St James and St John's church, Dorrington, Lincs

I got up this morning and got ready to go over to my Mum and Dad's. Before I went I watched the first half of the World Cup final between Australia and England. The Aussies were 6-0 up when I left, and I hoped to avoid the result and watch the rest when I got home.

But my Dad had watched the whole game and told me as much detail as if I'd sat and watched it! It finished 6-0, and my Dad said that England were "rubbish!" I said if they managed to keep the Aussies to just one score, they were far from rubbish, as most teams get hammered by a lot more than that!

When Brian came to pick me up we drove over to Caythorpe as today is the day my son Zeph comes home for the end-of-season break. I like having him home for a couple of months, but I can't imagine it's too exciting for him, leaving all his mates behind!

On the drive over there I noticed this lovely church, and asked Bri to stop so I could photograph it. It was built in the 13th century, and had more added onto it in the 14th and 15th centuries. It looks like it's not actually in the village, but there may have been houses closer to it back in the day.

There was a local legend attached to the building of the church. The story tells of a time 'years ago' when an attempt was made to build a church down in the village on Chapel Hill where the base of the cross stands. However, for two nights running, all the work that had been done during that day was undone in the night. On the third night, the workmen stayed up to watch - nothing happened, so they went off to get their breakfast. When they came back, all their work had been undone again. One big stone had been taken right up the hill to where the church now stands, so it was decided that the church would be built there. After that, the work was completed without trouble. Another version of this tale exists which names the church builder as Tochti, a Saxon thane, and says that he tried to build the church using stones from a pagan temple. Again, the day's work was destroyed in the night three times, and the stones were carried back to their original location, where the church was eventually built as in the first version. This implies that the church is built on the site of a pagan temple. The church is also said to be 'very much haunted'.


I don't know about the haunted thing but I'm not volunteering to sleep alone in there!