The Knife Angel statue returns to our county town of Shrewsbury

 

The Knife Angel returned to Shrewsbury from its travels around the UK & was installed in the Square where I popped past to view it today.  

It had been on display some years ago but a return visit is worthwhile. 

We visited the British Ironwork Centre last year & saw the Knife Iron between its visits to major centres around the UK.  

All of the ironwork statues are so impressive, pop past this blog post to see them. 

The Knife Angel was made from 100 000 handed in or seized knives & blades from police forces across the UK. 

It stands 27 feet tall, its hands outstretched in from of it, the coloured blades glistening across the whole statue. 

The angel wings are a juxtaposition to the glint of the blades. The expression on the face is 'WHY'

The making of the Knife Angel is set out on the website of the British Ironwork Centre where the artist Alfie Bradley explains the process of procuring the knives & the expression he wanted for the angel. 

It is a powerful anti knife message & all the cities it visits, pledge to use it to educate on the effects of knife crime. 

It is a national statue that did not receive any public funding. 

The Knife Angel serves as a memorial to those killed by knife crime & as a remembrance to their loved ones. 

I am privileged to have seen it three times, in two different towns & where it was made.  

It is a powerful statue with a sobering message & when I stopped past this morning, there were many people stopping by it to read the information & to photograph it against the traditional square. 

Thank you for stopping by, it is appreciated. 

Dee 

The charming church of Clee St Margaret with an long history ...

My regulars know how much we love the history of our many countryside churches, each so different, many Shropshire ones connected to my ancestry. 

We stopped by Clee St Margaret, a village on the high slopes of Brown Clee Hill in Shropshire. 

From the road it looked unremarkable but as soon as you approach, the history stands out. 

The chancel walls facing the path have the herringbone masonry patterns associated with ancient buildings. 

It is very distinctive on two sides, showing this part is the oldest of the church. 

  

The beautiful church information booklet mentions it is recorded in the Doomsday Book of 1086 which was a type of census recording of towns, villages, villagers, livestock etc. 

The earliest known reference to a church at Clee St Margaret was the taxation records of 1291. 

There was likely a church here from Saxon times even though no trace is visible today. 

The Chancel with its herringbone masonry could be Saxon, but the small chancel arch is Norman, with pillars that support the pointed arch. A Saxon arch would be rounded, hence the Norman dating. 

There are so many features that are considered with the dating of churches & I admit to having only a scant knowledge of them, not enough to pin point the dates. However, it is a learning process & each visit brings something else to be aware of which is useful.

The war memorial tablet is in the window - the details of the fallen of the parish are here 

The wooden South door is about 600 years old, probably Norman too. The roof of the chancel & nave has timbers dating to the 14th & 15th century, probably local timbers from the Brown Clee forests. It is a listed building 

The pulpit & chancel doors are Jacobean (1603-1625) . The carved wooden chancel doors are unique, giving the chancel area a secular feel, away from the main church. The thick walls of the chancel have an interesting shape. 

We were both taken by the serene atmosphere in this unexpectedly spiritual space. Sometimes churches that are stripped back without too many adornments hold a special space & feeling. 

We lingered here, taking in the quietness & the feeling of history, of peace and of being somewhere special. 

The church had various Victorian 'restorations' done in 1872 - 1897 but it has not distracted from this beautiful space. 

Sometimes, we find ourselves in unexpected spaces. Thank you for stopping by. It is always appreciated. 

Dee ⛪️🪦🙏🔔

A local church with interesting family memorials

 

We love visiting local churches, especially those with a connection to my maternal side who were Shropshire born before taking military pensions in The Cape in the mid 1850's. 

One such church is St Edith's at Eaton under Heywood. 

The church is modest, set under Wenlock Edge. In the Doomsday book of 1160, it was referred to as Tickelvorde, with the next door manor belonging to the Wenlock Priory. It is a grade 1 listed building, showing its importance. 

St Edith (of Wilton) - an Anglo-Saxon saint. 12th Century nave, not divided from the 13th century chancel. The tower is unusually placed on the south side, and is of about 1190. The church stands on a the hillside, and has a sloping aisle.

Eaton under Heywood church is set in a tiny village surrounded by beautiful rolling hills. 

There is an effigy to St Edith who the church is named after.

The Church at Eaton-under-Heywood is dedicated to the 7th century St Edith. The church nestles under Wenlock Edge, west of the small town of Church Stretton. A small nave, which is just the western part of the present church, was built in the 12th century. The present long chancel was built c.1200; it is the same width as the nave and has three lancets in the east wall. About the same time the tower was built against the south side of the new chancel and a new north door was made in the nave.

Special features of the Church include a tub font probably Norman (cover c. 1872), a 14th-century wooden effigy in the chancel, a late medieval chest, and a superb example of a three-decker pulpit. The plate is 18th-century and later, and the three bells date from 1615, 1622, and 1869.

The church was built for the estate that the Pinches family owned for 250 years, their memorials filling the walls, leger stones in the floor & stained glass windows at the entrance. 

The estate passed to the Buddicom family, the husband of the last daughter who had no children of her own. 

Her siblings - a brother & sister had not married & so the estate passed out of the family when the last sibling wed. 

It is distant family line of my maternal grandmother & I felt strangely grounded in that space. 

I will definitely visit it again, to be able to just sit in the space & to take in the history.

I hope you have enjoyed the visit with me, 

Dee ⛪️🔔🪦

Unwelcome garden visitors ...

The Dorset in-laws propagated some box plants for us some 25 years ago from cuttings on their bushes on the family plot. 

They were about the size of a small football when they came to our garden & I have tended them ever since. They have moved thrice with us & went in to the ground at our home some 8 years ago. 

It is very therapeutic to clip them gently in to their large round shapes several times over summer & to enjoy their structural shapes over winter when the snow rests on them like large Christmas puddings. 

I was sitting on the patio reading today when movement caught my eye. On closer inspection I saw it was the dreaded box hedge caterpillar, several of them on the box closest to me. 

These vile creatures can decimate a healthy plant in no time as they munch their way through the  bush &  their lifecycle continues with eggs being laid & another huge clutch of them appearing to continue on the bush. 

I immediately made up a solution of white vinegar & dishwasher soap in a spray bottle & sprayed it all over the bushes where the leaves were looking depleted. I spied caterpillars on all the bushes  & the far one has extensive damage to the one side. 

I thought that my mixture of soap & vinegar might delay them while I researched some treatments. 

Another resident in our community had reported box caterpillars recently & our local garden nursery said they had a spray for it. 

We duly went down & bought 2 large spray bottles of it as it will need more than one treatment to break the lifecycle. 

Can the 25 year old box balls be saved? I don't know because this is going to be a battle of the wills to stop them. It will need consistent treatments & they might be back again. 

Has anyone got any advice in dealing with this? Thank you for stopping by, 

Dee 🪏🪴🏡🐛🐛🐛

Every garden needs some honesty ...

 

Every garden needs some honesty - the lunaria type of honesty with its beautiful purple flowers that become green pods with a pointy top & with the seeds visible. 

They become stunning translucent papery pods that dry out & keep for months in a vase. 

I love the hint of the seeds in the green pods as they grow, then the pods dry on the plant with dark papery skins that rub away easily to reveal the seeds & the gorgeous iridescent seed pods. 

Mine self seeds in various places on the patio & the pods are forming their beautiful green shapes. It looks like the stems will have loads of pods this year.

I look forward to picking the stems in the autumn when they have set seed, then popping the stems in a vase on a windowsill so their beautiful pods catch the light. 

This is a large vase in the kitchen window with the pods from last year. Aren't they just gorgeous? 

I hope you grow some too as they are low maintenance. Pop by again soon, 

Dee