Beaches...But No Seaside

Cambridgeshire is a land-locked county which can boast two beaches - the twin villages of Waterbeach and Landbeach. Before the drainage of the Fens these two settlements were at the water's edge. Now they are far inland. But they do have a kindergarten school called "Beach Babies" which always makes me smile.

Waterbeach

While pedalling towards Denny Abbey I couldn't resist peeping into the churches of the two villages. Waterbeach has a tower while Landbeach favours a spire but both are fairly typical village churches. My grandmother spent the last few years of her long life in a care home in Waterbeach and the last time I went into the church must have been with her. I remember that she was very taken with it.

Although the building is much older, it underwent a major facelift in the late Victorian age. So most of what you see dates from the same sort of time as my dear Granny, who was born in 1894. 

Usually Victorian restorations resulted in the quaint and crumbling being ripped out and replaced with the huge and horrible, but here the additions are rather attractive if perhaps a bit over-elaborate for modern taste.

I find myself siding with Granny's enthusiasm for the place. And the ladies of the village can certainly do a mean floral decoration....

Landbeach

A perfect little church nestling in its churchyard. Inside it's seen no major renovation, just the usual patching-up-enough-to-make-it-serviceable. But it does have this remarkable lectern...





















    I've never seen anything like it and it's certainly not the kind of thing you'd expect to find in a little parish church. Apparently it's thought to be Dutch and to have arrived here via an antique dealer in York.

There's also a tantalising glimpse of medieval wallpainting and, looking upwards, some rustic- looking angels....

There are eight in total - here are the others...

The shields, which might have been painted later, are, left to right - the arms of the Bishops of Ely, the arms of Corpus Christi College, the arms of Cambridge University....but then I'm struggling!

Outside I was aware of someone else looking down at me. Could it be W C Fields? Winston Churchill? Or perhaps Elvis Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker?

Take care.