A couple of years ago the BBC co-produced the TV series The White Queen, based on Philippa Gregory’s historical novels about the Wars of the Roses. It got a lukewarm response probably because it had not enough tits and not a single dragon. Apparently the version shown in the US, which had more tits, did better, so Starz is going it alone with the sequel, The White Princess. That’s what is currently being filmed in Bradford Upon Avon.

As I surmised from the banners in the tithe barn yesterday, it’s a desperate attempt to make Henry VII seem interesting. Look, H7 was a devoted husband and father, a decent general, a sound administrator, and a meticulous bookkeeper. There were a couple of pretenders to his throne who he treated with remarkable leniency. In other words, his reign was boring as hell. That was just what England needed after two generations of civil war, but it isn’t going to make for very interesting television. They’d just better put a lot more tits into this one, is all.

Anyhow, we got to hang out with the extras while the shooting was going on in the tithe barn.

There were a couple of sights in B upon A we had not got to yesterday, so we headed off to the Saxon Church. All the other churches in town had signs on them pointing to the Saxon Church in case anyone can’t tell Gothic or Regency from Saxon – which would be most people, probably. Anyway here is the Saxon church of Saint Lawrence.

Yep, it’s going to be a set for The White Princess, too. We did get to go inside this one, though. There’s some lovely Saxon knot work carved on the altar.

Nobody is sure how old the church is, but probably a thousand years or so. While we were in there a prayer group was gathering to pray for peace in Israel and Palestine. Good luck with that.

Next door is the Church of The Holy Trinity, which was built by the Normans and has about one Norman window left. It has scaffolding on all four sides, but Paula did get to chat with one of the stonemasons doing restoration work.

The local limestone is so soft that you can cut it with a handsaw, which is great if you want to remodel your church every hundred years, but not so good for reading the inscriptions in the graveyard.

After lunch we set off towards Bath. The canal crosses the River Avon twice on pretty aqueducts. This is the Dundas Aqueduct.

On the Avoncliff Aqueduct I was behind a hire boat whose driver was so impressed that he throttled back, stood on the roof of the boat and steered with his foot while taking photos. I was tempted to rear end him just for fun, but I settled for throttling back myself and rolling my eyes. If you actually want a picture of an aqueduct it’s much better to just moor up and walk around to where you can see it from the side.

Paint job of the day award goes to the Arbuthnot Jones.