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| Flintham Windmill (1769) |
John's 8¾ mile walk took 18 Ramblers from Flintham to Syerston and then on to the historic village of Elston with its many Civil War connections, for coffee. On good tracks, we returned via Sibthorpe, stopping to view the Dovecote there before taking Longhedge Lane and Hawksworth Road back to Flintham.
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| The start point - the 'new' school of 1874 |
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| Reaching the outskirts of Elston |
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| Two fine village signs showing Elston's Civil War connections. The silhouette is of the local scientist Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin |
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| All Saints' Church, Elston - coffee stop. Click here to hear the congregation |
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| Mosaic on wall of Elston Village School |
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| A rare sight these days |
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Elston Chapel, a Grade I listed building, is thought to have been the chapel of the mediaeval leper Hospital of St Leonard’s which was rebuilt in 1577 |
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| Inside, late Georgian rustic pews, a gallery, a communion table, a pulpit and several layers of wall paintings |
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| Restoration work has uncovered a section of wall paintings, including Biblical texts that feature so heavily in Georgian decoration. One intriguing section of paintings shows one scene overlaying an earlier painting. The earlier one shows a royal coat of arms, the overlying painting showing a very large lion. |
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| Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. |
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| Sibthorpe Dovecote, built by monks in response to a famine of 1360 ... |
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| ...it housed over 1,200 pigeons in tiny nesting niches perched 24 stories high. It provided a supply of meat, eggs and fertilizer to safeguard against future starvation |
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| Local detectorist near Longhedge Lane, holding today's find, a Charles I sixpence. Longhedge Lane is an ancient, possibly, Bronze Age trackway forming part of a route linking the navigable River Welland, east of Stamford, to the River Trent so is a likely spot for buried treasure |
