St. George's Church, Stamford

This morning I met a good friend for coffee at the Stamford Arts Centre, and walked past St.George's Church on the way there. The Georgian town of Stamford has five Medieval churches, several with very elegant spires, but I rather like the squat shape of this one, the exterior of which is largely unchanged since the 15th century. I also love the boundary stone wall, which supports four species of spleenwort - quite a rarity in the east of England. 

A major benefactor of the church was William Bruges (1375–1450), first Garter King of Arms who is buried in the church. St George's claims to be the original church of the Knights of the Garter. Originally the chancel contained a series of seven windows containing portraits of the Knights of the Garter, but little remains apart from a collection of garter panes in the north chancel window and a few fragments in the south window including the two centre panes of St Catherine and St Anne.

This evening we had the first meeting of the local group of the Wildlife Trust for 2017, a very interesting talk on the River Nene: a Living Landscape. I was rather worried that the cold weather and high number of cold viruses would deplete the audience, but we had a very good turn out, with several new attendees.