WANSFORD. CHURCH : ST MARY THE VIRGIN

First stop on a beautiful sunny, crisp mid January morning was the church of St Mary the Virgin at Wansford. Wansford is a beautiful village, with some gorgeous old houses and in the Haycock, it boasts one of the highest quality hotels in the area.

  Sunday service was being set up when I arrived, and I had previuously been in E Mail contact with the Canon Thomas Christie and had the pleasure of mneeting him on the day whilst taking the photographs. Both Mr Christie and the others helping to set up showed an interest in what I was doing and were extremely helpful in providing a few interesting historical bits and pieces.

  Pride of place in the church was given to a very lovely medieval font, intricately carved, and pictured below. I was told that this was found in a field, and had had cattle drinking out of it at one time.

  This was believed to have come from a church at a village called Sibertoft (sorry if that is not the correct spelling). This village was totally wiped out in the Black Death of 1389, and after that the village was demolished.

  Getting out and about on a beautiful Sunday morning, taking in some lovely old places and meeting some good, friendly people, this is what this site is all about, andf explains why I enjoyed my short stay here as much as I did.

  I made an last minute decision to re-shoot both the interior and exterior of this church in mid June 2008. Weather was ideal and this turned out to be a five church, getting on for 40 miles, churchcrawl in the most glorious sunshine. New exterior photographs added, new close ups of the font added and some beautifully carved grave art added.

  The grave pictured bottom right is dated 1699. There is a symbol on the top left of the grave. It is very worn, but it looks as if this might have been crossed bones, a symbol of mans mortality. Crossed bones are usually found with a human skull or hourglass.