Nevendon, Essex

I mistook St Peter for a Victorian built church but it is in fact old.

ST PETER. Small. Nave with two C14 doorways, chancel with some renewed C13 lancets. Roofs C15. Belfry resting on tie-beams instead of posts.

NEVENDON. It keeps its peace a little apart from the great Southend road. At a bend in the lane we come to its ancient church, with the lychgate between two friendly barns, the vicarage garden next door, all charming with pines and chestnuts and limes. A little wooden bell turret sits on the nave, which is 600 years old and has had faces watching by its doors all the time. The chancel with its lancet windows is a century older, and the roofs were looking down on the worshippers when Columbus was sailing the Atlantic. The modern pulpit and panelling take their place with a quiet charm; but out of place when we called seemed a big shell-case (though engraved with the names of those who fought in the Great War).

Flickr.