The best hikes from bus stations around Great Alne

After the Virgin Mary, „MARY MAGDALENE“ is the woman most frequently mentioned in the scriptures of the New Testament. Originally – according to her place of origin on the Sea of Galilee – referred to as „Mary of Magdala“, over time the now common name „Mary Magdalene“ has formed. According to the testimony of the evangelists, she is one of the women and men who followed Jesus Christ. Furthermore, according to biblical accounts, Mary Magdalene is one of the three who wanted to anoint the body on Easter morning after Jesus’ crucifixion and burial, and the one who, as the very first person, encountered the Risen One. Pope Francis has therefore honored her as the 'Apostle of the Apostles', saying on the occasion of a general audience: + „She shows us the God who knows us humans, takes care of us, and cares about our lives. Every human being is a love story that God writes on earth. As with Mary of Magdala, the life of every Christian is drawn into this overflowing joy: We have a God at our side who calls us by name and lifts us up, who through his resurrection transforms us and the world.“ The feast day of Saint Mary Magdalene in the liturgical calendar is unanimously on July 22nd across the major Christian denominations.

Large parts overgrown in spring / summer not passable! Route across the main road by the stag is dangerous. Suggest turn right after bilsley hotel the left and rejoin at the long house on the left

Good quality track. It can get a little muddy when wet.

Church. Chancel, nave and tower late C13; north aisle and chapel, and upper stage of tower late C14; porch and restoration 1850 by William Butterfield. Chancel, nave and tower of coursed limestone and lias rubble; aisle and chapel of regular coursed lias; porch of rubble, limestone ashlar and timber. Nave and chancel have tile roofs, aisle and chapel have lead. Chancel, nave, north aisle and north chapel, west tower and south porch. Early English and Decorated. 3-bay chancel, 4-bay nave. Chancel has angle buttresses. East and north walls have moulded string courses. 3-light Decorated east window with renewed tracery; bottom section stone-panelled. Three 2-light south windows with differing cusped enriched Y-tracery. Arched doorway between second and third windows has 2 hollow chamfers and studded door with strap hinges. 2-light Early English north window with bar tracery. Hood moulds throughout. Coped gable with mid C19 foliated cross. Nave has arched south door and doorway of 1850. Porch has timber arch. South windows renewed. Two 3-light Decorated style windows with Reticulated tracery and straight heads. Single trefoiled lancet with hood mould. North aisle and north chapel in one. Buttresses and diagonal east buttress. East and north walls have moulded plinths. String course and coped parapet with string course. Double-leaf north door with chamfered arch and hood mould. Niche above has renewed ogee head and remains of medieval carving of the Nativity, with recumbent Virgin (VCH). 3-light Decorated east window with 5 radiating lobes, hood mould and head stops; said to come from a medieval chapel at Wilmcote (VCH). Two 2-light Decorated north windows with ogee lights and hood moulds; easternmost (chapel) window has head stops. Similar west window without hood mould. Hexagonal north-west stair turret, possibly for a beacon; lowered late C19. Slit window and round window with 3 mouchettes high up in north east re-entrant angle. Tower in 2 stages with chamfered plinth, irregular quoins and string course. Diagonal west buttresses with 2 offsets. Early English lower stage has west lancet and small lancet above. Higher up are north, south and west lancets. Upper stage has paired 2-light openings with ogee lights, quatrefoils and hood moulds. Crenellated parapet with string course and pinnacles. Interior: Chancel has low-pitched elliptical arch-braced C15 or C16 roof with moulded purlins and central rib, and brattished wall plates. The easternmost bay is panelled, forming wagon roof painted and decorated with stars, and cutting across the top of th east window. Three C13 sedilia and piscina with hollow-moulded arches, hood mould and head stops. Early English style chancel arch of 1850 has clustered shafts with stiff leaf capitals. Low stone screen walls by Butterfield have coped top and pierced quatrefoils, and Gothic iron gates. Nave has scissor braced roof with collars, probably of 1850. West organ gallery 1850. Triple-chamfered tower arch on moulded corbels. Late C13 two-bay chapel and 4-bay nave arcades have simple arches of 2 chamfered orders, octagonal piers, and moulded capitals and bases. Nave has responds with moulded corbels, the easternmost C19. North aisle and chapel have very low-pitched roof with moulded tie beans. North-west door to stair turret, with sexfoil circular opening high above Fittings: Reredos with tracery panels (Buildings of England); dismantled at time of resurvey. 2 chairs in chancel made from C15 stalls. C15 hexagonal oak pulpit with foiled and crocketed ogee panels, moulded rails and buttresses with finials. C15 octagonal stone font in north aisle has quatrefoil to each face, and stem and buttresses with bearded heads. C17 font stem: wood column with gadrooned top. C15 bench, cut in two, in north aisle has moulded rails and poppy heads. Mid C19 pews and Gothic altar rails. Stained glass: C14 fragments in north aisle north-east window. Nave lancet has good glass of c.1852. Late C19 east and chapel east windows by Charles Kempe. Lead panel, nave west wall: dated 1757 with names of church wardens; removed from chapel roof 1969. The chapel was associated with the Guild dedicated to St. Mary. Listed Grade I for considerable survival of medieval fabric with many medieval windows, unusual stair turret and medieval chancel roof, and as an example of the restoration by William Butterfield.

Lovely little National Trust property, location in the fields, go through the gate for a closer look. You can even go inside to see the former bird home.

A trig point in an unusual site.

The parish church of St Mary Magdalene consists of a chancel with a modern north vestry, nave, north aisle, and west porch-turret. Whilst 13th century in origin with some later additions, much restoration was completed in 1837 when the nave was enlarged and a west gallery added, providing 86 additional seats, according to a record in the church. The west wall, with an entrance and two windows, is modern, as is also the west porch, which is carried up as a square bell-turret changing to an octagon at the top and having an octagonal pyramidal roof. There is one bell of 1670 by John Martin of Worcester. The modern north aisle has two north windows, and one at the east and at the west. The font, of flower-pot shape, may be an old one re-tooled: it has a shallow bowl. The top has been repaired on opposite sides, probably where former staples existed. The stained glass in the East window dates from 1860 and is by Hardman & Co. who were also responsible for the stained glass in the Houses of Parliament. Thomas Clarke the rector at the time of the puritan "Survei of the Ministrie in Warwickshier" of 1586 was described; "parson no precher nor learned, yet honest of life & zealous in religion he hath 3 or 4 charges & cures beside that of Kynerton, Witeley he supplieth by his deputies : his hirelinges that serue by his non-residentship are all dumbe & idle & some of them gamsters : vah of all Ixxx" a yeare." A wooden war memorial to the memory of those men of the parish who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars, which contains the name of a woman, Sister E.M. Elvins.