St Michael Stanton Harcourt

 

This week the Church Explorer  makes a return visit to St Michael Stanton Harcourt to look around the Harcourt Chapel which holds the Harcourt Family tombs

The Walk back

 

Did I get to Churn Knob  well nearly

There is a wooded area at  the top of Churn Hill where you find this reservoir as there was a crop field beside it I did not feel I should try that way

Not far away this small tractor was parked up beside the gallops

I did look down here to see if there was a way

Churn Knob is that clump you see sticking up over the rape field

Couple of racehorses out for a walk

Time to go back a different path

and it is not long before you come to this part

With a couple of seats, this one has a few memorial plates on it

It's a grand view you get though I think the trees have grown since the benches were placed

You cans see right across to Didcot and beyond 

That was is Blewbury where I started

 

On the other side of the trees you can see better

 Zoomed in to Didcot

The seats are at the top past the trees. the area is an old chalk pit and is now a nature reserve 

I will take my leave with some of the flora growing.

Linked with Tuesday Travel 

Happy SkyWatch 

St James, Kinnersley

 

This week the Church Explorer visits St James, Kinnersley for no other reason that I noticed it was near another church I had visited so went on my list. It's an unusual church with saddle back roof on the tower and is next door to Kinnersley Castle.

Churn Knob

 

Churn Knob is just outside Blewbury on the edge of the downs, this was the main place I had intended to walk to so a few photos.

I just found out the my blog has passed 2000000 views and I am grateful to those of you who visit but I doubt the amount of followers I have would reach that amount seems like AI bots making free with what I post 

Start of the walk uphill, need to go right

After a wile you pass this reservoir 

Then back under the trees

You soon find open space

And lots of downland

This tractor is on the hillside I went to previous

Stables below

Walk on further and more meadow

Might give an idea how far I am from the stables

More green tunnel

and a space to walk

 

Soon you near the place I was heading for and a look towards Didcot

 

Across the valley is a farm

And this place is called Rose Cottage

 

 I'll leave you with this view and show the rest next week

HappySkyWatch 

St Mary Magdalene, Eardisley

 

This week the Church Explorer visits  St Mary Magdalene, Eardisley. The church does not look anything unusual till you walk in the door and see the most amazing Norman font I have seen

 

Downs above Blewbury

This week the Downs above Blewbury, not many photos as this was not the main place I wanted to go its at the top of Woodway road and was probably not my best idea in driving all the way up as I felt the car ground out not that I was going very fast but I checked when I stopped and nothing looked amiss

This is the end of the road I went up, carry on walking along the track and you will come to a place called Lowbury Hill

Had to wonder what this was in front of  the gallops but it hold the huge cutting blades of a combine harvester. Mow a days they take them off and tow the thing, I remember as a kid them driving a harvester along the roads and the cutter only took up a small part

I saw the tractor coming up the road after taking my last photo so waited till he went past but he stopped and mentioned I should not be parked here as there are race horses coming up the road. I said I was just going and waiting for him to go. I think he spotted me driving up and came to see what I was doing. The yellow blob you see is the harvester cutting the field

  

 

I stopped to let the race horses by and too the photo as the walked up the road. Next week more photos of where I went next

 

Happy SkyWatch 

 

St Nicholas, Grosmont

 

This week the Church Explorer visits, St Nicholas, Grosmont. The last of the first day tour of churches in Wales and Hereford. By the time I got here the rain I had been dodging finally came

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Some views of the Downs

This may make someone homesick and I hope he remembers the place. The Downs is outside the village I live I call them the Berkshire Downs even though this part is now in South Oxfordshire. On the 1st I went out to get some photos of the downs in the next village along.

Part of the lower downs near Aston Tyrrold

They had been cutting the crops and the trailer is full of straw bales 

The downs I know are on the far side of the wood you see here which are called the plantation

The path here goes back towards Aston Tyrrold

Last one looking towards Kingstanding Hill most likely called that because a King Æthelred camped there the night before beating the Vikings in the Battle of Ashdown  

Happy SkyWatch 

St Mary & St David, Kilpeck

 

This week the Church Explorer visits  St Mary & St David, Kilpeck to look at the superb Norman carvings on the church

 

Sunset on a hot day

 

You might have noticed we had a heat wave here in the UK with the temperature getting hotter by the day, we mostly hid inside out of the heat trying to stay cool. On what I thought was the hottest day I poked my head out of the bathroom window to get a photo of the remains of the sunset

A glow on the horizon

I though the air looked hazy from the back

South no different

The sky has some color out the back

It hit 37 C that day, next day was hotter

Happy SkyWatch