The Monday Piece - The Commandery Museum Worcester

This week's Monday Piece is on the Commandery Museum Worcester! During half term a few of the history cohort met up for a historical day at the Commandery Museum in Worcester followed by decent British food at the King Charles pub just down the road. If you're interested in the English Civil War or medieval architecture it's definitely worth a visit, Worcester has a huge link to the English Civil War and the site was used at a HQ for Charles II and the battle of Worcester. You get given a map so it's easy enough to guide yourself round, there's lots of different periods of history to explore, not just the civil war - I particularly like the medieval games that can be played!
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The Monday Piece - The Pagan Oak Tree, Malvern Hills

This week's Monday Piece is on the Pagan Oak Tree, Malvern hills! At the weekend we met with my mum and stepdad for a walk along Raggedstone Hill on the Malverns. Nick and I pretty much live in the hills so we're always eager to find a new fresh walk. My mum had been telling us about the magical Pagan Oak tree for so long, so we were definitely ready to explore it ourselves. The tree itself has an enormous history...

The White Leafed Oak stands on the edge of a hollow.  It is adorned with all sorts of paraphernalia such as Tibetan Prayer Flags, glass beads and jewelry in the belief that this tree has symbolic meaning to Druids. The hamlet of White Leafed Oak is equidistant to the cathedrals of Worcester, Hereford and Gloucester. According to various websites other ancient Druid sites such as Stonehenge appear to be aligned in some magical manner to the White Leafed Oak! The supernatural influence of the White Leafed Oak has not gone unnoticed. Phil Rickman, a local author with his successful fictional female priest and exorcist Merrily Watkins has based plots around the White Leafed Oak and other sites in and around the Malverns for his novels. The map reference for the White Leafed Oak tree is SO 7550 3624.

My mum takes the 2000 year old tree a gift every time she goes over, so naturally we gifted her something too. Don't worry if you forget though, if you look closely you'll find a visitor's book tucked away inside one of her hollows - it's filled with all kinds of messages and poems, just pop your own into the book :).
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The Monday Piece - Aperol in Italy

This week's Monday Piece is on Aperol in Italy! I'm absolutely not a big drinker, but this summer I was pretty late on the bandwagon of drinking Aperol Spritz... I couldn't resist a glass or too with friends whilst relaxing in the sunshine, it's so fresh and dry I'm a big fan :).
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