St Michael's, Quarley, Hampshire

This delightful Saxon (AD 900) church is a short walk from my studio. The original shape of the Saxon nave is clearly seen and there is clear evidence of a Saxon window (now blocked) on the North side. Mercifully this lovely little haven is usually unlocked and a walk, sit and pray here helps with the creative day.
Saxon churches are some of my most favourite, largely because each one is a remarkable survivor, a throwback to pre-Norman conquest times. The Normans set about re-building so much of the landscape that there is something so achingly precious about these Saxon reminders of an earlier expression of Englishness, and an earlier version of Christianity too. The Normans imposed their own bishops on the church, so inevitably the texture of earlier English Christianity must have differed in some way.