Sunday – Leominster – A cool morning. Dozens of Jackdaws are flying about low over the roofs. A flock of feral pigeons race round over the town. A small flock of Rooks are high in the air heading east. A lone Magpie flies over. House Sparrows chatter beside the station. A Song Thrush comes down to drink from a puddle on the old railway track. The water level in the River Lugg remains very low. The resident Dipper whirrs away upstream. Yellow leaves from the Black Poplars are scattered everywhere.
Along the footpath that runs beside the river. I gather a tub of rose hips. Spindle has fruited with its strange triangular, pale pink berries. The Dipper is on a rock between the confluence of the Kenwater and Lugg and Ridgemoor Bridge. It sings tentatively.
The market is much smaller this week. I buy a cider barrel, which I am not sure I really need, for a third of its normal retail price. Back to the Ridgemoor Bridge. Despite the falling temperature there are still a good number of Pond Skaters out on the water.
Home – A bit of repair work on the summerhouse is undertaken. A few beetroots are pulled, some small ones for dinner and two large ones that make a couple of jars of pickled beetroot. I make a start on weeding the bed. The rose hips, small quinces and small grapes are all chopped and boiled then into a jelly bag. The juice will be made into a syrup. The hens are all laying well, although the eggs are still small.
Sunday – Leominster – A cool morning. The sky has scattered grey clouds. Jackdaws have been chattering since before dawn. Wood Pigeons sit on television aerials. A Crane Fly stands motionless on a windowsill; it will not last long in this cold. The sun blazes brightly as it breaks through the bank of cloud in the east. However within moments the cloud reasserts its dominance leaving beams of light radiating towards the earth. A heavy acorn crop lays on the ground at the junction of Pinsley Road.
Onto Butts Bridge. The water level in the River Lugg remains very low. A fly fisherman stands not much more than ankle deep upstream from the bridge. The market is busy. A Dipper is singing on the Lugg upstream from Ridgemoor Bridge but I cannot locate it. Pond Skaters are still active downstream from the bridge.
Bell ringing practice is underway at the Minster. The water level in the Kenwater looks about the same as it has for several weeks now. Cloud is thickening overhead. A group of people with their suitcases wait in the car park. The coach to Blackpool rumbles in.
Home – Another barrel of apple juice is prepared for fermentation. House Sparrows are noisy in the large laurel bush by the shed. They fall silent when I pass then start up again. The Herefordshire Russets have been harvested leaving just the Christmas Pippins on the tree. Several carrots are pulled for dinner. They have some slug damage but are generally pretty good.
Monday – Croft – Overnight rain has left everywhere wet. It is cool with largely clear sky and a light breeze. A flock of horned black sheep lies either side of the main avenue. Down the slope into the Fish Pool Valley. The sun shines on trees that are beginning to show their autumn yellows and golds. Robins sing and Blue Tits flit between the trees. The valley looks so very different now the Ash trees have been removed because of Ash Dieback. Hazel, Rowan and Sycamore saplings have sprung up where the trees have been felled. Great mounds of Honey Fungus are growing on rotting stumps beside the lime kiln. Brambles, covered in rotting blackberries, have spread all over the cleared ground. The end of the valley is full of debris from tree felling. The once narrow path up the hill is now a wide track allowing heavy machinery to pass. Long-tailed Tits buzz in the trees. The rock formation around the springs that feed the pools are now exposed by the removal of the trees. The springs are dry at the moment which is hardly surprising after the long drought we suffered this year. The track comes to an end and the path now continues up the hill to the Mortimer Trail.
The cleared hillside below Croft Ambrey hill-fort is now covered the dense wood of silver birch. A Nuthatch calls. Past the wreck of the fallen hornbeam. A Willow Tit calls from the trees on the eastern flank of the hill fort. Great, Blue and Coal Tits fly to and fro searching for food. The Ash tree towards the site of the gatehouse of the hill-fort looks ill and is marked for felling. A Willow Tit also searches an Oak that had barely any live branches. One of the Ashes on the hill-fort looks in rude health but sadly the much larger one which carries a listing tag has the dreaded green paint spot indicating it is is to be felled.
A Jay squawks on Leinthall Common. The hills are vaguely misty. A Common Buzzard calls from the valley below. On the western slope of the hill-fort, Nuthatches burble excitedly in the trees and a Great Spotted Woodpecker flies off. Sadly here are a number of Ash trees showing the black lesions and leafless branch tips typical of Ash Dieback. Down past the pillow mounds, mediaeval artificial rabbit warrens. A croaking Ring-necked Pheasant flies across the open ground below the main rampart. The path joins the other path which runs below the hill-fort. Near the junction, excavations have found a Romano-British shrine with evidence of repeated fire ceremonies, animal sacrifices and feasting.
Down a Spanish Chestnut field. The hedgerow to the east is being flailed along the edge of the large field on the other side. Spiny Spanish Chestnut conkers are falling. The nuts inside are mainly small and larger ones are unripe. The quarry pond is still dry. Down the track towards the castle. Parasol Mushrooms grow in the field.
Friday – Quedgeley-Elmore – It is raining despite the forecaster’s assurance that rain would be gone by early morning. Quedgeley is a mainly modern suburb some three miles south of the centre of Gloucester. The name appears to come from the Old English, cwēad and lēah meaning “dirt grove”. The original village stood on the Roman road from Glevum to Abonae (Gloucester to Bristol Sea Mills). In 1264 the constable of Gloucester, acting as sheriff, summoned John Giffard of Brimsfield, whom he hoped to capture, to a meeting of the hundred court at Quedgeley. Giffard arrived with armed supporters who killed some of those present and drove away the constable. It became known here as the King’s Way after Henry VIII and Anne Bowlyn met representatives of the city of Gloucester in the parish. To the north of the village was Wain Bridge over Daniel Brook. It has been lost under a major road junction.
I set off down a path that runs along the route of the Roman road. However the road is lost almost immediately under the site of a modern school. Westwards along Elmore Lane. All the buildings here are late 20th century. Past a single late Victorian or early 20th century house. The rain stops. The lane comes to Rea Bridge over the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, formerly the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal. The bridge is closed to allow a cabin cruiser through. Two men then use the winch to swing the road back again. One the far side is a small single storied building with Doric columns either side of the porch, the bridge keeper’s house built around 1830 by Robert Mylne, engineer to the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal.
On along Elmore Lane. Across the fields around one hundred Starlings are twittering on electric wires. More fly in. Past Victoria Cottages, a short terrace of late 19th century cottages. The lane turns south west as it meets the River Severn. Modern tarmac has not been laid to the edge of the lane where the old surface of small stones is exposed. The hedgerow above has been recently flailed. On the other side of the road the River Severn is a cloudy pale brown. Severn Farm has a large, extended farmhouse. A Green Woodpecker calls from a small stand of apple trees. A large ship with a modern superstructure is tied up at Stonebench House, which is hidden behind trees. The hedgerows are cloaked with Old Man’s Beard and the occasional string of Black Bryony berries. A large flock of Wood Pigeons flies over. A small bridge crosses Dimore (or Fisher’s) Brook shortly before it enters the River Severn. The high pitched squeak of a Goldcrest comes from a tree. A Great Spotted Woodpecker taps in a nearby tree and a Kestrel sits atop a telegraph pole.
The lane joins a larger road at Brookfield and a few hundred yards up this road is Elmore. A public footpath sign points at a dense bramble thicket. The hamlet consists of several farms and some timber-framed houses. The first house also had the ship attached. Elmore farmhouse is a fine extended Georgian building. Leighton’s farmhouse is somewhat older and also extended. A pond lays at the bottom of a gentle slope which leads up to Elmore Court built between 1564 and 1588 with additions and alterations in the 18th, early 19th centuries and in 1869. The house was built on site of medieval house whose remains are said to be visible in the cellars. It has ownership of the Guise family since 13th century. Elm Farmhouse is again an extended late 17th century timber-framed building. The lane rises up Step Green past the War Memorial built in 1921. Further on up the hill, past a Millennium Oak, are monumental gates leading to the Court. They were made in the early 18th century by William Edney, blacksmith of Bristol for Sir John Guise at Rendcomb, his property north of Cirencester. The gateway was removed from Rendcomb and re-erected here in early 19th century. At the top of the gates is a monogram surmounted by swan badge of Guise family.
Back down to Brookfield. The rain has ceased again. A Raven flies over. Three Goldfinches sit atop a very tall pear tree. Small flocks of Starlings regularly fly over. A gaily painted sign marks Elmore Fruit Farm. The road enters Hardwicke, although the village is a fair distance away. Past Hardwicke farm. The lane comes to Sellers Bridge which crossed the canal again. Another bridge keeper’s house by Robert Mylne is on the hillside above the bridge. On the far side is the Pilot Inn.
Into Quedgeley through modern estates. The road crosses Fisher’s Bridge, rebuilt in 1980, under which flows Dimore Brook, although it is little more than a trickle. Along School Lane past the large modern school. Parklands is a row of earlier 20th century housing with large front gardens sadly mostly paved over for parking. Along Scholars Walk which runs beside a small brook. The Walk leads into a park where there is a square moat, unfortunately all fenced off, is presumably that of Woolstrop manor, the hamlet that was the western part of Quedgeley. Back to School Lane.
A short distance up the road is St James church. Unfortunately there is a funeral service taking place. On the churchyard, a large chest tomb stands on a mound below which will be a crypt. The writing on the tomb is very worn but it belongs to the Hayward family, John who died in 1870s, possibly, and who was Chairman of the Quarter Sessions. There was a chapel on the site before 1095, when the parish of Quedgeley was formed. In the 12th century, Margaret Mautravers gave land to the chapel and the present church, then St Mary Magdalene was built in 1210. The chancel was added in the 13th century, followed by the south aisle in the 14th century, and then the tower in the late 14th century. In 1857 the chancel and nave were rebuilt, and the north aisle was added by H. Woodyer. The vestry was added around 1887, Beyond the church is the inevitably large and sumptuous Rectory built around 1840 by Francis Niblett.
Past the Quedgeley Town Council offices to the Bristol Road. Quedgeley Village Hall stands opposite a large retail estate village hall was opened in the 1930s on the Bristol road near School Lane, on land given by Miles Curtis-Hayward. It was destroyed by fire in 1959 and a new hall was opened on the same site in 1962. Across a large roundabout and a short distance up the Bristol Road. The Thatch Inn is one of the oldest buildings in the district, earlier called Queen Anne’s Farm and Read’s Farm. On up the Bristol Road. A few older houses, including what seems to be Quedgeley farmhouse, are among the many more modern dwellings. Onto Elmore Lane again. Route with error at end!
Saturday – Leominster – Off to the Priory church for the Apple Fair. The organisers have gathered together a very impressive display of local apples, indeed the best one ever, I am told. There are also a wide range of stalls selling jewellery, crafted materials, apples and juice, cards, and foods. Outside, apples are being pressed for juice.
Home – Apples are on the agenda here too. Some large Bramleys are picked, a risky business as they are in bunches and hooking one out of the bunch brings down the others which are over the greenhouse. But nothing is damaged. Another tree has some ripe apples too and some of these are harvested. Four out of the six courgette plants are uprooted. A few courgettes are still on them and are removed before the plants go into the compost. The other two plants also have some courgettes on them and I leave for a little longer. The last of the tomatoes are gathered in with a couple of small sweet peppers and a chilli. The peppers did not do well this year, probably because of slightly irregular watering. The hens seem to have settled down and we are usually getting three eggs a day, although Emerald is becoming less productive. Our wild feathered friends are becoming expensive, emptying the feeders in a couple of days.
Sunday – Leominster – Heavy rain yesterday evening has been replaced by a clear blue sky. The local Wood Pigeons and Jackdaws are remarkably quiet. The sun shines brightly as it rises above Eaton Hill. The water level in the River Lugg has risen slightly. Two Dippers and a Grey Wagtail are on the shingle bank downstream from Butts Bridge. A Great Tit calls its two-tone song nearby, a much weaker version of the strident spring song. Along the side of the river. Hogweed is still in flower and a few straggly Red Campion, but everything else has gone to seed. High in the sky are mares’ tail clouds and half a moon.
The market is much smaller than of late. Back to Ridgemoor Bridge. There are far fewer Pond Skaters here now. Three Canada Geese fly over. The water level in the River Kenwater is still very low. Four Mallard swim upstream, pausing only for a brief argument. The Minster bells start to chime.
Monday – Clee – The sun glares through the haze that hangs like a gauze curtain across the land below. Yet again overnight rain has left everywhere wet. Gorse is in flower on Clee Common. A Stonechat twitters then flits away. Past Craven Place, the former quarry offices, now a dwelling. Up the lane leading to the quarry works. It is apparently called Whatsill Road. A Meadow Pipit sits on wires. Wide ledges around a hillside mark the route of the old railway, the L&NW GWR Joint Railway – Ludlow and Clee Hill Branch. Two loaded lorries descend from the quarry site. Now an empty one drives up the road. Sheep graze nearby with black raddle marks on their rumps.
The flooded former quarry has a grey-green colour reflecting the clouds above. Water cascades down on the far side, draining the modern quarry. The rocks here are Carboniferous, dating from 319 and 308 million years ago. The cliff opposite running down into the water is Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation – mudstone, siltstone and sandstone, sitting on unnamed Sill, Westphalian – Microgabbro, igneous bedrock. Fungi (probably Snowy Meadow Cap, Camarophyllus niveus20th grows beside a track the ruins alongside the flooded quarry. An Elder is clinging on to life, covered in moss. The cloud is thickening and the wind rising.
A reedy pond lays at the foot of a steep bank. A ridge of concrete runs along the top of the back, part of the incline that took material down to the railway below. Field mushrooms are growing across the slope. A few Meadow Waxcaps, Hygrocybe pratensis, are also growing here. Down to a track which leads past Railway Cottage which has a distant signal in the garden. The railway crossed the lane here but one side had been built up and is a plant yard. On to the route of the railway. I meet a woman walking dogs including a collie with one brown and one blue eye who does not trust me in the slightest.
A track passes the ruin of a chapel and leads into rough ground, Treen Pits. Two Fieldfares fly over, my first winter thrushes of the season. The track comes to Chapel Farm. The Craven Arms pub was here. Chaffinches are in a Hawthorn. A Common Buzzard hangs on the wind. A Goldfinch flies past. Back down the hill. The track joins Golden Cross Lane by Three Crosses farm and a long, low farmhouse. This lane leads to Ludlow Road and Cleehill village High Street. The bakers has just closed down. It seems that the Golden Cross pub is still operating. There are no longer any services to be held at St Peter’s church.
Wednesday – Bodenham Lake – A grey morning with a strengthening, cool easterly breeze. Blue Tits chatter in the hedges. Old Man’s Beard is losing its silvery green gloss and turning fluffy white. A few bumble bees are visiting ivy flowers. A flock of over 30 Canada Geese fly in from the east. There appears to be a dead Mute Swan on the edge of the water between the islands; avian flu is spreading everywhere now. Another is feeding very close to the corpse which is worrying. Canada Geese stand alert on a nearby island but it is not clear what is spooking them. There are good numbers of Mallard present.
A Green Woodpecker yaffles from one of the Lombardy Poplars in the meadow. Wood Pigeons and Carrion Crows fly above Westfield Wood. Most of trees are changing colour. Into the hide. There is nothing on the main body of water. On the south side are some more Mallard and about ten Teal. There appear to be no Cormorants in the trees. A Grey Heron flies out from behind the island and off down the River Lugg.
Back to the orchards. A group of learning-difficulty youngsters are collecting the cider apples. There are large numbers of dessert apples on the ground.
Friday – Apperley-Deerhurst – Another night of rain and everywhere is wet. There is a brisk breeze and clouds glide swiftly across the sky. I start from The Green in Apperley, by the school which is closed for half term. Apperley House, standing behind tall walls, is 18th century with a considerable enlargement in the second quarter of the 19th century. Houses in this part of the village range from early 17th century to modern. The War Memorial stands on a road junction. Beyond is a pond. Trees by the pond were planted for the Silver Jubilee in 1977. Green farm farmhouse is a large Georgian building. Beyond the pond is Holy Trinity church.
Holy Trinity, a chapel of ease to St Mary’s, Deerhurst, is a plain and simple church, its entrance under the bell tower being overshadowed by large Yew trees. Inside is also plain. It was built in 1856 by Henry Eustatius Strickland of Apperley Court, designed by Francis Cranmer Penrose, Surveyor of Fabric of St Paul’s Cathedral. Penrose extended the church in 1896. The east window is by James Powell & Sons. A brass plaque on the wall commemorates Algenon Strickland, RAF, who was killed in action on 9th May 1942 and buried at Schleswig in Germany.
Opposite the church is a zinc roofed, timber clad modern design house. Back towards the village centre. A lawn had a large scattering of Glistening Inkcaps. A 17th century timber-framed former farmhouse of Yew Tree farm retains a contemporaneous timber-framed barn. Starlings gather on a television aerial and a large flock of House Sparrows flit through bushes and chatter from roofs. Past modern and Victorian houses, then another 17th century timber-framed farmhouse. Into Severn Way, the river being a short distance to the west, past modern housing. To the east are the Cotswolds. To the west is the valley of a lost stream that ran parallel to the Severn beyond and then, in the distance, the Malverns. Along a lane with woodland to the east and fields to the west. A Jay flashes down the lane. Out of the wind, the sun is warm. Through an S bend. White Dead Nettle is alone in flowering on the verge. A small flock of winter thrushes flies over.
The lane enters Deerhurst. The road passes through a high embankment. A flood gate stands open by the road. To the east is Abbot’s Court farm. Deerhurst House is large and rambling. Opposite, The Minstrels, formerly known as The Thatch or Whitehouse, is a large timber-framed house dating from the 15th century with later alterations. The old Vicarage lays a short distance to the east. Into the village past houses of various ages, predominantly modern. A fine old school was erected in 1856, now a dwelling. Through another set of flood gates and into the churchyard of St Mary.
It is thought the church may have been started around 700 CE. There is evidence of a Roman building on the site. In 804, Æthelric, son of Ealdorman Æthelmund, bequeathed extensive land around Deerhurst to the Hwiccian monastic community here. It is likely both were buried here. Alphege began his ecclesiastical career here, going on to be Archbishop of Canterbury. He was martyred by Danes in 1012. The manor was the principal residence of Earl Odda. Odda died in 1056 and left the church and its estates to the monastery of St-Denis, near Paris and his own land to Westminster Abbey. The lands were confiscated from St-Denis by Henry VI and given to the college of St Mary at Eton. Deerhurst was granted to Tewkesbury Abbey by Edward IV.
It is thought Æthelric may have been King Offa’s representative to the Imperial Coronation of Charlemagne in 800CE and it is known he had visited Rome. This would account for the Carolingian influence on the architecture of the church. The building was restored and altered in the 10th century after the Viking invasion of England. It was enlarged early in the 13th century and altered in the 14th and 15th centuries. It was restored 1861-62 by William Slater. Animal head label-stops with spiral decoration have been moved from outside to the inner doorway. The font is a magnificent 9th century Saxon tub font with complex spiral decoration, probably the finest in England. The glass and pulpit are mainly mid Victorian. However, in the west wall of the south aisle is a mediaeval window depicting St Catherine and St Alphege. In the north aisle are a number of mediaeval brasses including one to the Cassey family, dated to about 1400. The small dog at the feet of Lady Cassey is named in the inscription, “Terri or Cerri”, the only case in Britain where a family pet has been named on a funerary brass. Sir John Cassey was Baron of the Exchequer and died in 1400. There is also stone coffin lid with foliate cross. The first floor of the west tower may have had the same role as that in the westwork of a Carolingian church. Westworks had an altar on the first floor, to which access was by flanking staircase towers. The organ in the south aisle was obtained in 2012 from a church in Nailsworth that had closed. It had been rebuilt and restored by Keith Jones and Ian Fox The tower has a ring of six bells. Abel Rudhall of Gloucester cast the second and fourth bells in 1736 and the tenor bell in 1737. Thomas Rudhall cast the third bell in 1771. Thomas II Mears of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the fifth bell in 1826. John Taylor & Co of Loughborough, Leicestershire cast the treble bell in 1882. On the wall is a plaque erected by Sir Alexander Butterworth in memory of his son, the composer George Butterworth who died on the Somme in 1916 and of his nephew, Hugh, who died at Loos in 1915.
On the graveyard is the large monumental, but austere mausoleum of the Strickland family dating from 1833. At the east end of the church is the filled in east window, another filled in window from the north aisle and an extended wall small window opening. A couple of courses of stone mark the position of a rounded apse demolished by 1547. Behind this wall is another filled in window that would be behind the organ. High on the wall is the carving of an angel from the 9th century, depicting Byzantine influences. A Raven croaks from the top of a tall Wellingtonia. The path near the church is lined with 17th century headstones.
Attached to the east end of the church is the former Priory Farmhouse which was originally part of the conventual buildings, forming the east wing of the cloister. Across the road from the churchyard is Abbot’s Court. Through another flood gate. The lane leads to Odda’s chapel. Its location was lost until 1885, when Revd George Butterworth (grandfather of the composer George Butterworth) discovered it incorporated within Abbot’s Court, the nave had been made into a kitchen, with a fireplace and inserted windows, while the chancel had become a bedroom. Its existence was known through the famous Odda Stone that had been found in an orchard near the parish church in 1675. The inscription on it stated:
Earl Odda had this Royal Hall built and dedicated in honour of the Holy Trinity for the soul of his brother Aelfric, which left the body in this place. Bishop Ealdred dedicated it the second of the Ides of April in the fourteenth year of the reign of Edward, King of the English.
The chapel was built in 1055 and probably went out of use in the 13th century. It comprises a square-ended chancel divided from the nave by a solid chancel arch. The nave walls are built of local blue lias stone. There were originally two doorways facing each other but the one on the south side has been blocked. The window on the south side is near perfect, even containing some of the original oak framework.
A track leads to the Severn Way, joining it beside a spreading Oak tree with a large hole in the base of its trunk. The river is wide here and flowing steadily with large ripples. A Cormorant flies over. Several Black-headed Gulls fly rapidly downstream swept along by the breeze. My route is south west, upstream. The view back to Deerhurst is somewhat marred by the Wellingtonias which tower over the buildings. They would, of course, not have been there in the days of the monastery being a relatively recent introduction from the New World. Across the river is the Yew Tree Inn and Avon Sailing Club with slipways running down to the water.
A row of Blackthorn bushes has a profusion of ripe Sloes and despite and earlier decision not to make any Sloe Gin this year, I succumb. A couple of mushrooms are gathered in the hope of enough for a meal but they are all I get. There is a stand of toadstools in longer grass, probably a member of the Tricholoma family. Fieldfares are calling nearby and Redwings fly out of a Hawthorn. Several pairs of Mallard are on the river. A path leaves the Severn Way beside a large pond. The path becomes more and more overgrown and I stumble through a very rough meadow before entering a gate on to what looks like private property, Crab Villa, but in fact leads to the next public footpath and a track.
A delicious, crisp apple has fallen from a cottage garden tree onto the verge. The track joins a lane that leads to another riverside pub. I turn the other way back to Apperley. The lane steadily rises, explaining why Apperley does not need flood gates. Past a site where “eco homes” are being built.
of the main avenue. Down the slope into the Fish Pool Valley. The sun shines on trees that are beginning to show their autumn yellows and golds. Robins sing and Blue Tits flit between the trees. The valley looks so very different now the Ash trees have been removed because of Ash Dieback. Hazel, Rowan and Sycamore saplings have sprung up where the trees have been 
felled. Great mounds of Honey Fungus are growing on rotting stumps beside the lime kiln. Brambles, covered in rotting blackberries, have spread all over the cleared ground. The end of the valley is full of debris from tree felling. The once narrow path up the hill is now a wide track allowing heavy machinery to pass. Long-tailed Tits buzz in the trees. The rock formation around the springs that feed the pools are now exposed by the removal of the trees. The springs are dry at the moment which is hardly surprising after the long drought we suffered this year. The track comes to an end and the path now continues up the hill to the Mortimer Trail.
building with Doric columns either side of the porch, the bridge keeper’s house built around 1830 by Robert Mylne, engineer to the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal.
had the ship attached. Elmore farmhouse is a fine extended Georgian building. Leighton’s farmhouse is somewhat older and also extended. A pond lays at the bottom of a gentle slope which leads up to Elmore Court built between 1564 and 1588 with additions and alterations in the 18th, early 19th centuries and in 1869. The house was built on site of medieval house whose remains are said to be visible in the cellars. It has ownership of the Guise family since 13th century. Elm Farmhouse is again an extended late 17th century timber-framed building. The lane rises up Step Green past the War Memorial built in 1921. Further on up the hill, past a Millennium Oak, are monumental gates leading to the Court. They were made in the early 18th century by William Edney, blacksmith of Bristol for Sir John Guise at Rendcomb, his property north of Cirencester. The gateway was removed from Rendcomb and re-erected here in early 19th century. At the top of the gates is a monogram surmounted by swan badge of Guise family.
again. Another bridge keeper’s house by Robert Mylne is on the hillside above the bridge. On the far side is the Pilot Inn.
and nave were rebuilt, and the north aisle was added by H. Woodyer. The vestry was added around 1887, Beyond the church is the inevitably large and sumptuous Rectory built around 1840 by Francis Niblett.
in flower on Clee Common. A Stonechat twitters then flits away. Past Craven Place, the former quarry offices, now a dwelling. Up the lane leading to the quarry works. It is apparently called Whatsill Road. A Meadow Pipit sits on wires. Wide ledges around a hillside mark the route of the old railway, the L&NW GWR Joint Railway – Ludlow and Clee Hill Branch. Two loaded lorries descend from the quarry site. Now an empty one drives up the road. Sheep graze nearby with black raddle marks on their rumps.
to life, covered in moss. The cloud is thickening and the wind rising.
stands on a road junction. Beyond is a pond. Trees by the pond were planted for the Silver Jubilee in 1977. Green farm farmhouse is a large Georgian building. Beyond the pond is Holy Trinity church.
or Whitehouse, is a large timber-framed house dating from the 15th century with later alterations. The old Vicarage lays a short distance to the east. Into the village past houses of various ages, predominantly modern. A fine old school was erected in 1856, now a dwelling. Through another set of flood gates and into the churchyard of St Mary.
community here. It is likely both were buried here. Alphege began his ecclesiastical career here, going on to be Archbishop of Canterbury. He was martyred by Danes in 1012. The manor was the principal residence of Earl Odda. Odda died in 1056 and left the church and its estates to the monastery of St-Denis, near Paris and his own land to Westminster Abbey. The lands were confiscated from St-Denis by Henry VI and given to the college of St Mary at Eton. Deerhurst was granted to Tewkesbury Abbey by Edward IV.
England. It was enlarged early in the 13th century and altered in the 14th and 15th centuries. It was restored 1861-62 by William Slater. Animal head label-stops with spiral decoration have been moved from outside to the inner doorway. The font is a magnificent 9th century Saxon tub font with complex spiral decoration, probably the finest in England. The glass and pulpit are mainly mid Victorian. However, in the west wall of the south aisle is a mediaeval window depicting St Catherine and St Alphege. In the north aisle are a number of mediaeval brasses including one to the Cassey family, dated to about 1400. The small dog at the feet of Lady Cassey is named in the inscription, “Terri or Cerri”, the only case in Britain where a family pet has been named on a funerary brass. Sir John Cassey was Baron of the Exchequer and died in 1400. There is also stone coffin lid with foliate cross. The first floor of the west tower may have had the same role as that in the westwork of a Carolingian church. Westworks had an altar on the first floor, to which access was by flanking staircase towers. The organ in the south aisle was obtained in 2012 from a church in Nailsworth that had closed. It had been rebuilt and restored by Keith Jones and Ian Fox The tower has a ring of six bells. Abel Rudhall of 
Gloucester cast the second and fourth bells in 1736 and the tenor bell in 1737. Thomas Rudhall cast the third bell in 1771. Thomas II Mears of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the fifth bell in 1826. John Taylor & Co of Loughborough, Leicestershire cast the treble bell in 1882. On the wall is a plaque erected by Sir Alexander Butterworth in memory of his son, the composer George Butterworth who died on the Somme in 1916 and of his nephew, Hugh, who died at Loos in 1915.
the south side is near perfect, even containing some of the original oak framework.