Woodhurst

St John the Baptist, locked keyholders listed, is so over restored that I took it for a Victorian build and having peered through the windows I decided not to look for the keyholders [there are two listed with addresses but no directions]. I suspect I missed very little.

ST JOHN BAPTIST. Chancel, nave, S aisle, and weather boarded bell-turret. The blocked N doorway is basically Norman, the S arcade E.E. Four bays, round piers, double-chamfered arches. The S windows are Perp, the clerestory post-medieval, and the chancel C19, unfortunately of yellow brick. - BENCH ENDS. Four, with elementary poppyheads. - PLATE. Cup, Paten, and Paten on foot, all 1763-4.

WOODHURST. A few silver birches are pleasant company for its little church among the trees. Its shingled oak turret is perhaps 300 years old, but the nave was here soon after the Conqueror’s day, and keeps its Norman doorway. There is an oak chest like a big money box, four pews from Cromwell’s century, bench ends with poppyheads 400 years old, and a font as old as anything here except the Norman doorway. A coffin lid seven centuries old in used as a coping stone for the churchyard wall.

Flickr.