January 19, 2003, Barbara Saville, UK

Bats but not in the Belfry

Another morning dawned, I’m on holiday with my brother and sister-in-law. We have good days together and today we are going to visit one of the Minster's not too far away. After a little drive we find the Minster easily and enjoy the magnificent building and then find our way to the Tea Rooms and, of course, we have to try some of those lovely home-made cakes that these places always seem to sell. My brother decides we will now try to find a village not too far away where there is a 12th Century church. At long last, after getting completely lost, we find the village, well, about 5 houses, a farm and a telephone box, but no church ! We see a little narrow lane and go down. Almost at the end we come to a circle of open ground with, at the far end, what looks like a manor house with 4 tall, square chimneys. On the grass in front of the house are 3 black dogs, who, on seeing us began to run towards us , barking like mad. None of us are dog happy, so my sister-in-law and I go back quickly the way we had come. My brother calls out that the dogs tails are wagging so they must be friendly. The barking brings out a man who shouts “ They won’t hurt you” ( why do dog owners always say that ?? ) The man tells my brother that the church is through the woods nearby but we have to go back to the village to get the key. We knock at two houses, but get no answer. Nearby is a farm gate with a ‘Beware of the dogs’ sign on it. Whilst wondering what to do next an old lady hobbles out and asks if she can help. We tell her that we are looking for the key for the church. She says that she has it and asks us to come in. We wonder about the dogs but don’t see any. Her garden is beautiful, full of ‘old fashioned’ flowers. We are given the key which is one of those big rusty iron ones. At last we find the church, surrounded by trees, the grass and the nettles are knee deep. We arrive at the door and the key doesn’t fit ! So we struggle around the back of the building and find a small door and... YES the key fits. A lovely musty smell greeted us. There were no pews but square partitions for each family. A Jacobean Pulpit. An old organ and on the Altar, Bats droppings. The bats had got in through the roof. We picked up a leaflet about the history of the church, signed the visitors book, came out and locked the door. Neglected, the air around was kind of drowsy, a sense of times forgotten, what a great day it had been.