Joyous Wedding in the English countryside

A fabulous week in the English Cotswolds

A thatched roof home in town

Many friends and family came to celebrate the wedding of Anne de Schweinitz and Neil Chandler at 5 PM on Friday, July 13, 2018, at the beautiful Kiftsgate Gardens near their "new" restored 1600's home in Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds. The walls, stone floors, oak beams, and most everything is original in this charming home. There has been a drought this summer, so all the grass which was bright green 2 weeks ago, is brown. The old market, right in the center, with the town hall behind, buildings which are similar in most of the small surrounding towns.

With lovely garden in back, their narrow, deep home is on High Street (the main street of Chipping Campden) so everyone is tempted to look in the windows! They do! Every room has a large fireplace needed for warmth (and in the kitchen for cooking, of course). Bedrooms are upstairs, and third floor was probably for storing grain, etc. The back portion of the house, where once were animals and workshops, was added on probably 300 years ago, and is now the kitchen and upstairs, another bedroom. 

 

Chipping Campden, Glouchestershire, with many thatched roof homes, is a medieval market town 2 hours west of London. Behind their house is the 13th century St. James' church, banquet houses (below, where part of our family stayed), gates, and some other ruins and remnants, but the enormous mansion and water gardens are gone. In the old court barn is an interesting exhibit of the various crafts that were developed in the area: silver, book-binding, etching, pottery, weaving, etc. The wool industry was and is very important  and there are sheep grazing everywhere. 

 

 

I stayed with daughter Anne and Neil for the week, and prior to the wedding was able to revisit Oxford (with daughter Emily and her husband Ken Taylor),where we visited Trinity College and New College, the amazing Bodelian Library, punted on the river with hundreds of other boaters, and where I bought many English language books I've been craving;  Stratford-on-Avon (Shakespeare's birth home, Anne Hathaway Cottage, Mary Arden Farm, etc. and attended a short piano concert by an amazing 17 year old girl, in old Trinity Church where S. is buried); and Snowshill, museum-home-gardens of Charles Wade, a collector of old bicycles, Samurai and Saxon armor, furniture and a little of everything imaginable (on my own by bus and train), Broadway Tower, a "folly" but used by the Royal Observer Corps as a lookout during WWI and WWII (with Neil) and spent pleasant hours wandering in the countryside and town, helping water the garden, and visiting before the big day! It was also great to leave Santiago winter behind and to enjoy lovely English summer weather and most of all to be with family. 

Trinity Church in Stratford

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Anne Hathaway's (S's mother) home

Shakespeare's birth house

I am having trouble uploading more photos of places and people, so will perhaps send a link when I figure it out. 

 

Punting on river at Magdalen Bridge near New College Oxford

The Wedding

Many friends and family from Germany, the US, England, and other places enjoyed the beautiful ceremony and the  dinner that followed. Rain was forecast, but maybe because 70 umbrellas were ordered at the last minute, the storm went around and not over us!

Everyone said I should wear a hat to an English wedding. Katalin at left, Anne's good friend from NY, lent me one, but Anne said it looked more like a beach hat so that was out. 

 The latest is the "fascinater", a small headdress some ladies wore!
See one on Lisl in the first photo above!

Anne's older brother Peter did a wonderful job performing the ceremony

Friend Greta and my little grand-daughter Cordelia were cute flower girls. The guests stood around the pond for the ceremony of readings, song, thoughts, and wedding vows. Beautiful!

The setting, weather, company and spirit could not have been more perfect! I was thrilled to be able to take a week to enjoy the wedding and sights of England with family and other guests!

Emily and Ken Taylor; Ming Lu,Cordelia,Rebecca & Peter, Miriam, Anne & Neil; Marc and Fernanda; Julie, Peter and Phoebe Carlston

I was so happy all my children and spouses could attend:
Emily, Peter, Anne and Neil, Julie, Marc. (Emily and Marc did readings and Julie sang)

Julie, Peter and Phoebe Carlston

 My brother Roy with wife Julie and daughter Olivia. Everyone combined wedding with the chance to see some wonderful nearby places as well as London.
Julie, Peter and Phoebe and I drove to Gadfield Elm, the oldest Mormon chapel in the world. In 1840, Apostles Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff and Willard Richards (ancestor of Pete) of the LDS church traveled from their headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois, to this area, and during the next 9 months, 45 preachers and 1,800 were "converted" to the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, including almost the entire membership of the local Christian organization known as the United Brethren, who had broken away from the Primitive Methodists. Within less than 2 years most of the converts had left their English homes and sailed to America. Driven by mobs from Nauvoo, most followed Brigham Young and others on the long 1300 mile trek west where they settled in places like Las Vegas, San Francisco, Utah and western Canada and northern Mexico. The chapel, which fell into ruin, was restored after 150 years and given to the church in 2004. 

Gadfield Elm Hills

 We then drove to British Camp, Malvern Hills where those three apostles met and decided to print the Book of Mormon and a new hymnbook in England. It is an old Iron works used 700BC-200BC and sheep keep the grass under control and protect the ancient structures and formations below. A great view, too!

 We hurried back to Chipping Campden for a casual barbecue for all the guests still in town and even had the wedding cake then!

Saturday we enjoyed a barbecue in their back garden (which extends way back), and then most of our family drove to Blenheim Palace about 45 minutes away for a fun festival with palace tour, food, cricket match, dance lessons, firing up of a WWII Spitfire (one-man British fighter plane), and fireworks. I unfortunately had to leave to return to Chile on Sunday, but that's alright.

Winston proposed to Clementine Hozier close to this spot and they were married at Westminster September 12, 1908.

With son Marc watching fireworks.
The great library of Blenheim on the right

Great way to end a wonderful week! Now it's back to work! It was a long flight to Toronto from Santiago and then to London, and back again after a few days, but worth every penny and little sleep.