Wigginton

To all intents and purposes a rather gloomy Victorian built church, and more in the Essex style than Herts, but St Bartholomew was open - at first I thought it was locked but access is via the western extension. Not, I'm afraid, terribly interesting but bonus points for being open.

ST BARTHOLOMEW. Small late medieval church, completely renewed in 1881 by Will. White. The W end had a separate W chamber. The little C19 turret sits on the joint between it and the nave. - STAINED GLASS. Kempe window of 1892 (SS Stephen and Laurence). - PLATE. Chalice and Paten, 1569; the rest 1877.

Wigginton. Perched on a spur of the Chilterns high above Tring, it can see without being seen, and has a wide view of woods and valleys. It is a tiny village with a friendly little church among trim yews, or so it seemed to us, calling soon after the painters had given it bright blue posts for its red-capped bellcot, more blue round the windows and the porch, and blue rainpipes.

An odd little place inside, it is unhappily dark, with strangely low arches and with floors of all levels. Though much has been made new it has absorbed with its old stones a charm for which we must remember little Wigginton. The handsome roof of the west chamber is 500 years old. The chalice is Elizabethan. A stone set up by the Northamptonshire Regiment marks the grave of James Osborne, who died 50 years after winning the VC in the Zulu Wars, when he rode under heavy fire at Wesselstroom, picked up a wounded man, and carried him safe to camp.

The mysterious Grim’s Ditch runs for nearly a mile to the south from Longcroft towards Northchurch, with a break at Clayhill, and a reappearance on Berkhamsted Common. The ditch is sometimes 30 feet across and is banked up in places to ten feet. Nobody knows when or why it was made though it is thought to mark a boundary line.

Flickr.