Churches (91) : St Augustine (Old), Rugeley

This is the original parish church of the Staffordshire town of Rugeley dedicated to St Augustine of Canterbury. The church was replaced by a new church on the opposite side of the road in the 1820s, some materials from the old church were used in the new. The original church dates from the 12th century. The church is in ruins with just the West tower, the chancel, a North chapel and a four bay arcade joining them.

The chancel and North chapel are in a good condition and was used as a Sunday school. The tower and chancel date from around 1300CE.

Welcoming Sophie

My Chromebook Pixel has had a good hard life but it has finally come time to replace it. The screen is flickering, the keyboard slightly broken and Google support ends later this year. The Pixel has been replaced by a MacBook Air. This is my first computer with an ARM based chip (not counting the various iPhones and iPads I have had in the past). Hopefully, Sophie (as she has been called) will have just as long a working life as the Pixel (though I will try and not break the keyboard on this one!)

Of course, I bought a Mac mini last year called Emily which remains my main workstation, whereas Sophie is my personal assistant. For the first time I have two new (or new-ish) computers to hand. Which is nice.

Departing Chester Road

In the early morning light.

Surrey Places (1) : Oxted

Oxted is a town at the foot of the North Downs in the East of the county. The town has Saxon origins and was listed in the Domesday Book as Acstede. Oxted remained a small village throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. Like many settlements, it boomed in terms of wealth and populations after the arrival of the railways in 1884. It is now a commuter town with city workers taking trains from Oxted station to London. The town was listed as the twentieth richest town in Britain by the Daily Telegraph in 2011!

Oxted's parish church is St Mary's which has Norman origins though most of the current church dates from later centuries, the tower with it's "battlements" (see below) is Norman.

Along the canal to Minworth

Today I walked along the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal from near my house to as far as Minworth, which is a decent walk. I haven't walked this stretch of canal for some time (2008 in fact) and some canal side buildings have changed, some are a little grubbier, some have gone completely! You can see my canal photos here.