All Saints, Wittering, Cambridgeshire (SoP)

As we all headed to the church Chris stopped off at the local shop to collect the key. Somehow we had lost JRS so we assumed he had called at St Martin's in Stamford. the church is tall and short with a Decorated west tower and short broach spire. From the NW nothing looks very interesting, a low north aisle looks restored Dec too and there is a modern extension (vestries I assumed) at the north east corner. However from the south east you suspect that what you are seeing is a very early church, a sort of Escomb or Bradford on Avon affair. Stepping inside and there was a treble shock. Immediately in front of you is an ornate two-bayed Norman arcade and a completely empty space cleared of pews, newly paved and all done very recently (indeed it may not yet be quite finished). Turning and looking to the chancel however and you see the jaw-dropping feature which is the principle reason for coming here, a Saxon chancel arch with truly cyclopean capitals and two complete roll mouldings interrupted by these blocks. In the north chapel east window modern glass connected to RAF Wittering. The clearance was so recent that we debated if the church was still in use as the board outside had the vicar obliterated and only the name of the RAF Chaplain recorded.

This was the last group church of the day and Chris returned Ken and Diane to the station for their trains. I returned Marion to her car at Castor but not before returning to Upton in a vain attempt to get inside as Marion had missed it. It was closed but Marion was able to see the main features from the north aisle window. As I headed away, thinking I was leading Marion to her overnight hotel stay in Wansford, I despairingly watched Marion display her self-confessed poor sense of direction in my mirror by continuing around the roundabout! I could do nothing further and imagined her heading back to the same Peterborough industrial estates she had got lost in that morning.