Nave. South elevation #StMaryBitton for #WindowsOnWednesday

Pair of 2-light square (headed) windows with cusped (trefoil) lights and small hollow spandrels. Added to a much earlier wall to light (so it is claimed) the (now removed) rood screen and loft

North of nave #StMaryBitton for #WallsOnWednesday

The earliest remaining part of the church and much altered subsequently. The parapet and modillion corbel tray are (more likely than not) much later additions to the original rubble fill walls

The way a wall is constructed can tell a surprisingly detailed story about the relative ages of parts of a church and the sequence of changes. Here, a circular arch has been infilled and C14 window added #StMaryBitton #WindowsOnWednesday #WallsOnWednesday #MouseJustStaringAtWalls

North of nave #StMaryBitton for #WindowsOnWednesday

Early Decorated pointed 2-light window with cusped lancets and dagger or pointed quatrefoil above. It looks like its been punched though a much earlier wall along with the addition of the narrow buttress with coped offsets

North elevation #StMaryBitton

Nave with St. Catherine's Chapel (also described as the Lady Chapel) to the right. After so many purely Perp churches Mouse is pleased to see the intact Decorated windows of the nave and Early English chapel window #WindowsOnWednesday

It's not uncommon to find the big 'arse (as mus from the East End might call it) adjacent to the north or south side of a church with a door just for 'the nobs' to enter. Here it's 'The Grange' with a boundary wall hard on the church #StMaryBitton #WallsOnWednesday

North elevation. East end of nave #StMaryBitton

A confusing mish mash but presumably the projections make the wall thick enough to hold a rood stair. Mouse just wish she could get inside to see. Now decorated with a memorial and with chest tomb below #TombTuesday

East of chancel #StMaryBitton for #TraceryTuesday

The chancel is recorded as late C14. From the tracery the east 5-light window with pointed cusped lights and label continuing the string course seems later still but you can't see the join. Make of that what you will

The #MouseEyeView of #StMaryBitton Part II

Fine polygonal stair turret with a #TinyWindow or two thrown in for your delectation dear viewer. A good close view of the engaged pinnacle to the offset for good mesure #TinyWindowTuesday #TowerTuesday

The #MouseEyeView of #StMaryBitton Part I

West elevation showing a wonderful large 4-light Perpendicular window, apparently inserted well after the tower was first built (fact check required), huge buttresses with offsets and moulded string courses #TraceryTuesday #TowerTuesday

North elevation #StMaryBitton for #TowerTuesday

One of those fairy tale castle-style churches that you occasionally stumble across. Polygonal stair turret surmounted by arcading, pinnacles and a spirelet just to add an extra egg to the already overegged pudding. Peak Gothic

From north west #StMaryBitton for #TowerTuesday

One for fans of big buttresses everywhere (Mouse cannot lie). These dominate the tower. Engaged crocketed pinnacles with finials embellish the offsets at each stage of the 3-stage tower

West elevation #StMaryBitton for #TowerTuesday

Impressively large and solid west tower. Dated to late C14 (apparently) but much embellished and altered since. Huge diagonal buttresses surmounted by tall pinnacles, three smaller pinnacles equidistant across an arcaded parapet

Back in the countryside where Mouse is at home, away from the sprawl of Bristol and back to traditional churchyards and their higgledy piggledy grave markers #StMaryBitton #Somerset #MemorialMonday

The church of #StMaryBitton #Somerset is architecturally interesting from the outside (let's face it that's all Mouse has to play with so just as well) showing centuries of building and rebuilding. And this photo shows the extent as the building bathes in the crepuscular rays of Spring

A church that is a mix of Decorated and Perpendicular and rather striking in scale. Welcome to the church of St. Mary in Bitton, Somerset. Or rather unwelcome. Another locked church. Another week slumming it outside in the hedgerows for Mouse. #StMaryBitton #Somerset