BARNACK. CHURCH : ST JOHN THE BAPTIST

Well, Barnack...what can I say? Exquisite! Whichever way you look at this church it is beautiful. So much to look at inside and out. A delight, so much so that I would consider it, along with St Kyneburghas at Castor, to be my most favourite church within the catchment area of this site. This church will therefore have two pages devoted to it. One pge will feature photographs of the interior whilst this page will contain exterior photographs.

  The photographs enclosed here were taken on two different occasions. The first of these was on a surprisingly warn January afternoon. Such are the eccentricities of the English weather that two days lter the whole area was covered with a couple of inches of snow! The horse in the photograph below left appeared a tad overdressed when I photographed him. Bet he was glad that he was wearing it later though with the snow teeming down!

  The setting of this church is beautiful. The church of St John The Baptist is set a little way away from the main road that runs in to Stamford. The two photographs below on the left are taken from the North and the area off grassland where the horses are grazing is full of ancient looking earthworks. Would be pretty confident that these are human habitations, from times far distant.

  To the South of the church there stands some very fine and elegant Georgian houses, similar to those found in nearby Stamford. Once inside the church grounds you are really spoiled for choice. Difficult to know where to start but will begin with some stone coffins which are dotted around the walls. The photograph bottom left shows a broken coffin standing up against the church wall. Notice the cut out shape for the head. Quite a few of these could be seen, including the smallest child's coffin that I have ever seen.

  As you would expect from this area the quality of carvings on the gravestones is exceptional, but sadly most of these were very worn. Was particularly taken with the fine stone carving in the photograph at the foot of the page bottom right. One sad looking and very worn skull on a deaths head stone was just legible. Was very interested in seeing the symbol of a Ram looking out from one gravestone. Have no idea what the Ram symbolises...any suggestions anyone?

  Parts of this church are very ancient, with the oldest part being the lower two stages of the tower, which date from 1000 AD. There are Saxon features on the tower, with the bird carving pictured below being an example of this. The church is made almost exclusively from local Barnack stone. This was excavated from just down the road, the medieval quarry now a tourist attraction called the Barnack Hills and Hollows.

  My return trip came in early October 2008. After a second successive wash out of an English Summer, the sun was shining and the sky was the most beautiful blue. I had some company whilst photographing the exterior of this church. Two little girls played amongst the stone, giggling happily, whilst their mother took advantage of the fine weather.

  No credit crunch, no stress, no worries...a day out of the rat race in a lovely place with the sun shing down. This is the type of day that I had in mind when I decided to set this site up.

  Barnack church is well worth a visit if you are in the area. Interior photographs can be found on a separate page immediately below this page.