Edith Weston. CHURCH : ST MARY THE VIRGIN

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The church of St Mary the Virgin at Edith Weston was the second church visited on a beautiful April day in 2007. This turned in to a nine church crawl in the end. Unusually, I was not on my own this time, with two travelling companions. Jeff was trying out the camera that he got for Christmas and his wife Judy was there for the day out, with an emergencey paperback in case she got bored!

  Edith Weston nestles close to Rutland Water, and this village is right at the edge of the catchment area for this site.

  We arrived at the village after leaving Empingham. This was my first ever visit to this church, and my immediate reaction as we drove through the village was that whichever angle we shot the church from it would look beautiful. In the end, I think that my favourite exterior view of this church is in the picture below left. Trees, blossom, blue sky, sunshine....life is always good, but was particularly good that morning as we stood outside St Mary The Virgin!

  I didn't see an information leaflet inside the church, and information on the internet was sparse to say the least, but I can tell you that the church dates from the 12th Century, with the tower coming along about 200 years after that.

  The church was open, as with many in this delightful county. Was particularly fond of a couple of stained glass windows in this church. Both are pictured below. Glorious subtle tones in the glass, glorious pieces of work. Stained glass is not my favourite aspect of church photoghraphy by any means (give me a glorious gargoyle or a ghastly grotesque and day of the week) but I really did like these windows.

  ....And speaking of gargoyles there were four to be seen high up on the top of the tower, and a couple of unusual designs lower down. One of these was definitely a lion. The other, pictured below right, well...you tell me what that is!

  A very pleasant time spent here...then it was off to our next point of call, Normanton, which is pictured at the foot of this page.

After leaving Edith Weston it was a very short drive to Normanton.The church here, formerly dedicated to St Matthew, is redundant and is now used as a museum and also houses an exhibition on the building of Rutland Water. This church was originally built in the years 1826-1829 and was designed by Thomas Cundy, then architect to the Grosvenor estate in Westminster.

  It is fortunate that this building is still with us at all. The original site of the church would have placed it below the water line of Rutland Water It was saved through a project, helped by voluntary subscription, which raised the floor level of the church and protected the lower part of the building with a pier of stones.

  ....But never mind all that.....look at the Ducklings in the bottom right hand corner of the photograph. A mother and ten chicks. Wildlife photography and church photography at the same time. This combined with the gentle lapping of the water on the shore and the Sun on our backs made this a very pleasant stop off....even more so as lunch was soon to be consumed!