Tuesday 23 December 2008

Church Hougham

Church Hougham stands on the high windy area between Dover and Folkestone. The Church, dedicated to St Lawrence, is of Norman origin.

As can be seen from the Norman doorway, at the base of the tower, it has been comprehensively renovated in fairly modern times. This accounts for the very fresh look of the flints and the decoration over the door.
This renovation took place in 1866 and the dumpy steeple must have also been added since the original design, as it certainly is Norman in style.
The church yard lacks the yew trees that so many of the village churches in the area have and presumably this is due to the exposed position of the church
The war memorial has recently been cleaned and repaired. It lists 16 parishioners lost in World War I and six in WWII. Details of this and other War Memorials in the Dover area can be found on the Dover War Memorial site.


Just along the road from there a few Waxwings have taken up residence along Park Farm Road, outside B&Q's. They are feeding on berries and their appearances are rather spasmodic. I saw six for about two minutes before they disappeared. As far as I can understand it was about two hours before they returned.

As has become usual this winter it hardly bothered to get light, so the couple of photos I managed don't do justice to these beautiful birds. There are quite a few around and it may be that we are in for a major invasion of these visitors from the north in January and February. If this is the case the local Blackbirds and thrushes will have a busy time defending their berries!

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