War memorial over the door

World War One is the theme of much media interest at the moment, as its 100th anniversary comes up soon.  A lot of history groups are researching their own war-memorials; and I was surprised to learn from one of them that this installation over the main doorway at Marchington Church is in fact the village's war memorial.  It features Saint Michael.

This cleared up a matter which had puzzled me for a while. Why was Saint Michael figured so prominently on the front of a church dedicated to Saint Peter?    Now I know.

Symbolically split

Not exactly sure why I like this photo.  I guess the mistiness and light evoke the early hours of the morning; and it is a little symbolic. 

You'll often see 'broken' columns in a churchyard over a grave, as they represent a life too early ended. But this headstone at Marchington Church has fractured and split, so it is not a deliberate shaping like a broken-column - but somehow it has become symbolic anyway.

English landscape feelings

The English landscape can be just perfect some days. I can’t always put my finger on the reason, but sometimes one can just stop (while on a walk) before a view; and find a moment that is, somehow, idyllic.  Staffordshire is, in its own way, the centre of things English of course.

Following the path near the prep-school at Marchington, I had this very feeling. 
On another day, another season perhaps, the view might have been dull – but the combined sight of the church on the hill, the golden rapeseed fields and the empty sunlit playing fields all made it quintessentially English.

'Picturesque' village almshouse

Marchington is a village best described as 'picturesque'. There's nothing much to do there, but each corner of it reveals another rather intriguing building to look at.
So the village is best seen as the place to walk round before going on a local country-walk.

The Marchington Almshouses (in the photo) were built by the Chawners of nearby Houndhill (hence the hound in the moulding, I would guess).


By the way, if you're interested in the villages of Staffordshire, the county's Women's Institutes took part in a project some years ago to write a page or two each about their villages for a book (published by Countryside Books). 
It's a little out of date, and a bit twee, but informative...  and, sadly, I think it is also out of print - but second-hand copies do exist.

Link: Countryside Books