My son and I spent a wonderful day last week visiting an ancient church at Warnford, Hampshire. As it is situated in the privately owned Warnford Park, it is open on Sundays for church services; otherwise, special permission is needed to visit it. The person to whom I spoke asked my name and, when I told him, he was thrilled and said he had read all four of my books! Result—instant permission to visit! As the crop circle phenomenon is such a controversial subject, the result might easily have gone the other way!
To have the church and ruins to ourselves was very special. It was a glorious early summer’s day, and our whole beings were filled with the peace and serenity surrounding us—so far from the bustle of everyday life.
Dating mainly from the 1190s, Warnford Church, the Church of Our Lady, has an earlier tower and Saxon roots. The first church on the site may have been built by St Wilfrid in the 680s. It is known locally as the "Snowdrop Church" due to the abundance of snowdrops that blanket the grounds in spring.
“The Snowdrop Church”
“Deep in the woodlands of the Meon Valley, the Church of Our Lady of Warnford stands in peaceful isolation. This is hallowed ground where God has been worshipped continuously for thirteen hundred years. The church serves a scattered parish of farms and cottages, for there is no real village centre of Warnford.”
We are also told:
“A single-vessel church with no architectural division between nave and chancel, but with a wide span. Assertive west tower with big Romanesque strip-buttresses on the corners, of three stories, with Romanesque round-headed windows in the top two stages, and two circular windows at the top of the third stage. No sculpture on the tower except roll mouldings between the stories and around the windows. (The east face of the tower and the whole parapet is of brick, with an attractively cogged lower frieze.) Two inscriptions help date the fabric of the building and are likely also Romanesque in themselves. The font is also of the 12th century, but heavily mutilated.”
“Two ancient stone tablets, written in Latin, lay claim to the founding of this church by Wilfrid during his time in the Meon Valley. The people of Warnford believe that Wilfrid made his headquarters here, although the source of the claim has not been found. In any case, Adam de Port, the Lord of the Manor who lived in Warnford 500 years after Wilfrid, respected the link with the saint and rebuilt the church in stone in 1190.”
‘The Meonwara—a tribe of Anglo-Saxon Britain—had probably chosen this site, a clearing in the woods beside the River Meon. It’s easy to imagine their settlement today. However, these grounds have undergone substantial changes over the centuries. Don’t miss the ruins of St John’s House, behind the church, built in 1210 by the St John family, who had married into the de Ports. This is a very rare example of a 13th-century hall, unique in the south of England and described in the church leaflet.
The flat ground to the left of the bridge as you approach was the site of an Elizabethan mansion built to replace the old hall, which first became a barn and then a ‘scenic ruin’ when the estate was landscaped by Capability Brown around 1760. At this time, the Meon was expanded into the lake we can see today, and the old riverside road from Alton to Gosport was diverted to the line of the present A32.’
Pilgrim’s Prayer Panel
“Adam de Port built this church and left these inscriptions:
‘Brethren, bless in your prayers the founders young and old of this temple; Wulfric who founded it; good Adam restored it’ (porch).
‘May the race signed with the Cross (i.e. Christians) from the rising of the sun bless Adam de Port by whom I have been thus restored’ (north wall - outside).”
It was difficult to tear ourselves away for the booking we had made at The Shoe Inn nearby. Close it may have been, but we got thoroughly lost! However, driving down the ancient, narrow drovers’ lanes with their high banks on either side was a joy in itself.
Eventually, we arrived at our destination and had an excellent lunch, finishing by taking our coffee outside to sit overlooking the River Meon. Brown trout were swimming lazily among the floating reeds as the river idled along. The River Meon is one of our special and unique chalk rivers, which has the rare quality of maintaining a temperature of 57 degrees, summer and winter, regardless of the weather. The name “Meon” is thought to be of Celtic origin, potentially linked to the meaning “swift.”
New Circles
Moving on from the past to the present, we have had an interesting circle appear at The Gallops, near Sutton Veny, Wiltshire. Let us hope that 2025 may be a year to be remembered for the number and design—designs that will teach us more about ourselves and the world in which we live.
STOP PRESS…
Culliford Tree Barrow, Dorset 19 May 2025 © Billy Breen.
c. 150feet (46m) over all. Barley
My tour on the 24th July has been fully booked. If you would like to be contacted in the event of a cancellation, please contact Lucy and ask to be added to her list.
There are still a few spaces places for the tour on the 31st July with the optional extra of flying over the crop circles and the ancient sacred landscape including the historic Avebury Stone Complex and Silbury Hill.