St Davids Bishop's Palace and Cathedral

 Dear Gentle Readers

Today dawned bright and clear so we ventured in to St Davids to see the Bishop's Palace and Cathedral.

Google Maps led us down a tiny twisting lane to the back of the Palace where there was free parking! A rarity in the U.K. I parked the car then saw this sign. No not a brand of car but the ford of a river where you crossed it at a very shallow point. Interestingly, it says "Not suitable for vehicles". So I went down to look at it.

And here it is, a real true to life ford in the middle of a town. They never built a bridge here and just left it as a ford. I didn't attempt to "ford" the river, but I thought it interesting just the same.

This was our first view of Bishop's Castle. Mostly built by Bishop Henry de Gower between 1328 and 1347 when he died. His grave is in the adjacent cathedral.

This is inside the Palace looking towards the Great Hall. Bishop Gower improved it over a previous Bishop, Thomas Bek.

This is a panoramic shot of the Palace, it's much bigger than it looks in this shot.

This is the interior of the Great Hall where all the meals were eaten. This side of the low wall was a bedroom for visitors. At the end you can see the spectacular circular window Gower had made.

This is a corbel, a carving of a human face. Bishop Gower had many of them carved, beast and mythical creatures facing outwards, and human faces inside. Most of them have been worn away by the weather. This was the best example I could find.

Of course, yours truly had to climb the tower to take this shot of the Great Hall. You can see the cathedral in the background.

Here's Victoria on the stairs to the Great Hall.

Large windows let in lots of light to the Bishop's Hall. There used to be shutters on the lower half to cut out some of the light and prevent the view from becoming a distraction from work.

Next we ventured into the cathedral next door. This is a shot of the interior. Quite impressive with a large pipe organ at the rear. The magnificent stone screen (also known as a pulpitum) under the organ was commissioned by Bishop Gower and his grave is in there.

This Henry de Gower's grave behind the pulpitum. It has faired better than a lot of the other graves, the carved images on them have been worn away by countless people touching them.

Outside view of the cathedral. One can't help wondering how much money these cost but then again, getting a job working on one of these was a job for a life usually.

After this we continued south to our lodgings for the next two days, Beggar's Reach.