Hardwick is our nearest village and has a 14th century church build from local stone. The unusual queen-post roofs are fifteenth century (queen-posts are vertical wooden posts on either side of the centre). During this period, the chancel arch was rebuilt to make it larger, and a stone stairway was constructed in the north east corner of the nave. There are still remnants of the original wall paintings, painted between 1460 and 1480.
St Peters was looking very attractive with all the Easter flowers when we visited on Wednesday, The present church dates from the 14th century though earlier records exist back to Domesday. The carved screen with its fine detail is thought to date from about 1370, and was obviously brightly coloured. The pulpit is hexagonal and was once part of a three decker pulpit. It bears the date 1635. The font consists of a fourteenth century stem of clunch, topped by a limestone bowl. The wall paintings date from the 14th century. They depict various saints and stories from the Bible.
The recent cold, dry and windy weather has resulted in quite a lot of damage to the Pasque flowers this year but still a delight to see and photograph. This was our first RPS Nature Group outing since November so good to see Members can still get down to the task in hand. The weather was very cold and windy though the sun did come out later in the morning.Taken with 80mm Fuji Macro (first 6 images, the first three being focus stacks) and with Compact camera (last 4)
Continuing our exploration of local churches, we visited Great Gransden yesterday. The Grade I listed parish church, dedicated to Saint Bartholomew, was mentioned in the Domesday Book, but no remains of that time survive. The tower was built in the late 14th century, but the whole church was rebuilt in the 15th. While we were there the clock, whose chiming mechanism is said to date from 1683, gave an impressive show.
