Dear Old Bag Enderby

Oh how I wish I had worn a pair ofsnazzy new boots like Jenny'swhen we went out to visit Bag Enderby. Had I done so, I would have been able to take some wonderful photographs - as it was, I had to stick to the easy, clear parts of the road. Still, next time!

Bag Enderby - isn't that a wonderful name? It is a tiny hamlet of, at the last count, 18 people. Blink and you could miss it. It is located down a small, Lincolnshire road - I'd love to call it a leafy Lincolnshire lane, but it is winter!

Mixed stone, bricks, tiles - look at the cracks!

At first sight the church was unpromising. A mix of the local greenstone, red bricks, random stone, Roman tiles, it has a squat tower and is located on a small hill. Parking is in a farmyard. The greenstone is dark green or grey in winter but changes to a mellow orange in summer, when (we hope) the sun shines.





Out in the churchyard is an old cross, which was desecrated by the Roundheads in 1643, only the base remains.

Higgledy-Piggledy Moss Covered Porch

St Margaret's is perpendicular in design, and dates to 1407. Despite the unlovely outside, my fingers tingled with excitement as we walked around and tried to find the entrance. The porch is even more higgledy-piggledy than the rest - I found the moss covered entrance irresistible. Inside the porch there is a piscine - a relic from its Catholic origins. The original door has a strange metal object attached, it was found in a field and is believed to be a shield boss dating from Saxon times.

Original 1407 door, Saxon shield boss in centre

The money to build the church was left by Albinus de Enderby in 1407. Little could he have known that his name would still be known in ... There are brasses which commemorate Thomas and Agnes Enderby who lived there in 1390.

The font is beautifully carved and is perched on two 14th century, broken tombstones.





Almost two hundred years ago Alfred Tennyson would have known this church very well - his father was the rector here, as well as at Somersby church which is about half a mile away! Alfred was later to become Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate.





It is a very simple little church with a wonderful atmosphere - I wasn't expecting that after the unpromising exterior!

Andrew Gadney and his wife, 2 sons and 2 daughters

The glass in the windows is plain, apart from small bits of coloured medieval glass right at the top. This glass came from Crowland Abbey, to the south.

This is an unexpectedly wonderful church which - we stopped to see merely as an hors d'eouvre to St Margaret's Church at Somersby, which is where this chap grew up...

Alfred, Lord Tennyson.





This church is a little gem which I look forward to visiting on a milder day.

St Margaret's Church, Bag Enderby

(Borrowed Image)