The Enchanting Itchen Valley

Today was  Bank Holiday Monday and the weather forecast was for sunshine, so we thought  carefully about where to go to avoid  crowds and  traffic. We decided to take our folding e-bikes in the car to Alresford (10 miles away) and to follow a 22-mile route in a book of cycle rides, entitled  "The Enchanting Itchen Valley". It proved a good choice, as it took us on lanes and quieter roads. The main photo shows the view soon after leaving Alresford heading towards Cheriton. At this spot there is a memorial to the  Battle of Cheriton which took place  here in 1644 and  was an important  Parliamentarian victory. At Cheriton, the source of the Itchen,  we stopped for coffee at the Flowerpots pub. Then we cycled onto Tichborne where we visited the  little church dedicated to St Andrew,which dates from the 11th century. It is unusual  in  containing  a Roman  Catholic chapel, within a Pre- Reformation Anglican Parish Church. The Tichborne family was granted a concession by James I, in 1621, in appreciation of their loyalty to the king. Later, the church was badly damaged in 1678 under the direction of Titus Oates who fabricated  the "Popish Plot", a supposed Catholic conspiracy  to kill Charles II, but it did  survive, and was repaired.
Next  we cycled on to Ovington for a brief  lunch stop at the  Bush Pub, on the river.Our journey back to Alresford then took us via Itchen Abbas and Northington, without any more pub stops, but we did visit another very interesting church. See extras. It is dedicated to  St John the Evangelist and rises above the small villages of Northington and Swarraton, and, is known as the cathedral of the valley. It was commissioned  by the 4th Lord Ashburton (member of the Baring family )and his wife Leonora to replace an earlier  church, and no expense was spared! The architect was Sir Thomas Graham Jackson,a pupil of Sir  Gilbert  Scott, and the church was built between  1888 and 1890. It represents an important example of  late Victorian ecclesiastical art.  The stone  pulpit is ascended via a spiral  staircase and a doorway in the wall (Lord Ashburton's "hole in the wall").The pews all have carved bench-ends, each one  with a different design. I  particularly liked this Green Man or wodewose. The final extra shows the exterior of the  church. Originally  it was going to have a modest shingle spire until  Lady Ashburton saw the tower of St Johns at Glastonbury and, mid- build, insisted she wanted a tower too! 
Another great day out.