Whittlesey. CHURCH : ST MARY

This turned out to be a very pleasant church to photograph, albeit with the photographs taken in a hurry as I arrived shortly before a wedding was due to take place. I was lucky to get in at all though and I nearly left disappointed! Got off the bus in good spirits after just having photographed the beautiful church of St Wendreda at March. The Sun was out and conditions for photography were excellent. Just one problem, all of the gates were padlocked so I could not even get access to the church grounds.

  I have seen plenty of locked churches in my time, but this was only the third time that I had encountered a total shut out to even the grounds. I will not criticise this and will only say that the church wardens do what they think they need to do and obviously there must have been a problem in the past for the gates to be shut. There are no modern graves at this church that family might want to visit so nobody is being deprived on that score....but it is a shame nonetheless, and a sad reflection of our times!

  .....but then I fell lucky. A phone call to a very pleasant church wardern confirmed that the church would be opened in an hours time as there was to be a wedding. So, St Mary's perdundicular glory remained behind bars for a short period and I popped down the road to photograph the church of St Andrew, where the gates were open by the way!

  A lovely church this, with the buttressed spire being described in one source as the best in the county. A large open green to the west of the church gives some excellent long range photo opportunities, something that I hadn't anticipated given that the church is in the middle of the town. The spire dominates the town and can be seen from the church grounds at nearby St Andrew.

  Lots of stone heads here with many of these being sadly pretty eroded. One interesting specemin caught my eye. A gargoyle directly over the clock on the South side of the church had a large body and a tiny pair of arms. This one is pictured below left.

  Other gargoyles surrounding the tower were alomost totally unrecognisable. Lots of empty niches to be seen on the exterior of this church. In its day, this church must have been one of the finest in the area.

  Church grounds, as with others in the area, had been partially cleared. What was left were for the most part very badly eroded. Hints of some very fine workmanship to be seen, but no photographs included as they really were in bad condition.

  Stepped inside to say hello to the church wardern and beat a fairly hasty retreat as "Totally Devoted To You" by Olivia Newton John started playing through the speakers in anticipation of the first guests arriving.

  Pleasant time spent here, but if visiting just hope that there is a wedding on!