Scissors Gate

During the last couple of days we have revisited several picturesque old Cotswold churches.  Yesterday’s blip was of a church showing evidence of much wealth having been spent on the building in past days but this little church would be more typical of tiny country churches.

There are many different types of stiles and gates but I don’t remember having seen the scissors kind where the gate is opened by ”shutting” the scissors. The footpath leading up to the church through this gate is lined with a beautiful array of spring flowers and the nearby lane is adorned with snowdrops, celandines, primroses and some periwinkle and violets.  The tiny hamlet of Duntisbourne Rous has one of the oldest churches and was built in the Anglo Saxon period with a later 12th century Chancel. Beneath the tower clearly visible in the walls there are herring bone patterns in the stone which are typical of the Saxon Period and inside is a 13th century font. It is strange to think of all those people who have been baptised there during the last 800 years and how very different our lives now are to theirs.  Yet the peace and beauty of the view from the church can be little changed.