Chippenham, Bremhill and Tytherton Lucas

Trips Out have even been squeezed in after work these days, so we were very disappointed to have missed the opening times of St Andrew's Church, Chippenham by half an hour. I was looking forward to seeing a chest in there from the thirteenth century.

We tried instead Bremhill, a small village not far from Chippenham. There we were pleased to find another appealingly decorated font, which had scallop shapes and a band of ridges above and below it. I am not religious but it is nice to just sit, undisturbed, in a quiet church and know that you will not be interrupted (in these heathen times!) The ridges were quite chunky and yet I was not very content with my interpretation of them. I have been using the coloured crayons to draw (they cover a multitude of sins and also add something to the picture) so I tried this time to render the font in pen. I am not sure that pen is my medium, but it will of course take time to practise!

After Bremhill we followed winding lanes to nearby Tytherton Lucas, a tiny village with seemingly very few people around. The church was set back away from the road and seemed to be accessible by a pathway that led up to someone's house - but no, what was this? There was a sign at the start of the path expressly forbidding people to use the path to access the church (except for services). The alternative route meant ducking under overgrown shrubs, through a gateway and then being forced to wade knee high through a field - it was hardly the welcome you would expect from a house of God. I for one did not enjoy it and I cannot really understand a house set opposite a church being quite so "unChristian" - after all, how many people can there be wanting to access the church, when it is in such an out of the way spot? I was going to march back down the pathway to the road, but my nerve failed me.

Naturally after such a trek, the church door was locked. We were determined to get a glimpse at the font so my sister stood on tiptoe and held her camera to the window to try to photograph it. As I watched her, I remarked on the extent to which her obsession had now grown. But to be fair she got a good photo and was able to draw the font from it.

Sutton Benger, Lower Seagry, Christian Malford, Tockenham

Part of what I like about our travels is choosing where to go; sometimes it feels like it has to be further afield these days as we have been to so many spots in Wiltshire! But it is not the case, there is still much to be discovered and so this time we chose just north east of Chippenham, where we found plenty to keep us entertained.

Sutton Benger was the first stop, and unusually we found an old woman doing something at the front of the church. Although we rarely meet anyone on our travels (a telling sign for the Church today surely), we are never that comfortable when we do. I mean, it is hard to explain to people what we are doing and why; we understand, but I am not sure that they would. Luckily the object of our visit was outside and we were amused and surprised by its size and shape. It was a huge animal shape set high up on the outside wall, possibly as a gargoyle, possibly not - the front of its mouth was broken so we could not tell. I have never seen such a large carving set on the wall and it was the subject of great debate as to what creature it actually was: my vote is with cow, as it had the solid, rounded body of a cow and hooflike feet. It also had little ears and a rounded face. My sister however thought it might be more bear-like. I thought I could see a swishy tale. But like with a lot of these worn carvings, it takes a great deal of observation and sometimes some guesswork to figure out what they originally looked like. And does it even matter, as the form it is in now is just as pleasing to look at.  What amused us both as well as the size of it, was how one hoof was up to its face - it really looked like it was on the phone - or moo-bile, perhaps.

At Seagry, one of those places where you have to get the enormous church door key from a neighbour, there were two figures - a Norman knight and a woman. There were also some weird skull shapes on the wall as part of some memorial tablet. If ever we needed reminders that we are all mortal and that "the time is now", to seize the day, we get enough traipsing through churchyards. Seeing gravestones and sometimes catching sight of people who died young is enough to remind you to get on with things.

On to Christian Malford, no, not the name of an American filmstar but it could be. What a beautiful chunky font met our eyes as we went in. I am becoming quite fond of fonts and how each one is unique in its design. They share patterns such as zigzags, dots, curves but each one is always a surprise. This one was quite low, fat and squat. It was in quite a large church and we enjoyed sitting drawing it quietly.

Our final stop on this trip was Tockenham, where again we found another font, and although it had similar arches to the one in Christian Malford, it was different - this one was higher off the ground and very solid looking. The church also had a possible Roman figure in the outside wall.