St. Mary's

As members we often take a daily walk around Batsford Arboretum, near Moreton-in-Marsh, a cotswold town in Gloucestershire, about 8 miles from where we live.

Quite a few visitors today and overhearing conversations it seems that some have come from much further afield. Kent, West Midlands, and Northern accents as examples, and who can blame them as the Arboretum is a wonderful place to visit. Much more compact than Westonbirt and easily walked round in under two hours.

A lot of blossom of course along with a host of flowers and all those new leaf shoots in a variety of greens. Birdlife too and deer in the parkland of Batsford House, which although privately owned, is part of the estate.

At the far end of the arboretum is Batsford village and St. Mary's church, looking particularly wonderful today. The church is the third to be built on the site since Medieval times and was completed in 1861-62 in the Anglo-Norman style, and the well known Mitford family were extremely generous in providing funds for it's completion.

Finally, many apologies for the overuse of a polarising filter lol.