OXFORD -- Thursday.  Our Driving Day

We had ambitious plans to take a long driving trip this Thursday which would take us south to Winchester Cathedral, west to Salisbury, north to pop in at the Nye's, our former vicar from Cheltenham, and then to Hook Norton to inspect their brewery and finally to Kidlington to surprise the Lapworths now that we had a camera we knew how to use.  But when we telephoned the Nye's and they told us that Thursday would be a bad day for them. 
 Our exploration of Hook Norton was very rewarding. This is their "city center", so to speak. 
This little pipe organ was very interesting, but there was no information relating to it. But there was a Pastoral letter from the bishop of Oxford posted in the front of the church which decried the recent denial of Canon Jeffrey John to become the next bishop of Reading due to his openly gay lifestyle.  It is really nice to see small English communities reacting in an apparent open and affirming manner. But, of course, what do we know about the general opinion.

We finally got to the Lapworth's and were able to photograph their garden above and Rosemary, Peter, and the two of us below. But Peter wanted me to get shots of the little plaques on their fence which, when I tried it the day before, convinced me that my Nikon wasn't working.
      Actually, the trip we had planned would have been totally impossible, so we decided to limit our travels to the brewery and the Lapworths after finding the PX we used for three years in Upper Heyford. Good thing. That took all day!  After taking tiny roads all over the place, we actually found the PX, but it was guarded so heavily with gates and guards, and had a sign that warned us that intrusion would violate England's official secrets act,  we took no pictures. On to Hook Norton.
Below is St. Peters, their village church.
The church had a magnificent font --  which usually provides a good place to put my bean bag.
Below is the Hook Norton brewery. We visited the museum but could take no pictures whatsoever since our flash unit was not working. I learned later in the vacation that I could set my ISO (like film ASA)  to 400 and get pretty decent indoor pictures, but by this time, I had not completely made peace with that complicated camera. The brewery still uses steam generated power, delivered to the whole plant with complicated pulleys and belts. They even claim to deliver beer to their pubs with horse drawn buggies, known as the Hook Norton Dray.
 Peter said they were Japanese in origin but had no other info. We excused ourselves, telling Peter and Rosemary that we wanted to get back in time for evensong at Christ Church College chapel.

Coming up:  Friday; The Oxford Science Walk and Evening Concert at the Sheldonian.
                   Saturday, our last full day in Oxford with Christ Church College and evensong.