St. Mary, Stocking Pelham.
This little church sits up on a mound around which the road curves on its route to nowhere, deep in the rural countryside close to the margins of Herts. and Essex. Despite its setting, I've never found this church unlocked, and nor is there a keyholder notice visible.There are houses just behind the church, so I really don't see the problem; it's not as if there are far famed fittings that could get nicked.
This little church sits up on a mound around which the road curves on its route to nowhere, deep in the rural countryside close to the margins of Herts. and Essex. Despite its setting, I've never found this church unlocked, and nor is there a keyholder notice visible.There are houses just behind the church, so I really don't see the problem; it's not as if there are far famed fittings that could get nicked.
The nave is lop-sided with the chancel off-centre, probably to allow space for a nave altar to the south of the opening to the chancel . The nave has some nice mid fourteenth century tracery, though there is no chancel arch, as if the nave was rebuilt with a rood screen and upper tympanum in mind from the start. The chancel was probably older, though its windows were renewed in the C14th too. There is no tower, just a weatherboarded bellcote.
I've only ever seen the interior through the window, but there seem to be no old furnishings, just some fragments of C14th glass.Be nice to get in some day though; it looks like a pleasant space; it's not always about fittings in an old church, the feel of the place can be just as important.
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All rights reserved for this entire site. Copyright reserved to stiffleaf for all text and images, which may not be reproduced without my permission.