St Margaret, Radulphus and the horse manure

This morning the spaniel and I walked over fields and through woods from Mapledurham to Caversham and back on a track running parallel with the Thames. We started and finished at the small church dedicated to St Margaret of Antioch. Apparently there has been a church here for more than nine hundred years. The first recorded vicar was Radulphus de Agia who served from 1158. The church has very close links with Eton College and with the crown. The clock in the tower was a gift from King William IV.

I'm planning to restore my father's old vegetable beds in the spring and ever since we arrived here I've been looking out for a supply of horse manure. Finally found a stables that will let me dig manure from their stack so I'll be doing that a couple of times a week for a while.