My first target was the 12th century St Peter's church at Hanwell in Oxfordshire and it was open. The interior is packed with wonderful carved cacpitals and on the exterior frieze on the chancel.
As I was leaving I noticed two birds in a tree, I stuck the bins on them and the first was a Blue Tit but the other was a Spotted Flycatcher!
The next two churches were locked but one had an unusual occupant of the churchyard
So I arrived at Packwood House. Its a combination of a small Tudor Yeoman's house with major additions by Baron (his name) Ash in the 20' and 30's. All done pretty well if you ask me. The weather was rather pleasant (which is a bit of a shock after recent days) so I put my feet up and read for a while. The yew garden is pretty impressive.
Had a look around the house. Small but rather nice.
Then onto Baddesley Clinton which is a massive 3 miles away. Its a lovely moated medieval manor house. its a lovely size, i could live there!
At the heart of the story of Baddesley is Rebecca Dulcibella Orpen. She was living with her aunt Lady Chatterton. Apparently Edward Derong came to ask permission of the 53 year old partly death spinster to marry her niece. She told the world that Dering had asked for her hand and Dering was too much of a gentleman to withdraw. Rebecca married Marmion Ferrers the owner of Baddesley and they invited the Dering's to live with them. When Lady Chatterton and Ferrers eventually died Rebecca and Dering married.
The house is full of priest holes and is moared. I loved it.
I started off with lunch and i had a few guests. Poor chaffies legs :(
I did feed these chaps
Then onto house and gardens
I went back to the restaurant for a cup of tea and slice of fruit cake and had a read. I just texted Nic what a lovely day it was and then it hammered down. Luckily I had finished my tea and cake (how terribly British).
I wandered down to St Michaels Church which is close to the house. One of the Ferrers family that once owned Baddesley had to restore it after killing a priest (this was in the reign of Henry VII 1485-1509). Apparently he is buried under the churh entrance and you walk over him to enter!
Rain didn't last! Lovely day very relaxing.
5 comments:
Wonderful pictures, as always Pete. You do take lovely journeys and it looks like it wasn't as wet as you thought it might be. Happy you're back...missed you.
Looks like a nice holiday! Some nice photos you have taken there pete
Wonderful photos Pete -- glad you are back. I really appreciate the photos and I know how much time it takes to set it all up. I will go back and read it over - the churches are amazing aren't they.
OC - missed you too
Nic - thank you
Oceans - oh yes we are very lucky. think I overdid the photos though
Wow you certainly packed a lot into your day.
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