
Where water once flowed
like rivers of belief,
diverted elsewhere or underground.
Yet the three-in-one bridge remains,
a reminder that I am a father, a son
and a brother too.
copyright Francis Barker 2020

Where water once flowed
like rivers of belief,
diverted elsewhere or underground.
Yet the three-in-one bridge remains,
a reminder that I am a father, a son
and a brother too.
copyright Francis Barker 2020


However, during the English Civil War of the 1640s, the rebellious forces of Oliver Cromwell finally took the what remained of the abbey in a siege against the Royalists in 1643. It was at this time that the structure appears to have sustained much more serious damage, as some of the remaining architecture testifies.


copyright words and pictures Francis Barker 2019