Down Cotswold way (3)..Churches, Charlcote Park and, finally, Sezincote!

(This is rather a long post so a cuppa and comfy chair might be in order!!)

Friday 13th!! and still the weather's not up to much. Slight change of plan today as we wanted to visit Sezincote if it was open. It was - so we started off with a couple of churches - both called St. Mary's

The first being Preston on Stour. These rather handy lawn mowers were very inquisitive and as soon as I leant over the wall to get some pictures they came rushing up - which made taking pictures rather difficult. One got so close I was in danger of having my camera swallowed up!

Inside the church I was fascinated by the decoration of the curve in the roof.

The church is on a hill which also inhibited taking pictures..

and then on to t Marys at Lapworth. This was a very pretty church and its design interesting. Underneath this arch at the side of the building, stairs reached the room above - this room can now be accessed from inside.

The flowers were wonderful

I liked the simplicity of this statue

They'd put the red carpet out for us :D You may notice that there's a rope barrier just about where the carpet ends. The accompanying notice advised that proceeding beyond this would set off the church's alarm system.

Pete leant over the cordon to look at a window - thus ensued a low rumbling sound! "Set the alarm off have we?" I said, not too seriously at the time but it seemed it had been set off :D. The rumbling grew and changed pitch - into an horrendous siren which was the full blooded alarm. Did you hear it where you were?

The verger arrived to switch off the alarm (and the Rector's Dad who Pete had told about the ringing alarm) Out of this little misdemour came the added bonus of being able to see what would otherwise have been hidden - namely the Eric Gill sculpture! - and Pete had a better look at the window too.

The colours in this stain glass window really caught my eye with it's vivid blue!

The curved top window (between the two arches) was once and outside window.

One of the doors in the porch ( the first picture)

Sezincote was open for business as usual so we changed the plan and headed off for Charlecote Park for a wander around the gardens and lunch! Sezincote not opening until the afternoon. This was another new garden for me and a beautiful house and gardens it was. The lunch was pretty good too and by now a pattern of soup for lunch (the weather was cool) to allow room for a cake in the afternoon :D!

This chap on the right kept wandering into frame every time I got my camera focussed!!

Mulberries starting to bud and ripen!

and more very well manicured box edging but around some amazing colour.

A very nice stroll and now off to Sezincote. This is somewhere that when Pete first made me aware of it, I knew I was in for a treat - it sounded fascinating and it was amazing!! It was built in the early 1800s and was the inspiration for the, then, Prince of Wales to incorporate this into the design of Brighton Pavilion (the latter being a mixture of Chinese and Indian).

On admittance we were given our tickets for the house tour with guide - always nice to have some info as you walk around. It was lovely and intimate enough to imagine living there. (What wasn't so lovely was I'd forgotten to turn my mobile down/or off and got a text in the middle of the tour - oooops - red face time! As the tour finished we intended to start around the gardens but the heavens opened so we were forced to have a cuppa and rather nice piece of chocolate cake. Well we needed the sugar for energy for a walks!! ;)

The first scenes as we crossed the bridge to go up to the house.

The long curve of the Orangery coming out from the left-hand side of the building. This is now used as the cafe.

We sat in the Orangery having tea and choccy cake :D and this was part of the view!

I'm not sure what this was; it might have been a capped well or it might be something else entirely!

Water was trickling from the Lion's head above up on the wall

Such an amazing, surprising and beautiful garden which must be explored again at greater length. So pleased it was finally open.

Thanks again for reading thus far :D