Grabbing just the one camera and stuffing a wider angle lens in my coat pocket I walked along the road towards the track that led to the somewhat unusual local church to St. Mary the Virgin, whose tower is some distance from the body of the church. This gave rise to the story that the reason was the Devil was attempting to steal the tower, but he hadn't taken note of its weight and lacked the power to carry it more than a few feet before giving in and leaving it where it remains to this day. The true reason seems lost in the mists of time; maybe Time Team should be invited to delve deeper to discover the real reason, but the church building itself is an interesting mix of styles and dates from around 1340.
Currently due to the inordinate amount of rain that has fallen, the ground is waterlogged and extremely slippery in the grassy areas, but the brook that runs from the area and under the main road and by the side of the road leading to the Forest Centre, though its level is much higher than when I saw it in the summer, has been deepened again recently giving some confidence that this flood plain is receiving attention regarding flood risks. However I hope that some of the brambles might be removed to ensure an uninterrupted flow to this vital safety measure.
The nature of the church and tower's construction does not lend itself to a long thin horizontal format so I chose a more suitable image from the graveyard. The graves within its boundary do not seem overly crowded, but a stretch of land on the outskirts of the village have been acquired and it is planned that this area will become the extension to the church's graveyard at some time in the future.
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