Peaked Elm Farm, Selsley

An old ailment recurred last night which made me feel rather rough, so this morning I arranged for a quick appointment with my doctor. I am very lucky as the practice is very accommodating and I was seen by mid-morning and given some potential remedy. After picking up the medicine from a local pharmacy, I decided to go for a short drive to get a bit of air and to see if I could find a scene to photograph in the light cast by the heavy grey sky.

I went along the old road through Selsley West and Leonard Stanley, which traverses the side of the very steep escarpment of the Cotswold hills, in the gap carved out by Stroud's rivers in ages past. I stopped by the rather unusual All Saints Church at Selsley, which was built next to Stanley Park, the original Elizabethan manor house.

All Saints Church is at the very heart of the English Arts & Crafts Movemen, built in late Victorian times. The distinctive saddleback tower of All Saints rises over a hundred feet to catch the changing Cotswold light on its French Gothic gables. It is one of the last of the great Cotswold wool churches, and the first to exhibit work of the craftsman movement. A fine arts design firm formed by William Morris (which included Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown, and Philip Webb) was a remarkable partnership of artists and intellectuals who were called upon to design the stained glass windows for this new church.

But just a hundred yards along the old road lies Peaked Elm Farm, sited on the extremely steep slopes on the lower side of the road. (NB Apparently it was originally named “picked elm” farm, meaning pointed or spikey). Above the road is the ancient Selsley Common which is a protected SSSI where there is an old Bronze age barrow as well as other earthworks and the remains of much later quarrying sites for local buildings.

This view is from the road looking through the front gate to the farmhouse on the right and their three storied barn on the left, which seems to have been converted into residential space. I love the views these house must have looking west across to the River Severn and the Forest of Dean beyond. On a good day the Brecon Beacons can be seen, but today you can hardly spot the River Severn through the mists.