On Sunday 4th June the weather was lovely and still not too hot. B and E were happy to stay at the caravan so I went to look round two local churchyards with D.
We've often passed St Mary's at Hope Under Dinmore but this was the first time I had had a look round. Its located on the slope of Dinmore Hill. Most of the 19th century church building is by F R Kempson in a Geometric Gothic Style. A few remnants of the original medieval church remain. The West Tower was built by T Colley in 1813.
There were House Martins nesting in this porch. It was delightful to watch them coming and going with food.
The churchyard was a bit too "manicured" for my liking. You'll see in the next post how beautiful a "Living Churchyard" can look when older areas are left for wildlife to flourish.
Rear of the church - there was a 6 foot deep gully along the rear of the church!
Bees nesting in the masonry
I thought the wild flower arrangement on this grave was so natural.
I had read this church was normally kept locked and once behind the initial door to the porch the main door wouldn't budge. Often you can I think arrange with key holders to be let into churches but tbh I so often go on speck that its hard to contact people in advance.
Swallow - there were a pair and they got very twitchy and chased off any House Martins that swooped too close!
All photos by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate most of my photos but if anyone wishes to use one I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).
