834 Holy Trinity, Queenborough
I had spotted this chap when I entered.
Ah how old friend St Francis of Assisi.....
and off up the road to
835 St Mary and St Sexburga, Minster-in-Sheppey
I could have headed deeper into Kent for the last one but I have plans for that next weekend so I headed to Ightham Mote for lunch....
In May 1939 the travel writer HV Morton wrote:
I was boasting to a man at Sevenoaks that I had seen most of Kent's finest houses: Chevening, Penshurts, Hever and Knole.
"But you haven't seen Ightham Mote?" he asked. "You can't be in Kent and fail to see Ightham Mote. If you don't see it, you'll always regret it!"
The house dates to the 1320's and is a lovely moated manor house. The first view as you pass through the visitors centre is glorious..
The house was the subject of extensive renovation by the National Trust since its acquisition in 1989 (£10 million+ according to Wikipedia), The programme ended in 2004. It was also the subject of a Time Team special - and the trust will happily sell you a copy.
The house though was open long before the Trust acquired it. Morton visited in 1939 when the house was opened on Friday afternoons and found "quite a small number crowd" waiting.
In 1953 was purchased by the American Charles Henry Robinson who made many urgent repairs and left it to the Trust.
I actually wrote all that a year ago but if I can't plagiarise myself.....
Today I didn't wander around the house but went for a wander around the gardens that were looking rather lovely.
The finest dog house in the trust's possession?
A lovely start to the weekend!
4 comments:
Beautiful churches Pete - have been trying to find out, without much success, if any are opening round here this weekend. How long have you been visiting churches? You have visited such an incredible amount! :)
Garden looks beautiful - I remember seeing the dog kennel before and the house looks very picturesque.
scarily 17 years!!! I was at 500 in 2002 :( may get to 850 this year if I'm lucky
Thanks Pete - gosh you've slowed down! I just wondered if you had started church crawling before blogging and I see you did! Its a very very impressive total and 850 would be good this year. I'm on about 70!!! Don't laugh and that does contain Minsters,Abbeys and Cathedrals and half a dozen where it was exterior only as church locked. I don't stick to the 1000 churches book but have counted any I've been to. Chances of me ever doing 200 of the 1000 book are very very slim bearing in mind it is not family's idea of fun! :( Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
The garden looks stunning and how wonderful for the sunshine!!
Love St Francis... he looks very at home there...
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