St. Mary of the Virgin, Walkern, Hertfordshire, UK

The church is OLD! Excellent website for the history click here be sure to read. There are more photos of the interior and historical points.

It is hard to show the lovely sense of place from these photos. It is on a quiet little lane off the main road. What passes for town in Walkern is about a half mile away on the main road, and is just a cluster of average-looking Brit village houses and pubs. You drive thru the town and then turn left on to Church End. It is a one-car-wide lane full of trees. You pass a couple houses and a newish housing development built-to-look-old, cross the stream ford, and then you come to the church as shown in the first photo below. Further up the lane is the "new" Rectory and the lane continues on with a few private houses and then farm fields again. This town is set in the middle of miles of farmlands and rolling hills. It is just classic country England and breathtaking.

Below: This is the South Porch (main entrance) that is mentioned on the plaque as being restored in 1985 with the help of the Gorsuch Family worldwide. You can tell the new crisp-edged stone from the old.

Inside the South Porch:

Outside of the church to the right of the South Porch. This is the oldest part of the building. The chuch warden who showed us around said before the restoration of the Porch, the edges of the walls looked like this (eroded away and rounded).

Below: this is the back of the church.

The memorial to Daniel Gorsuch and his wife. It is about 4 feet tall and on the wall to the right of the altar. I've been to so many cathedrals and chuches with shrines and memorials on them to strangers and figures from history... so it was pretty moving to see one that was actually from one of my ancestors.

I didn't take many photos of the interior; it was sort of in disarray with chairs and stuff stored in it, etc., and not all that striking. Just white walls mostly.

These two photos show a bit of the interior of the oldest part of the church from the Saxon era 950-1000 A.D. according to the church website:

The 13th century Templar Knight effigy:

This is the main road from Walkern. The street the church is on, Church End, is seen on the left in the background before the road turns.

This is the Old Rectory. It must be the one John Gorsuch lived in. It is about 1/2 mile up the little stream from the church. It is now a private home/farm so we didn't get any closer than this.

This is the stream and road-ford next to the church:

This is a thatch-roof house on the street across the ford from the church: