A day in Cropredy

As well as having two interesting pubs and a magnificent church, this village is probably most famous for the folk festival that is held here in August every year since Fairport Convention played their farewell concert here forty years ago. Appropriately the festival is called; Fairport's Cropredy Convention. We intend to attend this year's event, taking the boat rather than a tent, but I believe that moorings get a bit thin on the ground over this particular weekend.

The village is also famous for a battle that was fought here during the Civil War in 1644. The events are commemorated in Ralph McTell's song Red And Gold, recorded by Fairport Convention, and the bridge over the River Cherwell has an informative information board.

Of the two pubs, the Red Lion is probably the most picturesque, both inside and out, given that it is a thatched mid-terraced building opposite the church in (you guessed it) Red Lion Street - This is how they describe themselves:

'It would be difficult to imagine a more picturesque building than The Red Lion Inn with its walls of honey-coloured local stone and its roof of grey, beautifully crafted thatch. Even the porch has its own covering of thatch.'

As it happens, the food is jolly good too, and reasonably priced. The only things is; what about the history of the pub? The owners who have their own website, appear to be asking the same question! By the way, notice in the picture above that there are straps like those seen on the London underground for hanging on to - I wonder what they are for???

Before having our meal in the Red Lion, we spent some time looking through St Mary the Virgin church opposite and there are some very interesting historic features to be found in there, although I believe that the suit of armour and Civil War mementos are follies, the real items being stolen many years ago.

The Bells are rung from the ground floor beneath a huge 14ft pendulum belonging to the clock mechanism high above, just below the belfry.

I was also obliged to listen to a sermon given by the Very Rev. Audrone before I was given shore leave to visit the Red Lion! See below.

The next day, I did ring the bells (well the fourth actually), at a special practice night that was held for all ringers in the district. It was lucky that on this occasion we were moored nearby and heard the bells start much earlier than their advertised time of 19:00, because I would have missed out if I hadn't wandered up immediately. The session was run by an Australian woman who came across as very authoritarian and wouldn't countenance plain hunt and only allowed one session of call changes, so rather than hang around hoping, I meandered back to the boat.

Never mind, we got back to Brinklow in time for a much more productive practice on Wednesday and had a jolly good ring for the Service on Sunday. We sounded quite professional in fact, even if there were only five of us.

Now here is a short pictorial presentation of Cropredy, followed by a brief story of the man from Suid Africa:

The South African chap was moored up next to the Canal bridge nearest to the store. and as we passed on the towpath heading for Gleemaiden and full of good cheer and food

from the Red Lion, we came across three people sitting in their well-deck. Chap turned out to be called Richard (which caused some interesting confusion in the introductions) and the two ladies were visiting friends. They asked us aboard and we swapped stories over a few glasses of red wine. The renowned hospitality that is legendary on The Cut was further reinforced!!