Southwell
Minster and Byron
This small charming Nottinghamshire town is made remarkable by being graced by a beautiful Norman minster. The minster’s twin towers rise gracefully from the village center amid the surrounding streets which themselves have some splendid buildings.
Streets with names like King Street and Queens Street can make you think you are in a setting of a period novel. The Saracens head pub built in 1463 and once called the kings head is full of history, it is where King Charles I spent his last night as a free man in May 1646. The doors of the courtyard are five hundred years old; the crown hotel is another lovely old inn
The high street is pleasant with a few shops to explore lookout for Rampton Prebend on Westgate, the poet Byron lived with his mother at nearby Burgage Manor a Georgian house north of the village green.
The minster was built on the site of a Saxon church inside there is some beautiful stained glass brought from the chapel of the knights Templar in Paris.
The architecture of the chapter house is unique like York’s in having no central supporting pillar, the place is full of wonderful stone carvings depicting oak, maple and hawthorn as well as vine leaves.
Activities in Southwell
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