Bug's Birthday

A new dress, a lovely bedcover and several bird books - oh, and a noisy party in the afternoon!  

 

St Pandionia and St John, Eltisley

The church of Saint Pandionia and Saint John the Baptist, to be precise, looks impressive from the main road across the open churchyard, until you see that the chancel has been rebuilt in brick, with the original pitch of the roof still visible.  The south side of the tower is plain, with the 'tall shed' encasing the weights for the clock, which take one week to fall the distance.  Inside, the chancel and the organ look new and out of place against the decaying plasterwork.  The north transept chapel houses the beheaded memorials of two C13th people, man and wife, presumably.  The man responsible for disfiguring them was Robert Palmer, the vicar in Elizabethan times.  What looks like an original arch is now built into the chapel wall.  The Roll of Honour lists those who went to war, and not just the dead, or whole families would have been wiped out.  

 

St Andrew's, Caxton

St Andrew's looks solid and original from the outside.  There is no clerestory.  Inside, there is only one side aisle, the Lady Aisle on the south side, rebuilt in 1862 after the original collapsed.  The nave is dark and the chancel bright, and the whole interior is in good repair.  The rood screen dates from the 1950s and

the original screen door is covered up behind the pulpit.  Apart from the Victorian glass in the east window the chancel is the best-preserved part of the old church, dating from AD 1240 and the roof from AD 1515.  It includes a double piscina and a stone sedilia (or seat) with an appropriate kneeler on it.  There is a memorial to former priest whose son was killed at Gallipoli.  

 

Botanic Gardens

A sunny day with the blossom just emerging.  The glasshouses are still covered by scaffolding.  Tables and chairs are now out for takeaways from the cafe.  

 

Hardwick Wood

From the top: Nuthatch, Buzzard, Wren, Skylark.

 

All Saints, Barrington

 A large church standing at the head of the longest village green in England and displaying several plaques about bell-ringing records.  There is more detail to be shown here, and an outside view - all on another visit. 

Chiff and Chaff

With a Chiffchaff here and a Chiffchaff there, here a chiff, there a chaff, everywhere a Chiffchaff!

There were Blackcaps and Cetti's warblers but they remained hidden.  RSPB Fowlmere.