David Green
November 2002.

I have recently been speaking to two more groups of folk very interested in Tyndale; but the occasion, which stays in my mind, is the AGM of the Gloucester branch of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE) held at Whitminster church in the vale of Berkeley. The chair was taken by Mr John Berkeley of Berkeley Castle, which is a few miles distant. (It will be remembered that William Tyndale’s brother Edward became one of the Crown Stewards of the Berkeley estates in 1519 and that the castle was part of the background to the early life of WT who more than likely attended the Lady Katherine de Berkeley’s grammar school in Wotton under Edge).

I had been invited to give the lecture following the meeting because one of the items on the agenda concerned the newly refurbished Tyndale Monument on the hill overlooking the vale, and a guided tour of it was being planned for early in 2003.

My talk was greeted very warmly by a most enthusiastic audience and I believe the Society gained one new member at least that evening! After the lecture a string of lights led from the church to the lovely old manor of Whitminster House where log fires were burning in three rooms and a buffet supper was laid out. Our hostesses were Mrs Anita Teesdale and her daughter, Anne, and the party that followed can be imagined. Above all I was struck by the wonderful collection of paintings, mainly portraits, and many by the late John M.Teesdale, the celebrated portrait painter and member of the Royal and West of England Academy. His lovely work was all around us and I asked, as a painter myself, to be allowed to return one day in daylight to see them again. I got my wish.