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| Maggy cat still unhappy when our attention is on a jigsaw! |
Three counties in three days! From Solihull in the county of
West Midlands (it used to be in Warwickshire until boundary changes in the 1970’s
created the West Midlands), our home village of Alvechurch in Worcestershire on
Thursday and a three church (and three village) walk through Warwickshire on
Friday.
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| Afternoon tea and cake with Pauline in Alvechurch |
We returned to our home village of Alvechurch (population in
2011 census: 6564) on Thursday, not to look at our houses, in fact we didn’t
even pass them, but to visit Pauline, Jackie’s mum, who also lives in the
village, and to undertake a day of much needed gardening.
She has an ‘unconventional’ garden: areas of gravel, stones,
shells and plants that might be considered weeds by some, an interesting stone
path winding round bushes and overhanging trees, to a hidden top section of
plants, trees and a small fenced patio
area with a table and chairs. It’s grown and now needs taming, so we tackled it
with loppers, shears and forks and made progress, oops, was that a plant I just
put that bag of gravel on? Looked like a weed to me, but what do I know!
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| Our three churches walk from Meriden |
No ‘before and after’ photos though, we were just too busy
working and creating stuff and the result was good. It was pleasantly followed
by tea and cakes sitting outside in the sun at the new posh café in the village
square (I say ‘new’, it’s been open 9 months now apparently, but it wasn’t
there when we left in July last year), an amble back in the warm afternoon sunshine,
some baking, Jackie cooking a fabulous but cholesterol on a plate tartiflet and
then home to a disgruntled Maggy cat who had been left on her own all day!
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| Walking boots on and ready for our walk |
Friday was no better for her as we were out again for the
day, this time for a walk with Brian’s sister Denise and husband Paul. The
weather was still warm, not so sunny but still pleasant and we decided on a ‘three
church’ 7 mile walk in the central England county of Warwickshire. The three
churches are St Laurence in Meriden, St Andrews, in Eastern Green and the
fabulous St. John the Baptist in Berkswell.
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| Arriving at St Laurence church, Meriden |
The start was from outside the Queens Head pub in Meriden, a
town that is generally regarded as being in the very centre of England and has
a sandstone monument on the village green with a plaque referring to this traditional
understanding. It was home to the Triumph motorcycle factory from 1941, after
the Luftwaffe bombed the original factory in Coventry, about 6 miles away,
until it closed in 1983. The old factory is now a housing estate with road
names referring to old triumph motorcycles.
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| Inside St Laurence church |
Just a short walk away is the partly Norman church of St
Laurence , with sections built in the 12th century and other
sections built up to the 15th century. It is only open on Sundays,
but as we arrived there a warden was just opening it up and we were able to go
inside and take a look. It apparently was built on the site of an earlier Saxon
church built by Lady Godiva, of Coventry fame, who at that time owned the land.
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| The cows strode towards us, but one look from Jackie stopped it dead! |
Onwards across fields, ably navigated by Paul, past woods
and through fields of cows, who strode towards us and intimidated us, probably following
the recent report of former SMC member Richard Lloyd who has been trampled by a
herd of cows while out walking his dog nearby, eventually arriving at the Victorian
St Andrews church in Eastern Green on the outskirts of Coventry. Lunch stop
here in the graveyard, watching some dark grey clouds hover overhead, but
thankfully not releasing any rain and then on to the fabulous St John the
Baptist church in Berkswell.
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| Arriving at St Andrews, Eastern Green |
On the way to Berkswell, walking round the edge of a field
of Rapeseed, Jackie bent down and came up with a four leaf clover. People not
from the UK will probably not know the significance of this, the clover is a perennial
short-lived plant (or weed!), very common in the UK, but most commonly having
three leaves and only occasionally four leaves.
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| Inside St Andrews |
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| Denise and Jackie with their four leaf clovers |
To find one is considered to be
very lucky, so that’s the time to go and buy a lottery ticket! This caused us
all to start looking at the wild grasses at our feet that contained large amounts of
clover growing in amongst and, in a short while eagle-eyed Jackie picked
another one, closely followed by Denise, how amazing is that! The problem is
that once picked they wilt very quickly, but we have photographic evidence! Not
to be outdone I carried on looking and found one myself – however, I didn’t
pick mine, just took a photo. ‘This is why four leaf clovers are rare’ I said, ‘because
people always pick them, making them even rarer, but not me’ he said polishing
his halo!
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| And here's mine, still growing in the ground! |
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| The stocks at Berkswell |
Bit of a posh place Berkswell, nice village green with a set
of stocks in the middle with five holes in it! Why five holes? Apparently it is
claimed they were specially built for a one-legged ex-soldier and his two
drinking companions. Anyway the church is a gem, another Norman church, but
with parts, notably parts of the crypt and some steps outside, from a much earlier
period, maybe 725AD. A porch at the entrance to the church is Tudor and was
built in the 16th century, when the church was already 400 years old.
It looks oddly out of place, but as it’s been there for five hundred years and
is much older than many other buildings it can’t really be described as modern!
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| The well at Berkswell |
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| The fabulous St John the Baptist church with tudor porch extension |
Denise and Paul used to know the rector of the church and
remembered them to be quite well-to-do and the whole town exudes this feeling,
well-kept old buildings and well-tended gardens and lawns, a very pleasant
place to visit. We probably brought the tone down by sitting outside the church
drinking coffee from a flask, but do we care?
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| Inside St John the Baptist church. Jackie is crouching down having found one of the carved wooden mice on the font |
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| Down in the crypt |
Inside the church is equally as spectacular and beautifully
kept. Jackie followed a guide to try to find the nine carved mice in the woodwork,
she found six, while D&P ambled round. Brian found the entrance to the
crypt, which was open to the public so we went down and found a fabulous, very
old with sections even older but again very well preserved, room. A great visit
and well worth the visit. Just outside the grounds of the church is the old
well that, it is believed, gave its name to the town, Berkswell (don’t know who
Berk was!).
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| In the crypt. We got the ghost to take this one! |
We were back in time for an afternoon pint of real ale at the
Bulls Head in Meriden, then back to D&P’s for dinner, walking in to the
fabulous smell of her casserole cooking in the oven, followed by Paulines apple
and blackberry crumble and custard that we didn’t eat the day before and a nice
bottle of red wine.
It’s a tough old life! Park Run today for Brian, 24 min 31
sec for 5km – how good is that!
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| Jackie, Brian and Denise looking cool outside the church. What do you think of that Tudor porch on the Norman church? What was the planning department of the 16th century thinking of! |
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| A pond near Meriden |
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| Arriving back at St Laurence in Meriden. Yes its 4:00pm - beer 'o' clock! |
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| 7.5 mile walk, I think we deserved it! |
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