The heading above just about sums up the visit we made today to Bradford on Avon – an attractive small West Wiltshire town – just eight miles from Bath – and with a long history.
It’s blighted by the volume of traffic passing through it on the busy A363. However, once you’ve found somewhere to park your car and have taken a few shots of the beautiful town bridge, crossing the crystal clear waters of the River Avon, you have only to disappear into the side streets to get away from the traffic noise and immerse yourself in the physical remains of what was a wealthy industrial town.
There are numerous reminders of early woollen cloth manufacture, with a wealth of grand Georgian mansions built of honey coloured local stone.
The town offers Saxon and Norman churches, medieval barns, houses and a fascinating museum – based upstairs in the town library – tracing the town’s history back to Roman times – and beyond.
Its ‘piece de resistance’ has to be the preservation of the old Christopher Pharmacy – including its mahogany furniture and shelves of sparkling jars.
The shop supplied medicine, chemicals and its own range of perfumes and curry powders to households and farms in the town and district from 1863 to 1986.
As I mentioned earlier, this visit brought the peace and beauty of spiritual places to feed the soul, and a trip back in time to a dispensing chemist that cared for local bodies long before the arrival of the NHS.
