The Avon Valley Churches

I have made a start on visiting the churches of the Avon Valley, from Pewsey and Devizes down to the sea at Christchurch. The river rises as two arms which meet near Upavon. Some of these I have already visited so I will republish some revised posts when I get to them. Today’s trip took in the valley from Stratford Sub Castle to Amesbury.

St. Lawrence, Stratford Sub Castle

A wonderful church in the lee of Old Sarum (itself well worth a visit). It is part of the Small Pilgrim Places Network, a growing network of special and holy places – see http://smallpilgrimplaces.org/

St. Lawrence is open each day. There is a good welcome leaflet and information about SPPN as well as a laminated guide to walk around with. These do vary in quality but this one was well written and informative. Some postcards are for sale and there was some prayer leaflets also. It is always worth providing something and I would expect this in a SPP. Also, a display about a link the church has with a secondary school in South Sudan. I found a simple idea – a basket with prayer ideas and info about SPP. Easy to do and effective. Here is a picture.

The Diocese of Salisbury has produced some good Lent booklets – ‘Praying Together; Lent 2017’ which are very well done (and which I will use myself).In the porch a well made history display is shown. There is a good church website at http://www.saintlawrence.org.uk/ with visitor information, as well as an entry on the SPPN website. An interesting and prayerful church to visit.