Out in the Country and a Castle!

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."  Matt 6:33 

I've been searching the United Kingdom for a castle (well, England at least thus far).  We found one today accidentally as we were looking for a member's address out in the country!  It was a beautiful day with lots of wonderful things to see.

First we saw two castles way off in the distance.

I zoomed in to get a better look, getting more excited.  Elder Blain got out of the car to look 

even though he has seen lots of castles.  

We ate some berries growing along side the road as we looked at the castles.

 

 The wall in the foreground is the front of the original medieval Alton Castle.  This castle was designed by Augustus W. N. Pugin.  Pugin's restoration of the Gothic style of architecture is widely know (his reputation grew when he had much influence on the design of the Palace of Westminster).

 

I couldn't get a good picture of what was written about the history.  I'll research it and add more details later if I get time.

This is used as a camp for disadvantaged and city youth during the school year.  Church was once held in it also.

 The moat is below.  The bridge was rebuilt a few years ago.  The medieval wall is on the left.

Lots of chimneys to heat this place!

 This is the other side as we were driving up the hill on the way out.

 

 Here's an ariel view I pulled off of the Internet.  Inside this castle are the remains of a medieval castle build about 1175.

 This little angel was seen from the road.  She was standing in the church yard over a 1919 grave.

Remembering the British soldier.                               

This church has one of the tallest steeples I've seen.

These are the doors to the tall steeple church.  I wasn't where I could get a decent picture.  There was no place to park because it was in the middle of town on this little narrow one-way road.

 

 This was taken out of a speeding car.

 

 This is part of the Catholic Church that was by the castle.

We were standing at this door talking to a man who was going into mass in this church.  He was very interested in what we were doing in England and he came out of the church twice to give us more information about the area.  As we were standing there looking like we were welcoming the people going into the services, three priests came in with their long robes, etc. on and one of them said, "The Mormons," to the other.  Elder Blain nodded to them and one of them nodded back.  The looked quite serious and I'm sure they thought we were brazen enough to try to steal their parishioners!  As the man followed the priests into the building so he wouldn't be late, he said, "See you on the other side!."  We did get his address--hee, hee. ( :

 

A man said this is the second cross (on this spot) in all of England that was allowed to be erected after the king made all the churches remove the crosses.  I'm sure this has to be a renovated version.  It looks too new.

 

A child's grave. 

 

 One more church by the castle.  All designed by Pugin.

 

 This round jail is where they kept the prisoners who were going to be hung the next day in the towne

square.  They also used it to put naughty youth and adults in over night to give them a good scare.  Below is the interesting curved door.

Another interesting old door in a church we saw along the way.

The house by the round jail.

 

 This picture is for the horse lovers.  Notice the blanket on the one by the tree.  It is common to see some horses with blankets all year.

There is no way to describe the noise that arose when I went to the fence to take a picture of these free-range chickens and the ducks, geese, chickens and whatever else was in there all started running quickly straight towards me making the loudest racket!  It is a good thing I was on the other side of the fence or I would have been mowed down!  Elder Blain was sitting across and down the road a ways in the car and couldn't see them because of the hedge, but he heard them and couldn't figure out what was happening.  I should have put the movie mode on but I didn't think of it because they took me off guard.  I just took some quick shots and took off so the owner didn't come charging out of the house to chase me off for bothering the birds.

 

This guy was ready to take me on.  

Ah, would you like a Book of Mormon?