Monthly Archives: June 2021

The Church of St John the Baptist Stanton Suffolk

Nine and half miles north east of Bury St Edmunds on the A143 on its way to Great Yarmouth lies the village of Stanton with its two churches, All Saints which is located in the village centre and our destination, if we can find it, The Church of St John the Baptist.

I am not very optimistic, I spent years traveling past Stanton in an other life time and did not know of its existence, it is not visible from the A143 and the sat nav takes you right into the village rather than left where St John the Baptist Church sits but fortunately we found ourselves on Old Barningham Road where you can see the tower beyond the trees.

The Church of St John the Baptist is under the care of The Churches Conservation Trust

“This evocative, partially ruined flint church has a bold tower and fabulous fourteenth-century windows. The churchyard is an oasis of trees in unhedged farmland and the floor of the roofless nave and chancel is carpeted with grass. An idyllic spot to stumble across.”

As described on the web site of: The Churches Conservation Trust

Although no longer in use now for obvious reasons it still holds a spiritual quality and perhaps any prayers said in the churches roofless nave have a direct route to Heaven!

The Blue Plaque to Rev W Awdry, Elsworth

Elsworth and An Engine Called Thomas

Elsworth in Cambridgeshire sits to the south of the A14 between Cambridge in the south east and Huntingdon in the north west.

Holy Trinity Church, The Parish of Elsworth, Cambridgeshire
Holy Trinity Church, The Parish of Elsworth, Cambridgeshire
Holy Trinity Church, The Parish of Elsworth, Cambridgeshire
Holy Trinity Church, The Parish of Elsworth, Cambridgeshire

As we drove into the village looking for the church and the blue plaque to Rev W Awdry on a warm sunny day in June 2021, the penny began to drop that this was not our first visit, it was in fact 10 years ago back on 31 May 2011 when we were totally unaware of The Thomas The Tank Engine connection.

The quest for the “anthropomorphised fictional steam locomotive” (wikipedia definition) in Elsworth started when we visited Emneth Norfolk back in November 2018.

See Previous Blog Post:

The King of East Anglia and A Tenuous Connection To Ringo Star

Memorial Window to The Reverend W. V. Awdry
Memorial Window to The Reverend W. V. Awdry

The Rev W Awdry moved the Elsworth  the year that the Railway Series second book Thomas the Tank Engine was published he went on to write five titles while he was rector here before moving Emneth in Norfolk in 1953.

The Blue Plaque to Rev W Awdry, Elsworth
The Blue Plaque to Rev W Awdry, Elsworth

“Sometimes, the Best Adventures are the Ones We can only Dream about.” 

Wilbert Awdry

Interesting Links:

Cambridge Past, Present and Future. Rev. W Awdry 1911-1997