Wilsthorpe. CHURCH : ST FAITH
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A Saturday cycling tour of South Lincolnshire continued with a visit to Wilsthorpe, which turned out to be the eighth church of nine visited that beautifully Sunny mid Summer afternoon. This church is not particularly old, it was the smallest church visited that day, and there was nothing remarkable to be found in the church grounds, but it turned out, along with Barholm from a few miles away, to be one of my most favourite churches visited that day.
By the time that I had reached St Faiths,Wilsthorpe I had cycled some 30 miles already, and was starting to feel the effects of the Sun, which was making a rare but welcome appearance as July at least made an effort to be Summerlike. Once again I found the village difficult to find. Not much in the way of signposts here and I was helped by some local, and inquisitive local kids, who spotted me taking photographs at neighbouring Braceborough, and after I had convinced them that people were actually interested in what I was photographing, they gave me directions and went off good naturedly on their bikes. One of them offered to race me to Wilsthorpe but that didn't appeal. I would have given him a good run for his money at 7-30 that morning but after being on the road for a fair while I think that he might have had the edge!! Lovely kids, and nice to have chatted with them!
As mentioned above, this is not an old church, with the current structure being built in the early 18th Century, after an earlier building was pulled down in 1715. The church was altered in the 1860's with the work apparantly not going down too well with the locals!
Inside, the church is basic, and nothing wrong with that at all, and it is bright and airy. There is also a gallery built over the porch. Something that I did notice was some more ancient grafitti with many names carved in to the stonework on the inside, on either side of the main doorway. This follows on from seven days previously, when I saw exactly the same at Morton church just a few miles away. Just shows that vandalism is not a purely modern day problem!
For all that this might not be the most beautiful building that I have ever seen, there is something just quaint and typically English about this church., I felt the same way about Little Gidding church when I visited it on Easter day. Lovely views to be had of the church, particularly nice ones from across the field as I was leaving the church and trying to find my way back to King Street, the old Roman Road, as I started to wend my way home. I was particularly fond of the picture at the top of this page, with the tiny broach spire poking above the surrounding trees like a witches hat!
As mentioned earlier, not a great deal of interest in the church grounds, but one very nice gravestone with skull on it did catch the eye. Not a great example, and not a patch on that seen earlier in slate at Tallington, but interesting nonetheless and a bit of a rarity in this part of the country.
