STANGROUND. CHURCH : ST JOHN THE BAPTIST
August Bank Holiday Sunday and the rain and grey skies relent just enough to get out for three hours on the cycle. I decided to visit three churches in villages that, to all intents and purposes, have been all but swallowed up by Peterborough city centre.
Having started out at Woodston I made the trip through part of Peterborough city centre, visiting Fletton before ending up at neighbouring Stanground.
For a long time I was not going to include these three, as well as other places such as Longthorpe and Werrington as I really do not enjoy photographing in built up areas. I enjoy the open countryside, small picturesque villages with quaint churches. However, if this site is ging to be a complete record of all village churches in the catchment area of this site then they have to be photographed.
The church of St John The Baptist at Stanground is a distinctive landmark, with its black tipped spire. Considering how close this church is to Peterborough City centre it is also very picturesque, with the church being partially hidden by some very attractive trees.
The church was locked, as I expected all that I visited that day to be. Never good to see a house of God locked to visitors but sadly this is indicitive of the times that we live in and understandable.
It was remarkably peaceful and quiet in the church grounds and the only company that I had was from a man who was sat asleep on a bench opposite the church. Think that he had had a liquid lunch and a can of Heineken was still perched in between his knees as he slept.
Some very fine and intricately cared gravestones to be found here. Some lovely work in particular from the mid 18th Century. All graves appeared to be marked with a number. Possibly someone had been cataloguing the graves recently for church records. Applaud that totally, but would have been nice if the graves had been marked at the back though rather than obtrusively on the front.
On the subject of graves, there was a single death head stone here. Sadly, terribly worn and only just distinguishable. Could see enough of it though to say that this was one of the crudest skull carvings that I had ever seen.
Oldest thing by far in the church grounds is what appears to be a Saxon cross. Not common in this part of the country with next nearest from memory being seven or eight miles away at Elton. Nice to see this here.
Not so nice was to take a photograph of the church grounds and then realise that I had got some of the local youths "artwork" in the shot on a wall just outside the church grounds.
Church grounds were very well maintained and someone, or I suspect more like several people, obviously put a lot of time and effort in keeping the grounds neat and tidy. Unusual spelling of the word parish on the church wheelie bin as well. See photograph bottom left. This was photograph number 773 uploaded on to this site and the first time that a wheelie bin has been the focal point of a photograph. This will probably also be the final time that a wheelie bin will be the focal point of a photograph!
I wasn't particularly looking forward to coming here but I was pleasantly surprised. Plenty here to catch the eye. On the way out I saw that the man on the bench had woken up and had been joined by a friend. And a nice pleasant pair they were as well. Enjoyed my brief spell here more than I thought I would.
