the new goose
scratches
by the wire
thinking spring
time to guard the park
Giant Gunnera shields
her new shoots
in the dark
dreaming
her own fire
old watering hole
waiting for hundreds
new
pilgrims in the yard
cafe sleeps
curtains drawn
still
with no regard ~
Gill McGrath© March 17

Gill McGrath©

The Golden Cross, Oxford
Before commercial inns came into being monasteries were obliged to provide food and shelter for travellers. The place where The Golden Cross stands today was always a destination or a shelter for pilgrims and travellers. Gifted in 1193 to Osney Abbey during the reign of Richard I, it was immediately sold to a vintner named Mauger and known as Mauger’s Hall in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, providing stabling, refreshment and chambers to a large number of people. It was owned by New College (Oxford University) for more than four hundred years from 1390 to 1810. Now a Pizza Express.

(Information from a leaflet printed 1912 by Oxford Architectural and Historical Society. About building conservation)