The Reason We Went

Okay, this is going to be a two-parter because Blogger gets weird when I try to use lots of pictures. And this story is going to have LOTS of pictures.

For background information: I went to England with my sister, aunt, and a family friend. We went in search of the church where my grandparents were married during WWII.  Grandpa was a supply sergeant and Granny was an Army nurse. They were both stationed "Somewhere in England" as Granny always called it. The Somewhere was actually Norton Fitzwarren in Somerset.

We had tried to contact the minister without much luck. But we were undeterred. We left London by rail for the two hour ride to Taunton. From there we grabbed a taxi to Norton Fitzwarren, which was a further 10 minutes. We easily found All Saints Church, with it's gorgeous tower. However the door was locked and there was no sign of a church office.

It was a beautiful day so we were content to wander the surrounding cemetery and take photos of the interesting architectural details on the church.

That could have been the end of the story, but then we met our Helpful Gentleman as we were deciding whether to stay in town and eat lunch at the pub down the street from the church. We asked him if he went to the church (No) or if he knew anyone who could get us in (The lady in the second Close might still clean it). Aunt shared pictures of Granny and Grandpa's wedding and our HG grew very interested in our story.

He recommended we eat at the pub and if he found anything out he'd let us know before left town.
During our meal he came back to the pub twice. The first time he brought old prints of the church from the early last century for us to keep and the second he triumphantly placed a key on the table. We had a way in!