Visit to Coughton Court

St.Peters, St.Pauls & St.Elizabeths

View from the tower

Today we went to visit the National Trust property, Coughton Court, near Alcester. We enjoyed our time there, learning about the history of the family who had lived there for six hundred years. The house was very interesting and there were lovely gardens. We climbed the narrow spiral staircase to the top of the tower and were rewarded with a wonderful view. St. Peter's C.of E church next to the house is about six or seven hundred years old- can't remember exactlyat this time of night!- and was originally a Catholic church until the Reformation. Seeing the priest- holes and reading about the designer/builder and his eventual fate (on the rack) really brings home how frightening those times were for some people. A 'new' Catholic church-only one hundred and fifty years old- was built further down the lane and seemed to be in use, as well as St. Peter's, so I enquired at the Hall if they knew the time of Masses. A very willing lady went to find out and told me there was a Mass at 5pm today, so I duly went down to the church in time. However, although the organist was playing then, he told me that Mass wasn't until six o'clock, so I had a long time to wait!
After that it was time to get back to the boat and carry on with the sorting and cleaning in preparation for leaving in the morning and saying Goodbye to TQ until next year!