http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fosse_Way
I had never been through the Cotswolds and Moreton in Marsh and Stow on the Wold were lovely even though packed with day trippers. I called at Northleach Church but found it rather too grand for my tastes and ended up eating my pork pie in the graveyard of St Arild's Church at Oldbury on the Hill.
This is a typical Churches Conservation Trust church. Small, humble, forgotten and damp but with much charm, on a sunny day at least.
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About 40 miles further south Graham's itinerary took me to another conserved church at Cameley. Described as "Somerset's Sleeping Beauty" this church was anything but humble with many riches including wall paintings, box pews and a gallery.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St_James,_Cameley
The church was full of interest and I was sorry I did not have time to do it justice. The painted ten commandments above a painted chancel arch were both simple and exuberant.
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Chipping away the plaster had revealed fish; probably a detail from a larger mural of St Christopher who's foot may be seen.
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After landing in Torquay I visited Compton Castle and spotted this "darkness to light" gateway.
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/compton-castle/
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We later tried to get an effective shot of a medieval chapel, perched on a rocky outcrop in the centre of Torquay, but the space was cramped.
I also managed to make the tourist trap of Cockington look more like Hobbiton, from The Lord of the Rings.
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At Marldon Church the comparatively recent trend for displaying hassock art seemed to have reached its full flowering and perhaps the vicar could preach to the hassocks in the same way that St Anthony preached to the fishes.
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At least the Marldon hassocks were of a similar colour. Other churches (such as Louth) have had to put up with a very strident display.
Hassocks used to be just something to kneel on and I have a soft spot for the ragged and smelly old hassock as seen at St Edith, Coates in Lincolnshire.
