If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything - Mark Twain
Tewkesbury is a mid-sized town (population ~ 20,000) approximately 30 miles from Hereford. Travelling by car is, by far, the quickest (~ 40 minutes) and most convenient means of getting there. It is possible to get a train (journey time 100 - 150 minutes) from Hereford to Ashchurch which is 3 miles from the centre of Tewkesbury. Alternatively, several buses/coaches run between these two locations with a change at Gloucester (travel time ~ 120 minutes).
Photo 1: Museum of the Moon at Tewkesbury Abbey (27th October 2025)
This inflated (helium) balloon is a 1:500,000 scale model of our nearest astronomical neighbour. The sphere can be lit internally though we only saw it in its non-illuminated form. An impressive piece of art. So impressive, in fact, that there are a few more pictures ...
Photo 2: Museum of the Moon
Photo 3: The Dark Side of the Moon
Photo 4: Museum of the Moon
While Tewkesbury Abbey does not have the status of a cathedral, its size and grandeur certainly put it on a par with other cathedrals. It is roughly the same size as Hereford Cathedral, the current church is slightly older (mostly built by 1121) than Hereford Cathedral (mostly built by 1140) and it features the largest Norman tower in existence. Tewkesbury Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery and, probably, the finest and best example of Norman architecture in Britain.
Photo 5: Approaching Tewkesbury Abbey
If you like stained glass windows, there is plenty to see here ...
Photo 6: Tewkesbury Abbey (October 2025)
Photo 7: Tewkesbury Abbey (October 2025)
Photo 8: Tewkesbury Abbey (October 2025)
Photo 9: Tewkesbury Abbey (October 2025)
Photo 10: Tewkesbury Abbey (October 2025)
Photo 11: Tewkesbury Abbey (October 2025)
Photo 12: Tewkesbury Abbey (October 2025)
Tewkesbury has a long history with many fine medieval and Tudor buildings (Photo 13) ...
Photo 13: The Berkeley Arms, Church Street, Tewkesbury
... and runs the largest free Medieval Festival in Europe where you can watch a re-enactment of the Battle of Tewkesbury (1471). We attended the festival a decade or so ago when we had a blacksmith student (Tom) who was also a re-enactor. An exciting (and somewhat noisy) day where you get to see all aspects of a medieval life. If you are the market for a new suit of armour, you could possibly find a supplier here!!
Tewkesbury, like Abergavenny, seems like a great place to live with plenty of activities and events. Lots of independent shops, a theatre and museum, and a nice atmosphere. The M5 motorway is close by with fast road links to London, Cardiff, Birmingham and beyond. As noted earlier, there is a railway station at Ashchurch, about 3 miles from the town centre. However, perhaps the biggest drawback arises from the location of Tewkesbury at the confluence of two rivers, the Severn and the Avon, and the enormous flooding risk this entails. Drone footage of the January 2024 floods is shown in Video 2.
Video 2: Tewkesbury Floods, January 2024
The floods of 2007 were the worst in recent times, partly because they occurred in July rather than the usual winter months.
Video 3: Tewkesbury Floods, July 2007
Before travelling home we thought we would visit the newly opened Cotswold Designer Outlet situated just outside Tewkesbury and close to the M5 motorway and Ashchurch railway station. This shopping centre is a clone of Bicester Village which we visited last year.
Photo 14: Cotswold Designer Outlet (October 2025)
They had made a bit of an effort for Halloween but the shopping experience seemed soulless albeit the staff were very friendly (and young). Not really our 'scene' so no purchases made either here or at Bicester village.
Photo 15: Cotswold Designer Outlet (October 2025)
Dobbies Garden Centre (Photo 16) is very close to the Cotswold Designer Outlet so we popped in for a cup of tea and a piece of cake before heading home.
Photo 16: Dobbies Garden Centre, Tewkesbury
Halloween hadn't even passed but Christmas was just around the corner!
Photo 1: Sunset on the way home (25th October 2025)
We haven't been to Abergavenny for a while; a shame because it is a really nice town just over the border in Wales. You can catch a direct train (journey time 20-25 minutes) from Hereford to Abergavenny but there is a 15 minute walk at both ends of the journey. This time we went by car (24 miles) which takes about 40 minutes and would, in theory, have given us an 'extra' hour to look around. However, we took the opportunity to return home using a more scenic route via Hay Bluff so that the overall travel times (rail versus road) were about the same.
First stop in Abergavenny was the Priory Church of St Mary's because it was adjacent to the car park. There are many fine artefacts in this church with pride of place going to the Jesse figure and window (Photo 2).
Photo 2: The Jesse, Priory Church, Abergavenny (25th Oct 2025)
Here is a short YouTube video showing the Jesse window in more detail ...
Video 1: The Jesse Window (with accompanying organ music)
... with a few more details about the Jesse figure here.
The grade II listed Tithe Barn is across the courtyard from the Priory Church. The Abergavenny Millenium Tapestry is housed here but, unfortunately, is not currently open to the public due to repair and renovation work on the building itself. There is a Community Cafe downstairs where you will also find the studio of Jeremy Thomas, Artist-in-Residence.
We headed for the town centre hoping to find something to eat and rest our feet. The lively Abergavenny Market Hall is always worth a visit. Remember to look upwards to see the seasonal displays hanging from the ceiling ...
Photo 3: Abergavenny Market Hall (25th October 2025)
Market days are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday with occasional markets on some Thursdays.
The main shopping area is full of independent shops and, unusually for a small town, it has its own department store, Nicholls. We had hoped to get a bite to eat at Nicholls' Botanical Cafe but it was very busy with a queue waiting to be seated. Instead, we had to make do with the local Wetherspoons, The Coliseum, where the veggie brunch was very good (and, as always, excellent value). We wandered around a few more shops and bought a book from Waterstones (my birthday present) before heading back to the car.
Abergavenny is a small town (population: ca 14,000) with a good shopping centre and market. We might have considered moving here when we relocated from London 20+ years ago. It has a good theatre, which we have visited on a number of occasions, plenty of clubs and societies, and is surrounded by some wonderful countryside and places to visit. The town has excellent transport links by train (on the Cardiff to Manchester/Liverpool line) and road (Heads of the Valley road). When we did move away from London, we had three school-age children so probably did not seriously consider Wales because it would have required attending a Welsh-speaking school.
Footnote:Y Fenni (the Welsh name for Abergavenny) is one of our favourite cheeses.
We decided to take a more scenic route home via Llanthony Priory and Hay Bluff. Leaving Abergavenny on the A465 (Abergavenny ⇆ Hereford road), we passed this well known feature (Photo 4) on Bryn Arw, a hill just outside Abergavenny.
Photo 4: Bryn Arw, near Abergavenny (October 2025)
The image shows the Welsh phrase 'DAW ETO DDAIL AR FRYN' which translates as ' There will be leaves on the mountain again'. The message refers to a tree-planting scheme by the project
'Stump Up For Trees' aiming to plant 1,000,000 native trees in mid-Wales. Work started in 2020.
Before long, we turned off the A465 onto narrow minor roads heading towards Llanthony Priory. Unfortunately, we missed the left-hand turn to the Priory and ended up at Capel-y-ffin where there is a small chapel dedicated to St Mary (Photo 5) ...
Photo 5: St Mary's Church, Capel-y-ffin (October 2025)
This small chapel (internal measurements 8 metres by 4 metres) was built in 1762, replacing an earlier one built in the 15th Century. The photo was taken 'on the fly' as we drove past so apologies for the poor quality.
We continued along the Gospel Pass, the highest in Wales, with magnificent views in all directions ...
Photo 6: Views from the Gospel Pass (October 2025)
... before arriving at the Hay Bluff car park for a brief stop.
Photo 7: Hay Bluff from the Car Park (October 2025)
There was a strong cooling breeze so we didn't stay long; just enough time to take a picture of Hay Bluff (Photo 7) and a short video (Video 1) of Twmpa (aka Lord Hereford's Knobbe).
Video 1: Twmpa viewed from the Hay Bluff car park (25th October 2025)
It was getting dark by the time we returned home but we'd had a great day out enjoying the last day of British Summer Time (BST). In a few hours (at 2.00 am on the 26th October 2025), the clocks would be going back and the days would appear much shorter.
Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable - Oscar Wilde
September brought a welcome change in the form of rain. After a period of six dry months in 2025 (March, April, May, June, July, and August), I think everyone appreciated that feeling of 'soft' rain on the skin. Temperature and sunshine levels were typical for the first month of Autumn.
The garden photo for September (Photo 1) was taken as the month drew to a close. Leaves are still predominantly green with shades of autumn colouring beginning to appear.
Photo 1: View of the Rear Garden (27th September 2025)
Daily garden photos taken from a rear window are collated in Video 1.
Video 1: Daily Photos of the Rear Garden (September 2025)
Selected weather statistics for September 2025 are summarised in Table 1. The change in season from summer to autumn was very noticeable in terms of temperature; the maximum daily temperature for September (24 ℃) being a pleasant change from the summer months (June, July & August) where the maximum daily temperature exceeded 30 ℃. Nighttime temperatures were also much cooler.
Table 1: Summary Weather Statistics for September 2025
As Figure 1 illustrates, daytime temperatures held up well thanks to reasonable sunshine levels (Figure 2). However, in the last third of the month, those same sunny days meant much cooler overnight temperatures (Figure 1). Click on the Figure to enlarge.
Rain was restricted to the first 20 or so days of the month with most days experiencing some precipitation (Figure 2). The last ten days of September were much more settled with plenty of sunshine.
Figure 2: Daily Rain/Sunshine Data (September 2025)
Long-term trends, in a selection of Hereford weather parameters, for the month of September are shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4. The limited time series data suggests September may be getting a little cooler (Figure 3) though not without an anomaly here and there (i.e. 2021 & 2023).
Figure 3: September Temperature Data for Hereford (2020 - 2025)
Precipitation is highly variable (Figure 4). The number of dry days decreases from 2020 to 2025 indicating that September is starting to experience more unsettled weather (i.e. more showers and stronger winds).
Figure 4: September Wind, Rain & Sunshine Data for Hereford (2020 - 2025)
The next three figures are taken from the Met Office's monthly report for September 2025. Figure 5 shows the mean September temperature for the UK which was close to the average temperature for the 1991-2020 period. Since temperatures have increased over this 30-year period (due to climate change), this means September 2025 was cooler than expected for the UK generally and Herefordshire, in particular. This ties in nicely with the Hereford City data (Figure 3) from my Davis Weather Station which shows this month was the coolest September of the last six years. According to the nearby official Met Office weather station at Credenhill, the September mean temperature is 14.0 ℃, in excellent agreement with the value recorded by my back garden weather station (Table 1 and Figure 3).
Figure 5: UK Mean Temperature Anomalies (September 2025)
According to Figure 6, some parts of the UK (SW England, Northern England, Wales and Northern Ireland) had higher than normal precipitation while other regions (Scotland, Midlands, East Anglia and parts of Southern England) received a normal amount of rain. Herefordshire received close to its expected September rainfall, perhaps a little above normal. Historical data from the nearby Credenhill weather station reports a 30-average (1991-2020) September precipitation of 50.62 mm. Hence the 59.0 mm recorded by my Davis weather station (Table 1) was 116% of the typical September rainfall in good agreement with Figure 6.
Figure 6: UK Rainfall (relative) for September 2025
Eastern parts of Great Britain had the best of the sunshine during September 2025 (Figure 7). The remainder of the UK, including Herefordshire, had to make do with average sunshine levels (c.f. Figure 4).
Figure 7: Sunshine Hours (relative) for September 2025
Harvesting fruit: pears, grapes, raspberries, strawberries, apples
Cut back raspberry canes, make a start on pruning the hedge, de-weed the drives
Increasing composting throughput - now taking in garden waste from 10 extra gardens
Flora & Fauna in the Garden
Blue Tit (x5)
Collared Dove (x2)
Crow (x1)
Great Tit (x1)
House Sparrow (x12)
Photo 2: Here's Looking at you, Kid (29th Sept 2025)
Jackdaw (x2)
Robin (x1)
Starling (x10)
Wood Pigeon (x2) - A pair of wood pigeons built a nest in the spring-flowering cherry tree. The third wood pigeon nest in the garden this year! After a month sitting on the nest, this pair produced no offspring so possibly phantom pregnancy?
Photo 3: Brooding Wood Pigeon (19th Sept 2025)
And, finally, some photo from the garden ...
Photo 4: Some of the Pear Harvest
Photo 5: Grape and Pear Harvesting
Photo 6: Dahlia Flower
Photo 7: Cyclamen in the Mini-Wood (15th Sept 2025)
Photo 8: Cosmos (15th Sept 2025)
Photo 9: Honey Bee on Salvia
Photo 10: Cyclamen in the Mini-Wood (16th Sept 2025)
Photo 11: View from the Patio (20th Sept 2025)
Photo 12: Cosmos (30th Sept 2025)
Photo 13: Cosmos & Fuchsia in the Paradise Garden (30th Sept 2025)
As we reach the middle of autumn and the weather turns a little cooler, it is time to harvest the last of the 'Mediterranean' vegetables (sweet peppers, aubergines and tomatoes) in the polytunnel. The sweet (or bell) pepper crop has been very good this year with over a hundred 'fruits' from the ten plants. The bulk of these will be processed and frozen for use over the coming winter/spring.
Photo 1: Sweet Pepper Harvest
The tomato crop has also been good this year thanks to the warm sunny summer months. The sweet cherry varieties have been great in salads and the plum tomatoes ideal for cooked dishes (curries, moussaka, lasagne, etc) and for making passata for freezing & storage.
Photo 2: Super Sweet Mini Plum Tomatoes
We have been enjoying the aubergines over the summer although the crop yield suffered from a later than normal sowing. One of my next jobs is to pick the last of the 'fruits' before clearing out the polytunnel.
The courgettes were somewhat neglected this year and suffered a little from the lack of rain. The plants have stopped producing earlier than normal and we have ended up with quite a few marrows; about 15 kg in fact. Not a problem as these will keep us in soup and broth until Christmas and the New Year. The marrow is an underrated vegetable; it stores well, is an excellent base for soups and bulks out stews, curries, hotpots, etc. Just remember to add plenty of flavouring as it is rather bland on its own.
Photo 3: Marrows for Winter Storage
Some vegetables such as potatoes, beet and turnips can stay in the ground until for a little longer while the parsnips will benefit from some frost (i.e. taste sweeter). The Swiss Chard has been a big disappointment this year with a strong tendency to bolt due to the hot dry weather. Fortunately, the perpetual spinach beet has cropped strongly and is still going strong.
With the exception of the red cabbages, the brassica plot has been very disappointing. The plants have suffered from the almost desert-like weather conditions this summer. The calabrese and cauliflower heads have not set well and the plants have undergone a severe whitefly attack. I will definitely grow red cabbages next year but will probably give the other brassicas a miss in the hope that the whitefly population will die out/down.
I did grow a few Roma F1 plum tomatoes outside (spare plants) and they have produced a decent crop of unripe green tomatoes. These might ripen up indoors; we shall just have to wait and see.
Photo 4: Unripe Green Roma F1 Plum Tomatoes
As plots are cleared of crops, I need to decide on whether to just cover with black plastic to suppress weeds or plant a green manure crop. Field beans and rye grass worked very successfully last year so I plan to do the same this year.
Photo 5: Field Beans For Autumn Planting
The mixed plot (French beans, courgettes, Swiss Chard, outdoor plum tomatoes) was the first to be cleared. Preparation was to hand weed before raking level and dibbing in the field beans (10 cm apart in rows 20 cm apart). No need to to be too neat with the rows!
Photo 6: Long-handled Dibber For Sowing Field Beans
Finally, lightly rake to fill in the holes and wait for rain!
Photo 7: Field Bean Plot Waiting for Rain!
The next few weeks will be busy harvesting the last of the tomatoes and aubergines in the polytunnel so it can be cleared and cleaned before winter. I am hoping to put my feet up while it is cold but there are always some jobs that need to be done during the winter months.
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