St. Mary's Tower and West Walton Parish Church: West Norfolk, UK

We happened to be visiting family in a small English village called West Walton, when Amanda's uncle insisted that he show us around the tower in the center of the village. You see, he was in charge of the key to the church and tower which he was very proud of! He couldn't wait to show us around.

Who knows if he was supposed to be letting anyone inside, but we were all responsible adults so we all went along to check it out. England is absolutely full of ancient structures like these. I often wonder if it would be possible for a person to explore all of them in one lifetime.

I am just now realizing that I would just love it if I could pick which image that I'd like to show up as the preview image. With steem, you end up delivering images out of order. Oh well!

So first off, he handed Amanda the key and told her that it was a great honor and that no one was ever supposed to have the key except for him. So that was kind of cool. He she is holding the blessed key.

All that I could think of while looking at the key was just how easy that it would be to open that door with a peace of wire. But I digress.

Next we started our walk toward the tower. We first came across this sign which reminded us of just how old the town is. It states that the community was recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. Wow! This kind of thing blows my mind. Here in America there just isn't anything even close to that age. Of course there were people here, but they didn't really pollute the land with permanent structures like our European ancestors.

After a short walk down the road, we could see the church tower off in the distance.

One striking feature in Europe from my perspective is the 1000 year old buildings sitting right in the middle of modern neighborhoods. It looks so out of context to someone like me, but it is so common that it all starts to blend together after you've been around for awhile.

Plaque attached to outside of tower

Once we were on the grounds I believe, we came across this sign with an illustration of the tower on it. I wondered how often they had to replace this wooden sign since it rains so much. I imagine the sign is a lot newer than it appears to be, but who knows?

This next building is directly behind the tower. They still do church services in there as you'll see by the chairs set up in the worship area.

I love the intricate designs on these old buildings. They really knew how to do lavish decorations back in the old times. Not just that, but these buildings were really built to last! Can you imagine a house built in 1950 still being around 1000 years? Forget that, it won't even last 150 years.

This place is certainly showing some wear and tear though. The uncle that was showing us around was a bit frustrated at the time because the village was having trouble keeping the maintenance up. There wasn't enough money allocated to do repairs.

Check out this crazy door. There's a big door with a smaller door in the middle. Presumably the small door is for everyday use and the larger door is for moving things in and out. But the weird thing is, the small door is really small and high up. You have to duck and step up and over to get in!

I am beginning to wonder if my head is a little wonky. I've noticed that a lot of my pictures come out slightly clockwise. Oh well!

Outside there are lots of gravestones. This was a bit sad for me to see because I could not make out a single word on a single stone.

It is likely that the identity of those buried here may be lost to time. That is, of course, unless there are records in the church somewhere.

I suppose that if you are buried there, you probably don't really care much these days about who remembers you. I was told that after 100 years they dig you up and bury new bodies in your place, with land shortages and all. However, looking at these stones I'd guess that whoever is down there has been there for well longer than 100 years!