Stoneywell, Thornton & Staunton Harold Church

Stoneywell is a cottage built at the end of the 19 century by furniture designer and architect Ernest Gimson as a summer house for his brother Sydney. It was built in the arts & crafts  style. It had a thatched roof which was destroyed by fire in 1938.

It remained in the Gimson family for well over a century and in 2013 it was acquired by the National Trust from Donald Gimson (Sydney's grandson). Donald requested the house was presented as it would have been in the 1950's.

There are limits to the number of visitors permitted and you have to pre-book and visit is by guided tour.

Ideally you would visit on a sunny day.... not one where it was chucking it down :) Oh and the bus had broken down.

I wasn't crowded on my tour..... it was a tour of ME! Thank you to guide Melanie.

I am happy to report that Scone standards are maintained from my last visit! This is one of the few places where I scored the Scones higher than the Scone blogger!

So I  couldn't really sit and read my book so .... Thornton church is nearby...

Unfortunately it was locked but fortunately the key was at the shop 50 yards away! So..

880 St Peter's, Thornton

I unlocked the main door and saw a sign on the next one that said no photographs without permission of the rector or warden.... 880 parish churches into the 1000 and that's a first.

Near to my hotel is Staunton Harold. The house was until 2002 a Sue Ryder home but is now a private home..... there is a garden centre on the site and a group of specialist shops.

My visit was to show you the Chapel of the Holy Trinity it is VERY unusual for being built in 1653 during the Commonwealth (the period when we officially had no Monarch between the death of Charles I and the restoration of Charles II in 1660).

It is built in the Gothic Survival style. If you think of the London churches built in the 17th century they were in the baroque style.