After two unsuccessful attempts to (lawfully) gain access to St Anne’s, Siston, earlier in January I decided to look further afield and took a Sunday drive up through Gloucestershire to St Mary the Virgin, Upleadon and on into Worcestershire to see Pendock church, both of which are listed as being unlocked at all times 🤞🏼

The tower and ceiling at St Mary are worth the visit. The church abuts a farm yard, with farmhouse, barns and a variety of vehicles on the large drive. I wasn't sure where to plonk my car but a friendly wave from the farmer as he swung by into the fields on his tractor reassured me I hadn't parked in the wrong place. The weather was a positively balmy 10 degrees but the interior of both churches were stuck in the cold snap of last week.

This is a beautiful medieval church with a 10th century font, Georgian organ that was likely played by Edward Elgar and apparently plenty of wall paintings, though they have been carefully painted over in order to conserve them. Reproductions of watercolours made by Miss Elsie Matley-Moore in the 1940s are inside the church but in the low January light they were hard to make out. The pews are Reformation period and the tower about 200 years earlier. The church stands alone now, but used to be part of a dispersed settlement including the de Pendocks manor house, now just hollows in the ground. A hollow way bends its way north from the church, but I didn't see this at the time. Barring the M50 that passes within a stone's throw of the tiny church it's in a remote location. I loved spending time in this little church, full of character and deep history. Mind blowing that the font is closer in age chronologically to Jesus than it is to the present day.