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Click on thumbnail to view full size picture of Waterley Bottom WOTTON UNDER EDGE to WATERLEY BOTTOM
The Tyndale Monument. The tower has a brief inscription on it but this does not begin to describe the work of William Tyndale and what he unleashed. He lived in dangerous times (Henry VIII was on the throne!). Tyndale, a Catholic priest, was also a religious reformer and he hit on the novel idea of using a new invention (printing) to bring bible reading to the masses. The big problem was that the only bible available was written in Latin and few could read it, so Tyndale re-wrote it in English and incorporated a few of his own ideas. You might think the author of the first bible written in English would be hailed as a literary genius, no chance, the church, fearing it would undermine their authority (history proved them right), tried to suppress the book and got Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Thomas More to make it illegal to read the bible, can you imagine it!!! Too late, the public thirst for knowledge was absolutely unstoppable and they risked everything to read it. Tyndale was in real trouble now, he fled to the continent but the Catholic church caught him and he was executed. Meanwhile Sir Thomas More had fallen foul of Henry VIII and was executed for his religious beliefs (clearly a no win situation for clerics in those days). When you see the Tyndale monument it's worth reflecting on the power of the pen and what people had to go through for the simple right to write and read a book, oh yes, history can teach us a lot! If you are using a GPS or compass take care at waypoint 5. Because you are walking a big loop the direct line between Wp5 and 6 is 90 degrees from the correct path. I have used a plotline (G12-P1) to aid this. For a full explanation go to our navigation page and read about plotlines. (GPS length 7.74 miles). How to get there: Park in the town centre car park next to the Tourist Information Centre. Getting to Wotton under Edge is
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