St Mary Magdalen, Geddington, Northamptonshire

For the very life of me, I do not know why the good people of Geddington keep their church chained and padlocked shut, especially in the summer months when tourists come here to see the famous Eleanor Cross close by, and Boughton House just down the road. I had been forewarned that this may be the case by friends on ChurchCrawling who had been here before with no success. No board with details anywhere and certainly no keyholder information. And that is a shame because it looks an impressive church. If I did not have an appointment with a keyholder to keep I may have been more active in the pursuit of access. I was here 15 minutes at the most before 5pm, and in that time I counted five people walk into the churchyard, only to return a few minutes later. That would average a couple of hundred potential visitors a day, and loss of potential income and donations for the church. There is nothing on sale in the square about the cross that I saw, and people do want souvenirs. A combined pictorial guide at £2 to church and village could be a reasonable seller. Maybe there is one, but I never got the opportunity to check. Sad too as Geddington looks a pretty place but left me with the impression that tourists should stay away.