St. Edward's Church

Our next house sit was just outside Stratford-upon-Avon as you keen observers will remember from the few postings I made back in September of my morning runs through our small village. This gave us a jumping-off place for exploring the Cotswolds just to south.

In the Cotswolds, is a the village of Stow-on-the-Wold. In this place is the medieval church of St. Edward.

Above, we see a memorial marker for the Battle of Stow that took place in 1646 during the English civil war. The Royalists were badly beaten here in one of the last battles in the war. In fact, the battle was so bloody that

the encounter was so deadly that it was said ducks could bathe in the pools of blood left in the street near the market square. Reportedly the street was afterward called "Digbeth" or "Duck's Bath" because of this.^[9]

The marker is located in the churchyard of St. Edward's Church. This is now a Church of England parish church. It is small and on the day of our visit, locked. Thus, I cannot bring you any views of the inside.

The main attraction is, however, outside. It is this door with two large trees grown up so close to the church.

Doesn't this look like something from a fairy tale? Perhaps an elven door or a secret entrance to a magician's lair? (well, except for the electric light, right?)

The churchyard is filled with graves that are old and older. Many are interesting and more are unreadable.

However, the doors on this church are really amazing.