St Giles Church, Memorial Gardens and Grays Elergy

A day of two visits today... so Part 1... we visited St Giles Church in Stoke Poges.  A large church for the area, but a very interesting one.

This was the house at the front of the lane that led up to the church!!

And through the graveyard and up to the church..

through a very attractive lych gate

We noticed signs for the Memorial Gardens so, expecting something fairly ordinary, we wandered through to explore.  The gardens as they are today, were only completed on 1937 so not that long ago.

The most amazing gardens!!!!  More like a park with some wonderful trees and so beautifully kept.

Part of the walk through the gardens took us down to the lake.  Opposite is a golf course, and this area of landscaping was the work of Capability Brown and Repton.

A rather magnificent house which is Stoke Park - now a Hotel with golf course.... rather on the expensive side and nowhere where we'll be staying :)

We walked back towards the church and then ...

 discovered a National Trust field, which is Grays Field as in the poet Gray who wrote the Elegy.. Grays Elegy..  and there is a memorial to him (he's buried in the graveyard of the church) with some of the elegy wording.

 and from there... onto Cliveden Gardens.... which will follow in a separate post!...