My Daily Banana

 

Giant Rhubarb (Gunnera manicata)

Event of the Day:

9th July 1540

King Henry VIII annuls his marriage to Anne of Cleves;
she was his fourth of six wives.

When I was on my vacation in England I travelled to Melton Mowbray, where Henry VIII gave a building to Anne of Cleves as a good bye present. The building is now a Public House and listed as a grade II* building (first listing in 1950)

 

Beware when visiting this Public House it is highly recommended to wear oilskins!

Birthday of today:

9th July 1956

Tom Hanks

An amazing actor he has played in countless good films such as The Green Mile, Forrest Gump or Philadephia

Died on this Day:

9th July 2006

Milan Williams

one of the founding members of the Commodores; he wrote their first hit single, an instrumental tune called "Machine Gun"

Milan died of cancer at fifty-eight years.

Thoughts:

As I was saying before; during my holidays in England I visited Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire with Kerry and Lee. It is quite a nice town, mostly well preserved with many historic buildings and a history worth mentioning. Such as: Have you ever used the saying "Painting the town red", when you go out for a happy night? The saying originates from Melton Mowbray. In 1837, after a successful hunt the 3rd Marquess of Waterford and his cronies went into town for a celebration. They got happy and when they found some tins of red paint they went on a painting spree through the High Street.

Another interesting fact is that there are tunnels running under the old town; for instance between the church and the Grapes pub. From what I have just read there seams to have been jail cells under the Grapes and the tunnel was between these and the church.

The Melton Mowbray church is also an outstanding building first under construction in the Norman era. Very unusual for a parish church are the transepts (the two side wings of the church ship); they are normal in cathedrals but only five churches in England are built this way. Like in every church I visited in England there was a child's corner; I like that.

 

 

The High Street, Melton Mowbray

The Pork Pie Shop in the High Street
in 2008 the European Union awarded the Melton Mowbray pork pie a Protected Geographical Indication status

The Market Square

The Grapes Public House
under which was a jail for prisoners awaiting trial and transfer to Leicester

The Church Street
On the left was all part of the Swan Inn (now the Grapes),
 under which ran a tunnel from the jail to the church.

St Mary's Parish Church

Read and learn facts about Melton Mowbray,
a contrast to the drivel I write

The Anne of Cleves Public House
The house was taken from the Roman Catholic Church and given to Anne of Cleves by King Henry VIII
when he annulled their marriage

The Bar

The beer garden
In front you can see my very dear friends Kerry and Lee
(be careful though when sitting at the same table when there are full glasses there upon "Überschwemmungsgefahr!")

The loo in the Anne of Cleves

That's it again for another stroll through my holiday in England.
Hope you enjoyed it.
Bye till tomorrow