Snitterfield Bushes

I've tried making the size of print a little larger as I am aware it is quite small on my blog posts.  I hope it works!

I've tried to change the background colour again to a light blue but all that happens is this time is that it highlights the words in blue so I've given up on that idea! I suspect I may have to change the template to one with background colour.

Last Saturday D and I visited Snitterfield Bushes, a Warwickshire Wildlife Trust Reserve, a few miles North of Stratford upon Avon.  We've visited just once before.  It was a relief to find it was quiet and peaceful - we saw just a few other families during the whole visit all of whom were in the distance.

Snitterfield Bushes, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI),  is an area of damp woodland covering 50 hectares with grassy rides and glades, ditches, pond and wet flushes.  It once formed part of a much larger area of semi-natural woodland.  It was a forest for many centuries with the wood being used as timber and common pasture areas.  Ridge and Furrow plough markings are visible in some areas.  The site was used as an airfield in World War 2 and some of the paths are made up of the old concrete runways.  The area was clear felled in the 1940's but since then the site has been returned to its current appearance.

The woodland is composed mainly of ash, oak, silver birch and field maple with a shrub layer of wild privet, wayfaring tree, dogwood and Midland hawthorn.  

• 250 species of plant have been recorded
• 60 species of bird recorded
• 28 butterfly species
• 260 species of macro moth
• 89 hoverfly species
• 177 species of beetle including glow worms
• Red and Fallow Deer occur

Common Darter?

White Bryony berry "necklaces"

I do love autumn and there were many signs on this walk from various berries, to seedheads and toadstools.

Common Fleabane

It looks a good year for Hawthorn berries

Seat with a view

Sloes galore, Rose Hips and Acorns

The next few photos from the walk were taken by my son.

Speckled Wood - we saw several on the walk and also a few unidentified "whites!

There were bat boxes everywhere

On the way back we stopped off briefly in the village of Bearley as I wanted to take a photo of the church.

St Mary's has a 12th century nave and the chancel is 13th or 14th century. There was some rebuilding in 1875 and the brick tower was added in 1830.

The church was open but if you read the small print only for private prayer or funerals.  I was almost tempted to go in though as there is a 15th century font.  Perhaps one day in the future.

Timber framed cottage opposite

The remaining photos are by my son.

Hedgehog Crossing! 😀

We drove through Henley in Arden on our way back home - it was teeming with people and there was a huge queue outside Henley Ices so no icecream stop!  D took these colourful pots and baskets photos from the car.

I am still not over happy with the quality of the uploaded images in the blog post although they may be slightly better in the gallery.  However, I am not very technically minded so have no idea how to change it.  When I used to compose a post in html I was given a choice of photo size having uploading each one but that option seems to have disappeared. I might do a test post using old blogger, if still available,  and upload one photo I have used in new blogger posts to compare.

Oops! I have a horrible feeling that somehow the print size has gone smaller again over the course of the post! Apologies if it has! 😠

D and I hope to go back to Snitterfield when the autumn colours appear as long as we can still travel!

I do hope everyone is staying safe and well.

Photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera

Photos taken by my son with the Canon Bridge SX50 bridge camera.

St Nicholas, Beaudesert and St John the Baptist, Henley in Arden

St John's, Henley in Arden, and St Nicholas's Church in Beaudesert are located within 500 yards of each other and since 1915 they have been united under one Rector.

Despite the closesness of St Nicholas, parishioners in Henley in medieval times had to worship at the church at Wootton Wawen two miles away. The journey was dangerous due to the threat of floods and highwaymen and so a Chapel of Ease was built and then later the building of St John's church began at the end of the 15th century.


St John the Baptist, Henley

I didn't go inside the church on this visit but if you would like to see the interior please see my post on the church last year here


Just a few photos from the exterior as we walked past on our way to the motte and bailey

Carvings of fruit and leaves

Carvings by exterior East Window

St Nicholas, Beaudesert


St Nicholas is Norman and construction, under instructions from the de Montfort family, began in 1170 to provide a place for people from the castle and Beaudesert to worship. The nave is lower and narrower than the chancel as the North wall had to be rebuilt as a result of problems with ground to the north. The tower, built of Arden stone, is 15th century.

The chancel including the chancel arch is completely Norman and was restored in the 19th century with the same quality of Norman craftsmanship. The church was restored by Thomas Garner in 1864.

The lychgate was added in 1878.

The Norman arch around the south door has been restored.

The weather vane depicting St Nicholas with three children.

The inside of the church was rather dark and gloomy - I really must remember to look for light switches! - so the photos aren't brilliant.

15th century octagonal font.

Church interior

Five of the nave windows installed 1864/5 are by Morris and Co and really are rather lovely. Indidivual figures were depicted by Philip Webb, Burne-Jones, Nora Madox and William Morris himself.

This window depicts St Nicholas and the legend of the saint raising 3 boys from the dead after they had been robbed, killed and hidden in a barrel of pickled pork.

The West Window, obscured by bell pulls!

Lectern - neo Norman by the Bromsgrove Guild 1930

Rubbish photo of the chancel arch! This arch has also been restored

Victorian tiles in the chancel

Interior

East window by Holland 1853

Finally, a few photos from the churchyard

East Window exterior

As usual features were missed - old piscina in chancel (actually I did see this but it was too dark to get a photo!), ambry in North Wall and near the south door are the remains of a Norman stoup badly damaged but of interest as it was one of the few surviving stoups from this period.


All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera


Reference. Leaflet from St Nicholas, Beaudesert