A week end in Wiltshire part one

Music making

Several churches to be seen, a megalithic meeting in the run down pub at Avebury, and in the church there in the porch was a swallows nest with four little heads poking out as busy parents flew in and out feeding. Druids of course on the first day of August, plus a walk down the 'gray wethers' of Piggle Dene. And talking of sheep, why did all the black sheep get the comparitive cloistered calm of Silbury whilst the white sheep were being chased by children round the stones of Avebury.

But firstly the church at Clyffe Pypard, the cliffs can be seen behind the cattle, the ground is very marshy round the church, probably due to springs, and the giant horsetail was flourishing well, a beautiful pale green in the early evening light. The church itself is gloomy, in fact the whole feeling in the church yard is spooky and rather dismal. Nicholas Pevesner is buried here along with his wife Lola, they lived in a cottage at nearby Broad Town.

Handsome long-horned cattle in the field at Clyffe Pypard

Giant Horsetail in the very boggy land round the church

The rather gloomy church at Clyffe Pypard

Nicolas Pevesner's grave - His Buildings of England eventually ran into 42 books