Using lemon verbena & mints at home ...

When I updated my herbs this past week, I bought 2 lemon verbena herbs again.  I do not always remember that they are not frost hardy & so have lost several because I have not potted them up & brought them indoors for the winter. It is a popular herb, along with the mints & lemon balm (I have all of them) 

It is a herb I use a lot at home because the fragrance is so immediate & fresh. It is related to the mint family & I also have several  mints & lemon balm too that is in the herb troughs, ready for use. The 3 herbs can be used in the same way so they are very useful. 

These are some of the ways I use it - 

Lemony syrup 

I make a simple sugar syrup of equal parts of sugar & water (about 1/2 cup of each), bring it to the boil until the sugar is dissolved & it is syrupy. Only then do I add about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of chopped lemon verbena leaves & let it steep to impart the flavour as the syrup cools (about 30 minutes). Discard the leaves, pour in to a jar or bottle & keep in the fridge for about 10 days. You can pour the syrup in to an ice cube tray, freeze then use a cube when it is needed. This is good over puddings, fruit salad, or on fruit sponges like apple cakes with cream. Some good ideas in this article ... 

Stewed fruit 

If like me, you hate waste & stew any fruit that is softer than you like it, add lemon verbena leaves to the fruit to impart a fresh lemony taste to the fruit. I often do fruit as a compote to be enjoyed with a dash of natural yoghurt or as a layer in a simple trifle like dessert in a glass bowl. This is a good suggestion I used previously ... 

Vinaigrette 

When staying with friends in Johannesburg, South Africa, Karen made an absolutely delicious vinaigrette for the salad by combining some strawberry jam in the simple olive oil / balsamic vinegar dressing. It was sensational & the hint of sweetness was perfect. I would make it up with 1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar, 1/3 cup of olive oil & about the same of snipped lemon verbena leaves. This simple dressing could also have a hint of sweetness with the addition of a little strawberry jam. Shake it all up in a pretty jar with a lid & keep it in the fridge to enjoy ... 

Lemon verbena vinegar

If you use vinegar in dressings, you could steep lemon verbena leaves & flowers in late summer, in a jar of vinegar (white, red, or wine vinegar) and keep it in a dark cupboard for about 2-3 weeks to impart the flavour. Strain & you should have a lovely lemony vinegar.

Lemony sponge cake

The versatile Victoria Sponge cake is my go to cake to bake because it uses ingredients you generally have at hand (just 4 ingredients) and you can add to the basic cake if you want. I sometimes use finely chopped lemon verbena leaves in the mixture & then more finely chopped in to the icing or the cream. It is utterly delicious. 

Lemon Verbena & poppy seed loaf is utterly delicious - use the sponge cake recipe, add about 30g of poppy seeds & finely chopped lemon verbena to both the mix & the water icing. Perfect for a lighter summer cake. 

Lemon shortbread

I love shortbread & Olive used to make a morish version. Some lemon verbena snipped in to the biscuits is refreshing. It is also easy to infuse some sugar with lemon verbena leaves until the sugar takes on that lovely flavour; this is tasty used in baking or over the shortbread. 

House freshener

In summer, I often pick herbs for a glass vase in the conservatory - the lemony herbs are good at keeping insects away & the bonus is that they often root easily in water & the rooted plants can be kept indoors for winter. I plant them up together in a pot & pop it on the kitchen window sill for winter. 

Mint ice cubes

In summer, mint leaves washed & put in ice cube trays is a refreshing way to make water & drinks more appealing.  I tend to add a tiny sprig on the top of the water jug at the table too, the freshness is welcome in hot weather. 

Herbal tea

About 1/2 to 1 cup of chopped leaves, steeped in boiling water for 5-10 minutes & then drink as a tea. It looks even better in a glass tea pot when the green leaves can be appreciated. Keep the lid on while steeping so the beneficial oils are retained in the brew. Sweeten with a little honey if needed. 

I attended an online workshop this past week & Carly from 'the little green shoot'  did a fascinating insert called 'The Healing Tea garden'  & I was delighted to learn that I had most of those herbs except raspberry leaf. I have sown camomile seeds & they are poking their little green heads through to I will soon be able to move them to larger containers.  The plants are not readily available locally. 

This is a screenshot of the talk by Carly on herbal teas to grow & their benefits. 

I use this lovely Ikea glass teapot for the occasional herbal tea - I must do it more often for the health benefits. However, iced tea is better in warmer weather. The herb scissors is so useful & it cuts the soft herbs up really quickly, thereby releasing their fragrant oils. My preference is to sweeten with local honey & add minted ice cubes to long glasses. 

I hope I have inspired you to grow & use more fresh herbs, even just a small patio pot with a few will be useful.  This is some of the health benefits of lemon verbena - it is worth including it more. 

Thank you for stopping by, it is always lovely to have you visit, 

Dee 🪴🌱🏡🧊🍵

Sage, rosemary, thyme & lemon verbena …

 I shared the renewal of the herb planters & after emptying & repotting the herbs,  repotting the herb troughs this past week.

 I made a list of the missing ones that I need to add to the re-done troughs. There are 5 matching troughs but one that is tucked behind the bush contains the lemon balm & mints that have taken it over. I must still repot that one …

The previous sage & rosemary were past their best, too woody to be useful so I headed to our local plant nursery to find replacements. There was so much choice that it took ages to decide.  

There was a good selection & I selected 2 new thymes to go with the ones I already had. They have their own trough. Their tiny fragrant leaves are very useful & I should use more of them too in cooking.  

I thought a purple sage would be a nice change, along with just a normal one. 

And additional clump of chives joins the re-potted one because it is such a useful addition to summer salads, especially snipped in to potato salad. 

My favourite herb has to be the highly fragrant lemon verbena.  

I bought two because I often add the little leaves to cakes, cool water, baking bits because that it imparts that fantastic flavour. 

I was gifted a herb scissors a few years ago & the multiple sharp blades are essential with a good herb garden. 

I added a spearmint to my selection of mints & it joins the unusual berries & cream I potted up last week. 

New potatoes, peas,  lamb, jugs of water are all improved by adding mint or lemon balm that has taken over the original mint trough & I have potted the new mints in a second trough. 

I must make some mint sauce this year to tide me over winter when they die down. It was something Olive always did at the end of summer - jars of highly fragrant mint sauce to go with lamb dishes, new potatoes or peas. It is simple to make & delicious to eat. 

However, the local squirrels have taken to digging in the herb planters & this needed to be discouraged. 

I bought some bamboo canes that were about 120cm long & cut 3 for each trough length.

The cut off pieces is long enough to use as a support each side to hold the 3 lengths in a grid shape with the third shorter piece in the middle. I used green cable ties to secure the bamboo grids, it was quicker than cutting lengths of wire to do it. 

The grid rests on each trough & will hopefully discourage foraging in the troughs with the tasty herbs. I still need to trim the cable ties to neaten them up. 

The 3 tomato plants have been growing on in the covered  patio troughs against the house but they are now ready for transplanting because the risk of frost has passed. 

They are planted in a grow bag next to the conservatory where it is sheltered & warm. 

I made a basic support frame for them too with bamboo canes. They like this spot where it is not too windy as they are in a side return & close to the water butt for watering too. 

Some years are better than others for homegrown tomatoes, I am just doing 3 plants this year.

The essential herbs will be well used for years & the tomatoes are always a bit of battle of wills to get them to mature & fruit. 

I know, it is cheaper to buy some tomatoes but it is a summer tradition. 

What herbs are essential to your cooking? Tell all ..  

Thank you for stopping by, always appreciated 

Dee 🌱🪏🏡🫜🧑‍🌾

Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme ...

 The familiar list of herbs from the song Scarborough Fair always comes to mind when I am busy with my herb troughs. 

When looking back on previous blog posts about my herbs, I realised that I last redid these herb planters completely in 2017 so it was long overdue to empty them & refresh. 

The planters are on a raised area between my neighbour & us - there is a service pipe that is on the raised bit hence the need for loose planters to access it if needed. The other advantage is that being used for cooking, the herbs need to be out of the way of visiting dogs etc so this space works well. The side return contains out many bins & recycling bins so it is the 'working side' of our house. 

I eased out the pot bound herbs I wanted from each trough. For some reason the planters had a wild violet that had taken over in them & as nice as the little violet flowers are, they are not herbs. Once the herbs were out, the root bound remainders & the soil was popped on a garden bed by the bird feeder where it will break down & I do not mind if the violets take root there. 

I put a generous layer of leaf mould from our own tree in each trough before adding fresh potting soil to each. The two 60L bags were soon gone on the 4 troughs - it is deceptive how much soil each one takes. 

The herbs were then replanted again & 2 new ones added - a new mint & a bronze fennel. 

I did not empty out the 5th planter with the mint / lemon balm planter because I had used up all 120L of potting soil on the other 4. However, having space with emptying & repotting, I used one of the other troughs as a second one for mint. I bought a strawberries & cream mint at the local market last week - I wonder what it will taste like? It will be nice in mint tea or on stewed fruit ... 

I was gifted this lovely set of ceramic herb labels by daughter, made by a potter in her village, & they are a perfect reminder of the most used herbs. 

It is a good time to buy in the ones that are missing - my sage had become woody & so had the rosemary; However, they are moved to the garden where they will hopefully continue to do their thing. 

I will buy in a replacement sage plant; I have 2 rosemary plants I grew last winter from cuttings so they are in the refreshed planters. 

I might relocate my lemon grass from the conservatory to the troughs for summer. It was grown from the base of a supermarket lemon grass used in cooking. 

Which herbs are essential to your gardening & cooking? Inspire me please as I will be looking for some additional ones. 

Thank you for stopping by, it is always appreciated. 

Dee 🥗🪴🌱🫚

UPDATED with additional herb planting 

A fruity treat for friends ….

 I am meeting with some friends tomorrow for a late afternoon catch up & thought I really ought to have something to go with our tea at my home. 

They prefer fruit loaves to rich cakes so I decided on a version of an infused banana loaf I had recently made. Infused tea loaf

 I had 2 soft bananas this this is what I made tonight 

Preheat oven to170c 

Deep muffin pans for 12 muffins, lined with paper cases

130g butter

140g dark sugar 

2 eggs

240g self raising flour 

1 tsp baking powder

2 soft bananas, peeled & mashed

100g pitted dates & 50g dried cranberries, soaked in warm black earl grey tea for about 5 min

Tsp of mixed spice & vanilla extract 

Whisk butter & sugar until creamy, add eggs one at a time with a little of the flour then add in the mashed bananas, remaining flour & spices.

Drain the dates & cranberries & mix. 

Spoon into the 12 muffin cases & bake at 170 for about 20 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Mine browned  so keep an eye on your baking or turn the oven down slightly too. 

Cool & enjoy as they are or with some butter 

I decided to test one with my evening tea tonight - delicious. What is a treat you make for friends other than cakes? Do tell & thank you for stopping by … 

Dee👩‍🍳🥯🧈🍪🍰

The joy of notebooks, of pen to paper

I have always had a notebook or paper in my hand or in a drawer for as long as I can remember. As a child, I always had little notes or little books with things tucked in like a found feather, a stamp, a clip etc. 

I must have got this from my Mother because her regular letters often had a few seeds, a guinea fowl feather she knew I would like, stamps, newspaper cuttings, photos & more. 

As a lifelong teacher, it is natural to have a diary in your handbag  because your academic life runs to time & timetables - punctuality is key to keeping everything on track. 

 

The South African artist Robyn Gordon has a wonderful Instagram & Facebook page where she shares inspirational art, artists, thoughts & one of hers today (reshared from previously) is about notebooks. 

A quote from Robyn's post today ... 

“For me, a notebook keeper is someone who loves books -- holding them; the left and right layout of them; the intimate scale of them; the tactility of them…AND someone who loves the way you can fill them, put them on a shelf, and begin another, and how they accumulate on your shelf; someone who loves the modesty of them; who loves that they are a kind of mobile studio; and someone who loves the daily ritual of sitting down in a quiet place, opening their notebook and responding there to whatever they are experiencing at that moment.”

- Sandra Brownlee

It resonates with me because because I have notebooks everywhere at home, especially up on my desk, my personal space, the vintage desk I painted cream with the vivid pink of Emperors Silk in the insert. 

I am rather partial to monograms too & have several on my desk. 

There are also very personal things like the last birthday card from my parents, Ethiopian glass angels to watch over me as I work, cards from the daughters, my photo in print from a church, my parents early photograph album etc 

This space inspires me …

The desk contains mainly travel journals from my trips around Europe, Africa Karoo, Road tripping, The Balkans, The Baltics, Scandinavia, Transylvania, Morocco, Spain, India & trains, Austria Graz, Spanish Civil War, France, French Affair, Anne Frank tour , NC 500 Scotland etc. 

They are filled to bursting with memories of trips taken alone, with hubby, with friends, with family & they are special.

My space is watched over by Isabella, a mezzotint that I really loved & bought. It was  framed after some deliberation. 

I love the calmness of her 'all is well' gaze. She is Isabella Simpson by Henry Macbeth Raeburn. 

I have a whole shelf of academic diaries but consider those to be 'work' so they are kept separately. 

My Mother was a great letter writer & she shared news from their life in Africa when we were so far away. 

I knew the neighbours, the gardener, the petrol pump attendant, the butcher, the baker etc from her  stories of them.

Her letters are in my desk upstairs, along with those of my Dad who was not a great letter writer but we spoke daily from across the world. He knew all the family news; a call from Dad & I was up to date on everyone. 

 Their letters are in two very different letter holders I made  ... 

I kept travel journals & notes from trips to Africa - the books crammed with what people said, what ancestry info I gleaned from our conversations, shopping lists,  selling up a house & the possessions etc. They are all there to re-read & be transported back to that time, a time warp …

For at least a decade, I have kept a travel journal of my trips around Europe, some more comprehensive than others but it is interesting to reread the entries & to see how you viewed the people & places you visited. The best travel journals are bulging in their ribbons - full of maps, notes, bits of paper, entrance tickets, receipts, postcards, a pressed flower, a feather & more; all the things that caught your eye on the trip. For each person, the journal is different, personal, unique ... 

There is something very grounding about committing thoughts to paper, it engages the brain in a way that technology does not. My handwriting is not neat when I am rushed, as I often am on trips, but it is just for my benefit so I would rather write imperfectly than not at all. 

It is writing for yourself. 

This past birthday I was gifted 2 beautiful notebooks, a special candle in a gift set & a friend sent me some of her gorgeous hand painted notes from America. 

Another friend made a journal bag to carry books or a kindle in when travelling - they know me too well. 

They are all greatly appreciated as they inspire me to take more time to sit & write ... 

I sincerely hope that I am not alone in keeping notes, journals, diaries, records of things. Do tell if you do too .... 

As always, thank you for stopping by, my blog is in part a record of the things I enjoy in life .... 

Dee 📚📖🔖📘📒

A few painting projects at home …

I find great pleasure in picking up a paintbrush & taking on a few decor projects; not usually walls but furniture that needs a lift. Before anyone raises the issue, no antique or vintage furniture is painted, just rather ordinary wooden things that have a new lease of life. 

At least a decade ago, I did a few Annie Sloan paint courses to learn the techniques needed to update ordinary but dated furniture & I’m still inclined to personalise & modernise. 

My breaks from tutoring are always a time to catch up with such things & to tick some off my list. 

The gold frame of the Ethiopian crosses was in desperate need of an uplift. It had hung in a different room but was moved around & it did not work any longer. 

I decided on a creamy white paint & it looks better against the handwoven fabric with the brass & silver crosses. The wall it hangs against is a creamy Natural Calico colour so the gold was jarring. 

The cream frame now allows the crosses to take centrepiece with their interesting & unusual designs. 

This tea trolley has had several paint transformations when the living room still had a red wall which has now gone. However,  it is needed in the craft / sewing room upstairs as it was a better height to the one that is  in use because it was just too low & was creaking my back working at it. 

This paint is useful because it has a built in wax. 

It was painted in what I thought would be a browner shade but it turned out a little more grey. However, since everything else is cream in that room, it will be fine & the additional working space the 2 side flaps is useful for projects. 

The third project was to re-wax the top of the conservatory sideboard so it was once again more waterproof. I redid the cream backboards recently in the same brand of paint but in cream & I was impressed with it. 

The conservatory sideboard is used all the time & needs to be robust for drinks, food, cake stands & just about anything else. 

Last week was a hot week & the wax stayed tacky for several days, necessitating polishing it several times to smooth it out while it sets & hardens. 

However, it is once again more waterproof with an even finish which is a job well done.  

It goes well with the cream sideboard back & the slightly darker sides & shelves. 

Three much needed jobs ticked off my list, time well spent on projects I enjoy doing. 

Do you stack similar jobs up to do so when you have everything out it is easier to do? What are you busy with at present? Tell all … 

Thank-you for stopping by, it is always appreciated. 

Dee 🖌️🎨👩‍🎨🖼️

An original ducking stool ...

I know I shared this in the previous post  on the Welsh Marches / Shropshire churches but I feel it deserves its own story. 

St Peter's Church in the pretty village of Myddle just oozes old charm - the tiled floor, the black roof beams in a lovely pattern, the font in the bell tower, the list of Rectors stretching back almost a 1000 years, it all speaks of being the centre of a community, of history & continuity. 

However, I did not initially take in the importance of the wooden chair up high on the wall, out of reach above a cabinet. 

At first, I did not recognise it as such, but while reading the 'Short history of the church' booklet on the way back to the car, I realised what it was - a ducking stool. I had never seen an original one which is why I did not register what it was. 

I just had to return to do a better photo & to take in the history of it because I was quite shocked to see it in St. Peter's Church in Myddle. 

Myddle is one of the ancient Shropshire villages named in the 1086 Doomsday book, a type of early census which took account of people, livestock etc. 

Some early history of the village of Myddle 

The village of Myddle was occupied by 1066, with a manor house for Siward, Earl of Northumbria completed in the 1050s.^[3]

By 1086, the year of the Domesday Book under William the Conqueror, the manor house was occupied by Rainald the Sheriff. During the 12th century, the Fitz Alan family of Clun occupied the manor house, with John Le Strange acquiring it around 1165.

In 1234, Myddle was the location of the signing of a treaty between King Henry III and Welsh Prince Llewellyn.

In September 2005 and September 2007 a detectorist uncovered a small number of hammered gold coins dating back to the 14th century.

The Le Strange's dynasty ended in 1580 due to the lack of male heirs to the estate, and Myddle passed to the Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby after he married Joan Le Strange. Their son, Thomas, became the second Earl of Derby.

Elizabeth I granted Thomas Barnston a licence to sell land in Myddle in 1596, and in 1600 Sir Thomas Egerton purchased the village. Egerton's son was created by James I the first Earl of Bridgewater in 1617.

During the English Civil War in 1642, Charles I recruited 20 men from Myddle, with 13 killed

Myddle suffered an earthquake in 1688, but continued to expand throughout the coming centuries, with butchers' shops, taverns, fishmongers and masons inhabiting the village by about 1850.

With such a long history, there will be outdated practices but ones which were in keeping with the times. 

Ducking stools were medieval chairs used to publicly punish,  humiliate & censure women for offences such as scolding, sexual offences such as illegitimate children, backbiting, prostitution & more. 

They were enforcement of social norms through public humiliation. Some were humiliated after mass through the public reading of their 'sins'

The construction of the chairs were usually of local manufacture with no standard design. Most were simply chairs into which the offender could be tied and exposed at her door or the site of her offence. Some were on wheels like a tumbrel that could be dragged around the parish. Some were put on poles so that they could be plunged into water, hence "ducking" stool. Stocks or pillories were similarly used for the punishment of men or women by humiliation.

The number of duckings was determined by the magistrate who presided over the sentence.   

Usually, the chair was fastened to a long wooden beam fixed as a seesaw on the edge of a pond or river. Sometimes, however, the ducking-stool was not a fixture but was mounted on a pair of wooden wheels so that it could be wheeled through the streets, and at the river-edge was hung by a chain from the end of a beam. In sentencing a woman the magistrates ordered the number of duckings she should have. Yet another type of ducking-stool was called a tumbrel. It was a chair on two wheels with two long shafts fixed to the axles. This was pushed into the pond and then the shafts released, thus tipping the chair up backwards. Sometimes the punishment proved fatal and the subject died.

These were grim times for women who had no rights of their own, they were at the mercy of the men around them. Look at the images on wiki to see how the chairs worked. 

The use of ducking stools during witch trials which gripped England in ancient times is better known. They would be tied to the chair or hand to foot & plunged in to water. If they floated, they were guilty (in league with the devil) if they sank (drowned) they were innocent; so either way they died. 

These were grim times indeed & being so close to one in a church was really sobering. I knew of the dark history of the chairs, especially during the witch trials, so it was, for me, a moment to reflect on how far we have come to entrench women's rights. 

An ancient object which symbolises so much. I hope you have found this account interesting too, thank you for stopping by, reading  & leaving a comment too.  

Dee 

Exploring some Shropshire Welsh Marches towns

Shropshire has so many little towns & villages & I know the South Shropshire ones of my great great grandfather quite well as I visit them frequently. 

However, on a beautiful Sunday, we packed a light picnic lunch & headed to the villages near Shrewsbury. along the Welsh Marches that we don't know too well, even though they are closer. Hubby photographs local churches & adds them to his enormous contribution on google maps so he is always keen to share local history widely. That will be our legacy one day ... 

St Peter's Church in Myddle has a Doomsday plaque - the community is recorded in the Doomsday Book 1086.

It also has a list of Rectors  from 1086 (Priest  not recorded) and then from 1232 the Rectors are listed due to impressive record keeping. Their names will always be remembered because they are written & openly shared like this. 

I love to pick up the 'Short History of ... ' booklets in churches & this one mentioned a Ducking stool so I doubled back to take note of it. 

Ducking stools are rare - and this one is connected to a local pond where women were publicly humiliated or ducked. 

The stools were technical devices which formed part of the wider method of law enforcement through social humiliation. A common alternative was a court order to recite one's crimes or sins after Mass or in the market place on market day or informal action such as a Skimmington ride. They were usually of local manufacture with no standard design. Most were simply chairs into which the offender could be tied and exposed at her door or the site of her offence. Some were on wheels like a tumbrel that could be dragged around the parish. Some were put on poles so that they could be plunged into water, hence "ducking" stool.

It is sobering to see it on display in a church, a place one associates with compassion. 

Ruyton X1 towns is an unusual collection of 11 parishes (hence the name) It contains the remnants of a medieval castle too. 

Mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Ruitone, the village acquired its unusual compound name in the twelfth century when a castle was built, and it became the major manor of eleven local townships. The earliest occurrence of the inclusion of the Roman numeral for eleven in the name is stated to be 1379

Once again, it is mentioned in the Doomsday Book. The church has a Lych Gate from 1888, erected in memory of the Vicars two sons who died within a year of each other. An ancient Yew tree stands next to it. 

The Church Tower has an impressive gargoyle on it & a plaque noting that the seats in the church are free, unreserved so an indication that all are welcome. 

How lovely it all looked against bright blue skies with wispy clouds. 

Can you see the horned devil in the bottom left? Someone had a vivid imagination. 

Heavy studded doors to the church & another set to the entrance. The stained glass windows cast their colours across the space & somehow they seemed brighter in the sunlight. 

Some views of the town & across the Shropshire hills  ... 

There are some stone remains of the castle & they frame the church well, a reminder of the long history of these towns & how they were fought over in the Marches border wars. 

St John the Baptist Parish church is fascinating with its raised bell tower platform in the church, the 12th century Norman Arches & a rather graphic medieval carving of a horned head, said to represent the Devil on an arch next to some pews.  

There is also the remnant of a 13th century stone coffin found during earlier excavations in 1892. The East window, known as the Hunt Window was painted in Munich in 1855 & it shows the children being blessed. The figures of the 2 girls were reproduced from portraits of them. Rev George Hunt commissioned them in memory of his children who died between 1831-1832. 

The town of Ruyton X1 has an unusual War Memorial set in stone along the road. 

The parish's WWI war memorial is an 8 ft (2.4 m) carved cave within the sandstone cliff of the Brownhill. Located beside the road leading out of the village towards Baschurch, it is unique to Shropshire. It was conceived by the London architect Stanley Vaughan after a visit to Ruyton, and created by local father-and-son stonemasons Warwick and Len Edwards. The benches within the arch and the cross are all carved out of the rock. The memorial was unveiled in October 1920. The names of fallen from both the First and Second World Wars are listed on plaques within the archway. A third plaque, to an Alfred Rogers, was added in 2007 after he had been omitted from an earlier plaque

It has the names of the towns war dead from both World Wars. 

St Martin's church of Little Ness is a red sandstone church set in tranquil countryside nearby. A service had just ended & we were given access to this modest by beautiful space by 3 church wardens who filled us in on the connection to the Darby family of Coalbrookdale / Ironbridge. 

St Martin’s was built on a mound in the 12th century as a chapel to Baschurch. It consists of a nave and chancel within one roof, with a bellcote at the west end. The circular font is Norman, as is the south doorway and there are some patterned mediaeval tiles in the chancel. There are war memorial windows to two men killed in World War I, Leonard Arthur (killed 1914), and Lieutenant Maurice Darby (killed at Battle of Neuve Chapelle 1915). The latter is buried in the churchyard, one of a few Englishmen killed at the Western Front whose bodies were repatriated.

It is a beautiful space, one that feels spiritual & welcoming, the window to Maurice Darby is a beautiful one to remember a son who died on a battlefield far from home. Opposite the window is another to an uncle. Maurice was killed & his uncle who was serving at the same time, with help, recovered his body & repatriated it. This was unusual & controversial because only 6 bodies were repatriated, the rest are all buried in exactly the same graves across Europe - no distinction given to rank at all because the ethos is they all died serving their country. The Darby graves by the door to the church are a link to local history & their contribution to the communities. 

 To the side of the church is a large ancient mound or barrow. It has been suggested it marks the resting place of the Cumbrian Prince Kyndylan who died in battle in the 6th century. However, this is only conjecture. 

We had our picnic lunch in the shade of the lane by the church with frothy white cow parsley & vivid yellow rape seed as companions.  

Our final stop was All Saint's Church, Baschurch. The church is mentioned in the Doomsday Book & in February1188 & again in March 1198. The acclaimed Engineer Thomas Telford had a hand in its restoration & it is an important example of his earlier work. 

According to an ancient Welsh poem, the church may be the resting place of Cynddylan, a 7th century prince of Powys. There is an ancient earthwork nearby called the Berth.

The church tower is c13 with 4 bells that are at least 400 years old. 

There are two 18 century sundials on the wall & are discernible in the stonework with a central hole for the peg. These would have been important when country folk did not have timepieces. 

The yew tree near the east end of the church is thought be between 500 - 800 years old & is held together with a metal band.  

I hope you have found out countryside history & pursuits interesting - we enjoyed the 1000 years of history across these ancient places.  Thank you for stopping by & spending time. 

Dee