explore. Dursley is north of Bristol and south of Gloucester and we were surprised that it was nestled among hills which looked like hills – the sort of hill-shaped hill a child might draw. The major hill nearby, which towers (or lowers if I were writing a creepy story) is Stinchcombe Hill – there’s a village of Stinchcombe and I’ve discovered that Evelyn Waugh lived there for many years during which he wrote some of his most well-known books. I used to read a lot of Waugh when I was young, maybe I should go back and reread his work and see what I think of it now.
To return to Dursley, we used to pass it every couple of weeks or so when we travelled from the north to Somerset before the M5 was constructed. We found it to be an interesting little place and spotted a number of places we will explore when we visit again, including the church. We deviated to find coffee instead of exploring the church of St James the Great which dates from the thirteenth century. The original tower collapsed in 1699 during a bell ringers practice – I must mention this to my campanologist friends! We unfortunately didn’t get to see the River Cam – the reason I wanted to visit it was because I was born close to the more famous River Cam in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, and I’ve always wanted to see what it’s namesake is like. (There is another Cambridge on this other River Cam!)
We had a very pleasant if somewhat brief visit, and no doubt will return to explore it further. Strangely, I only took one picture – not of the church, or the river, or the interesting old buildings, but of Dursley pet shop!
Lois Elsden 