Three Counties Crawl

It's an early spring day, glorious sunshine, with the added bonus of an afternoon off. So fire up the old motor and off into the countryside. The first stop is at Upton, St John Baptist, just off the A47 near Castor in Cambridgeshire/Huntingdonshire, well known to Churchcrawlers for it's fine Norman church. However Upton is a bit of an odd church, it looks more like a compact country house, with 17th C windows and a triple gable roof. It stands across a field from the small village. After enquiries in the village I found out the key is to be found at the Model Farm house, just up the road. After being savaged by the resident critter, sorry, Jack Russell terrier at the farm I shot off to examine the interior. Inside the church is quite a different story, fine 12th C arches, lovely Jacobean style pulpit and a fine monument to Thomas Dove and his two wives. His second wife is actually wooden, whilst his first wife is carved in stone, proving that the second wife was added on to the group later. It is in the four poster style, about 1630's, nicely done. Interestingly this monument is in the North aisle and is reached by a set of steps as this aisle is three feet higher than the nave.

  Next it's off up the A1 to Thornhaugh, St Andrew, a church I had not been to and one that is missing from the current BoE series. This is probably due to the fact that the Soke of Peterborough has no idea which county it is in and thus this border church got omitted from the Bedfordshire/Huntingdon edition. It looked lovely in the bright sun, lots of daff's in the churchyard. It was locked, keyholders telephone numbers were given, but my fellow local Churchcrawler Robin Peel has posted pictures of the interior on his website so I decided to save time here and move on to some more nearby churches.

  Just up the A1 from Thornhaugh is Wittering, All Saints, it's church is famous for the massive, unadorned Saxon chancel arch, this I wanted to see, so collected the key from the nearby post office. External this is not the most attractive of churches. The west tower is early 13th C to judge by the lancet windows, topped by a decorated Bell section with a very short steeple with two rows of lucarnes. It all looks a bit too tall and severe, like its been squashed lengthways and been push upwards! Internally it's dominated by three arches, the sombre, powerful, plain Saxon one to the Chancel and two Norman ones that seem determined to make up for the plain looks of their neighbour by showing off as much decoration as possible. There is some good Kempe glass here as well as some more modern glass, celebrating the local RAF station with some military figures.

    It's time to leave Huntingdonshire and visit Rutland. Up the A1, past Stamford and turn off to Ketton. Before I get to Ketton I stop off in Tinwell to look at All Saints church, it is locked, but there are three keyholders, however I need to press on, so make do with a brief perambulation around the outside. Lots of fine gravestones in the churchyard, made from the hardwearing local Ketton stone, indeed it has been noticeable that the quality of the gravestones has improved at every church so far. This quality of gravestones reaches it's nadir at Ketton with a veritable forest of high quality oolite, superbly carved. Ketton St Mary’s Church has a truly wonderful central tower, lots of carving, statues and crockets adorn it. The transepts of this cruciform church were removed in the 18th C but it still retains many super features, a fine Norman west door, decorated South Porch and a restored chancel with three lancet widows filled with Comper glass. Tall EE arches to the nave and just by the porch there is a fine WWII memorial, also by Comper. Oddly enough this church is made from Barnack stone, rather than the local Ketton variety, I only know this from the BoE, I can't tell the difference. I am sure that Ketton church is open every day. From Ketton it's back over the county border into the third county for the day, Northamptonshire. The first village is Collyweston, another village famous locally for the quality of its stone quarries. St Andrew’s church is approached down a tree lined avenue, however it was locked and the keyholder was either deaf or out, I'm not sure which, since several windows in the house were open and a radio was playing away. So once again I made do with a wander around the outside, there are some fine gravestones here, the west tower, with its clasped buttresses, is topped by four large pinnacles. This is one of those ‘difficult’ churches, I could not get a good photo as there are trees all round, or houses, I’ll have to invest in a very wide angle camera.

  My final church was the nearby Easton on the Hill. This All Saints church was open. It is set in a large tree filled churchyard, there is a sea of spring flowers as far as the eye can see, a fine sight on this lovely warm Spring day. It is so peaceful I was moved to sit on a tree stump and have a reflective ten minutes or so. If only we could find a spot like this when our everyday life seems to overwhelm us! I am always well disposed to an open church, this was no exception. A tall west tower, lots of gargoyles, topped by tall pinnacles. Internally it is a good size church, fine stone arcades to north and south chapels, lovely 20th C reredos and some unusual latin wall inscriptions in the sanctuary.

I go off home happy with pictures of seven churches added to my digital image database.

Chris

Pictured above left, the church of St Andrew, Collyweston. To the right of that an exterior view of All Saints, Tinwell. At the foot of the page, exterior and interior views of All Saints Easton On The Hill.

  All photographs on this page were taken by Chris Stafford.