Bridford

We decided to leave the car at home today, and explore the local area by foot. We started by walking up the hill to the village of Bridford.



We passed Babe and this corner house, which had a mortgagee repossession notice in the window.



The old Bridford church of St Thomas A Becket dates from a wooden one dedicated in 1259 and replaced with the existing stone one about 1550 during the reign of Henry VIII.



It has some notable features such as the early 16th Century eight bay rood screen. I have been surprised to see such wooden screens in a couple of old churches now. Seems that their purpose was to separate the main part of the church from the altar area. Interesting - shades of Temple worship? The rood loft and coving are now missing, but what survives is richly carved and coloured with 8" high carved figures. All of their faces were mutilated by Oliver Cromwell's Puritan soldiers in the Civil War. This particular church has always been C of E.



There were some original paintings on both faces of the sides of the screen, and this 1661 Royal Arms.
A set of ropes in the belfry was involved in an accident in 1760 when churchwarden John Colwell became entangled in a bell rope, was raised up and precipitated headlong onto the stone floor!



After walking home & lunch we walked down to the main road to a vintage rally and had a look at some of the old machinery including, this scrumpy cider truck!

It's been a very hot day - very blue sky - can it last!



This is our access road, there is no room to pass but postie and rubbish trucks come along here!