I’ve been doing more work on the chapter about Odda’s Chapel. Deerhurst lies in floodplain fields on the banks of the River Severn. There are two Saxon churches here. One is St Mary’s, a former monastic church, but the one I’ve been thinking about this week is a simple little building, a private chapel – Odda’s Chapel – which was lost and then found. We know from the dedication plaque who built it and why.
I’ve been writing a chapter on the wonderful micro-cathedral of St Michael with St Mary, Melbourne, Derbyshire. It’s like they took Durham Cathedral and miniaturised it. And also revising a chapter on the very ancient church of St Martin, Canterbury. And I paid a visit to Southwark Cathedral.
I’m currently writing – or trying to write – a book about old British churches. Who built them, how they built them and why people should go and see them. This week I finished chapters on three churches: Earls Barton with its amazing tower, and the two churches in Deerhurst, Gloucestershire, St Mary’s and Odda’s Chapel. The problem I have is that it’s hard to find the words to do them justice.