Ireland and UK Holiday 2015, 20th June

At Gloucester

A quiet day, not much driving. First to the nearby Jet Age Museum then after that to also not far away Tewkesbury. Some rain later in the day and we got wet a couple of times. Umbrella safely dry back in the car of course.

The Jet Age Museum has only been open about 20 months [in 2015] but looks good and now needs more space to expand. The Gloster aircraft of course are featured and there's both propeller planes and jet planes on display. Plenty of enthusiastic volunteers and all are people who have been in some way involved with the aircraft or with the supply of components, such as people from the Smiths instrument factory. We arrived on a special day when there were Typhoon pilots gathered, the older Typhoon of WW2 but there was one Typhoon jet pilot there as well.

Here's a re-creation of the first British jet plane the Gloster E28, engine by Frank Whittle.......



Then the first jet fighter the Gloster Meteor used briefly in WW2, mainly to down V1 flying bombs (doodlebugs). Work was begun on the Meteor a year before the first jet above even made its first flight.......



This Gloster Javelin first flew in 1959 and finished service in 1965 and is a surprisingly large fighter plane compared to the previous jets shown.....



Also old propellor planes, here's a Gloster Gamecock reproduction, with one side uncovered to show the construction methods.......



A major long term project is to rebuild a WW2 Typhoon propellor aircraft and so far only this beginning of an airframe has been reconstructed from found bits and newly made parts, here it is behind two very proud volunteers who were posing for Lyn (the part plane on the right is another Meteor)......



This neat plaque on the wall tells its own story......




Then on to Tewkesbury where the massive Norman abbey dominates the skyline.
Added note: This abbey survived the Reformation because of local crowd funding, the town bought it from Henry VIII for the lead and bells value and so it lives on. The tower is the biggest Norman tower in the world, well, in Europe as they didn't get to invade other places much.......



Truly massive and impressive inside, the columns are indeed straight, the wide angle lens does that leaning thing. They were setting up for a wedding and we sat right at the back to see the start of it later.......



The ceiling bosses have all sorts of intricate and imaginative scenes on them......



Again looking up at another part of the ceiling........



A Bentley and a vintage bus to carry the wedding party to and fro.....



Lyn caught the bride later in the car......



Now a wander around town, some old buildings in evidence....









Nice Jubilee Gardens here, made for Queen Victoria's jubilee, but added to for Queen Elizabeth's jubilee, nice garden, dodgy clouds, they got us on the way back to the car and we were very wet......



For the final picture for today we just had to show this, a wide road with no other car on it. Totally unheard of, always cars everywhere. Not sure why we were alone.... spooky.......