Not pushy enough

Above:  visiting a village in the north west of the county I went first to the pub.  It was shut.  "He's very eccentric.  He inherited it from his father and just opens it when he wants to.  I think it's Saturday evenings by appointment, and most Sunday afternoons.  And darts night during the week."

Above:  we went up to a ridge to look over a little valley.  At this point it began to rain, huge drops.  I was sheltered under a tree, but still got fairly wet.  Originally the boundaries between two farms followed a meandering river through this valley.  In the eighteenth century a cut was made for the river which follows the hedge along the middle of the picture.  If you click to enlarge the image you can see the other farmhouse among the trees in the distance.

Above:  the church was nearby, a mixture of medieval and eighteenth century.  The roof was replaced about two hundred years ago, leaving the original roofline exposed against the tower.  You can see that the regular courses of cut stone change to rough in-fill.

Above:  three crusader tombstones had been built into the walls of the nave.

Above:  the alignment of the church is slightly off, although no-one can explain why.

Above:  the west window had been widened at some point in the past.  Together with the relignment this suggests that someone standing inside the church is meant to look in a certain direction.  Looking on Google maps I can trace the sight-line to a big farmhouse on a low hill about half a mile away.

Above:  in the chancel is this tomb of a knight.  The tomb is decorated with heraldry and other symbols, including several small heads.  Notice the spandrel designs. 

Above:  the carving on the monument is superbly detailed.

Above:  I think the spandrel designs must be associated with the Virgin Mary since they consist of a heart surrounded by lillies.  Probably they are the emblem of a confraternity the knight was associated with.  As well as funtioning as religious guilds confraternities raised money to send knights to the Holy Land.



Above:  I also met the owner of this farmhouse, which has a date of 1684 but may be considerably older.  The building was in a ruinous state before the present owner restored it ("the surveyer said it was basically verticle rubble").  Among the beams he had found a carved figure of an angel holding a shield.  The angel matched the angels carved on the tomb of the knight's wife.  I wanted to see this carving and I kept hoping the owner would ask me to look round the house.  He seemed on the verge of doing so, but in the end didn't. 

Perhaps I should have asked him outright.  It's the story of my life - I'm not pushy enough.  But perhaps I wouldn't like myself if I was too pushy.