Pershore

After seeing a friend this morning in Broom, and helping her with her laptop, we went to Pershore for a drive out.  We parked up at the Old Pershore Bridge picnic area, though it was too cold to actually picnic, we had our sandwiches in the car.  After I popped out and took some photos of the bridge which is now pedestrian only having been replaced by the main road bridge some years back.  At one end of the bridge are large concrete bollards. These were apparently put there during the war to safeguard the town from German tanks.  I've added a bit from the Wikithingy about the history.  The extra is a cormorant I saw gliding down the river.

When I'd finished being arty we took a walk into the town centre, taking a circular walk around the Abbey.  We didn't go in this time, though I have blipped from there in the past,

We ended up at Number 8, the Community Arts Centre where they have a cinema, theatre and art gallery, plus a very nice cafe, where we had a drink.

About 0.5 miles (0.80 km) outside the town is Pershore Old Bridge over the River Avon. A bridge was originally built on the site, in about 1413, by monks, supposedly after their abbot, Upton, was drowned falling from stepping-stones. The scene is included in the historical window installed in 1862–64 in Pershore Abbey.

In 1644, during the English Civil War, a later bridge was damaged and almost destroyed. In subsequent years the bridge was maintained by re-using stones from nearby Elmley Castle and from the abbey. In 1926 the bridge was taken out of service for road traffic and is now used only as a footbridge.