Aston

I'm rather ashamed to admit that after less than a week from visiting St Mary the only memorable thing here was that the tower was undergoing a major restoration. Victorian restoration has rendered the interior utterly bland and aseptic that it is totally immemorable. The exterior and location aren't bad though.

ST MARY. The chancel shows signs of its erection in the C13 (one lancet window, Double Piscina). The rest, as far as visible, is C15 (W tower with diagonal buttresses with five set-offs) or C19 (S porch, nave S windows, whole N aisle). - PULPIT. C17, very simply panelled. - SCREEN. Simple, but handsome, c. 1500. - PLATE. Chalice and two Patens, 1571; Chalice, 1612. - BRASS. John Kent d. 1592 and wife (nave, E end)*.

* now under carpet.

Aston. Its thatched cottages and barns stand on high ground away from the main roads, and the church is a little way off, with a giant elm near it. The nave and chancel are 13th century in origin, with roofs set over them in the 15th, after the bold west tower was finished. There is a grand double piscina of 600 years ago, a little white-and-gold glass 500 years old, a chancel screen of 400 years, a panelled oak pulpit and altar table of the 17th century, and the brass portraits of a woman and her husband John Kent, who was steward in the household of Edward VI, Mary Tudor, and Queen Elizabeth I.

In their day the brick house named Aston Bury rose a mile away with gabled wings and ornate moulded chimney stacks, and part of an older building in its walls. It is an almost perfect example of an Elizabethan home, with oak-framed windows crossed by mullions and transoms and with two staircases of solid oak. Three ponds still mark the line of the old moat.

Flickr.