Glastonbury’s ‘Crystal shops’, Part 2

Tags

Athelney, bookshop, Burns the Bread, Glastonbury, Glastonbury High Street, King Alfred, Meditation

Continuing our discovery of Glastonbury’s alternative lifestyle shops, a little further up is Moon Mirrors, and The Mystic Garden. On either side of the High Street are several alleys, reflecting the mediaeval layout of the town centre.  Some of these have totally disappeared, but some of them are still delightful to explore.  The Gauntlet is a very recent exploitation of the original layout, in that the developer not only beautifully restored buildings on either side of the alley, creating shops and accommodation, but extended it further with more housing.  Come and visit these byways yourself… Continuing up the High Street, we come to Yinyang. Glastonbury High street does have a few conventional shops, such as this flower shop, the name of which nevertheless has an Avalonian influence,and the wonderful Burns the Bread, award winning baker. It’s very difficult to pass without just popping in for a pastry. I joined a behind-the-scenes tour of the bakery with the Glastonbury Conservation Society a year or so back.  It was Bob Burns himself who guided us.  What a wonderful name, enabling a good old-fashioned English pun for the name of the shop! (It was only a few miles from here, at Athelney, that King Alfred – if he did – burnt the cakes.)Then we come to a shop focused on Africa, followed by The Goddess and the Green Man,a shop selling imported Indian goods, dilliway and dilliway, and Lilith. Here’s another bookshopand Covenstead’s Curious Cottage, opened recently, in the place of a failed newspaper shop.  (Two years ago we had three of these, now we have just one.) Perhaps you seek Enlightenment? Are you a Natural Earthling? Or perhaps you’d like to try Soul Therapy Meditation.(To be concluded tomorrow.)