Hello friends!

This week I wanted to share some recent snaps from a day spent at Glastonbury Abbey and I wanted to take you with me – I don’t usually take many shots of buildings and things but it made a really nice change! The abbey holds mythical status as the earliest Christian church in Britain and is the possible burial place of King Arthur.

The abbey itself is dog friendly, has multitude of events held within it and can even hold weddings!

The history of the abbey is fascinating the earliest records of there being a monastery at Glastonbury go back to the 7th century and archaeological evidence shows it might have been a Saxon church – there’s even a myth that the followers of Christ built it in the 1st century!

What I found particularly amazing was how even though the building is so old there are fossils in the stone work! These two little fossil samples in my opinion made it seem so very ancient.

After the death of Henry II the monks of Glastonbury announced that they had discovered the burial sites of King Arthur and Guinevere (which helped them get more money!) and by the 13th century as the church was complete, King Arthur and his Queen were reburied.

The Act of Supremacy (1534) made Henry VIII head of the Church of England and the subsequent suppression of the religious houses began. Although the monks of Glastonbury stood firm as long as they could, eventually Abbot Richard Whiting was falsely charged with treason and executed – where he was hung from the Tor! 

This is my favourite image from the day, I love how the tree is almost trying to hide the old ruins…it reminds me of something from Game Of Thrones.

The site was purchased and given to the Church of England in the 20th century, where it was opened to the public and restoration work began on the old ruins. Occasionally there are still archaeological digs being held!

During the pandemic you could even adopt an artefact to help the abbey recover from the effects of Covid-19!

There are so many myths and legends surrounding the Old Church and it was rather magical to sit amongst it.

Well, that was a lovely trip out wasn’t it?! I hope you liked the photos and a little of history. What do you think of the old Abbey? Thank you so much for reading this post and as always have a great weekend!