Horsington is tucked away in a corner of the Somerset Levels. We spent a pleasant evening and comfortable night at the inn. I went walking to explore the village early in the morning enjoying the chorus of birdsong and a distant cuckooing.
I could see the parish church but could find no way of getting to it until I found a public footpath sign pointing to St Johns church in a lane going out of the village. The path lead me through private gardens and through a pasture and beside a paddock where a couple of horses were grazing.
The odd thing about the church clock is that it faces away from the village. After walking around the outside of the church I followed the lane from the gate back towards the village street. There is the remains of a market cross halfway down the lane with an explanatory plaque.
There is no sign in the village street showing how to get to the church.
It is a long time since I have seen a hedge neatly cut and laid like this:
An American style mail box at the gate of a wisteria covered cottage looks incongruous:
We set out on the road again fortified with a hearty full English breakfast. We had an easy drive; the clouds thinned and the sun shone. Then we on our way to explore Muchelney Abbey.
For several centuries after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII the abbot's lodging served as a farmhouse. One range of the small cloister remains.
I explored the parish church which contains much of the decorative mediæval tile that survives from the abbey.
Apse of the original Anglo-Saxon abbey church.
Sorry about the drunken angle.
Fireplace in the abbot's great chamber
I explored the parish church which contains much of the decorative mediæval tile that survives from the abbey.
Detail of mediæval tile by the font
We were on our way again through deepest Devon and red soil under the pasture in this shot.
We stopped for a quick lunch in Honiton. Then on we went skirting Exeter and finally crossing the Tamar at Saltash with a grand view of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's over engineered railway bridge carrying the main line on to Penzance.
The final roads into Seaton, Seythin in Cornish, were narrow and curvaceous and we arrived safely at St Martins. Here's the view towards Rame Head from the balcony:
No comments:
Post a Comment