St Matthew Otterbourne

I found this place by accident while out with my camera one evening while my wife was off dog training. I was taking photo's for Geograph and on the map I noticed the words Graveyard. I took this at face value and thought that it would be the cemetery for the village, how wrong I was.

 A small gate leads you into an old churchyard with this sign at the entrance beyond that is a graveyard.

Row upon row of old headstones stand testament to what was once here

Family graves lay broken and the graves untended with weeds growing between.

Some are broken and are being lost in the weeds,

Others stand defiant and proud.

You can still see the outline of the church in the ground

An if you look carefully you will find the entrance with the remains of the door pillar still there.

Headstones have survived though the words on them have gone.

Bit you will find a few that you can read

It was late in the evening when I left to go back and meet up with my wife again so I had one last look and left. It's worth a visit if your in Otterbourne.

Old St John's Boughton

This was one of those places I noted on a map while looking for an area to photograph for Geograph.  It said Church (remains of) that was enough for me so after I had been to the town nearby I went to look for the church. This is what Wikipedia tell you.
"St John's Church surviving fragments are to the north of the Green. The church has been in ruins since at least 1784 when the spire collapsed. The current church of St John Baptist is in the village and believed to date from c.1350, with extensions in 1807 and 1874.It has a monument to Mary Tilemount (d.1706)."

Looking down from the entrance the first view of the church you see is this, ivy covered ruins and headstones poking out from the weeds.

To the left of the entrance you can see quite new graves as the place is still classed as a graveyard and people are buried here.

The remains themselves look as though the ivy is holding them together.

Here we look towards what would have been the chancel in the church.

To the left of the window is this alcove that at one time had the effigy of a saint with  the intricate stonework crown in place above

This widow still has the wooden lintel in and one of the carved stone window frames.

Looking out the opposite end of the chapel you see headstones poking out of the nettles.

  A lot of which are in good condition

Nettles are every where making looking at headstones a painful experience if your not careful.

Not helped in the least by brambles which are sharp

This was the East window and under it is  St Johns Spring

 That you can see but is covered in stinging nettles

The South wall covered in Ivy

There was a tower here before it collapsed

Headstones in the nettles

The base of a cross lost in the brambles

The only tomb chest I saw

 A lost grave with the top of a cross marking it in the weeds growing wild

Near the entrance the only part where the grass is still cut and where the more recent burials are

Some graves you see are so sad like this one of Peggy Wellstood who died in the Second World War her mother Martha buried beside her and lived to 106 years of age.

If you are ever near Broughton and head towards Moulton you will pass a set of gates like this then it is worth stopping off for an hour.