Eye

St Matthew [LNK] is honestly one of the strangest, if not to say bonkers, building I've seen to date. Victoriana gone mad, I'm almost glad it is inaccessible, I liked the village sign though.

ST MATTHEW. 1846 by Basevi, one of his last works. The steeple built shortly after by F. T. Dollman. Cruciform, the W tower carrying a broach spire. Lancet windows. Dull. - FONT. C14. Octagonal, on eight supports not set back. The spaces between the supports form recesses, and the decoration of the bowl is their ogee gables. - STAINED GLASS. E window 1863 by Gibbs (TR). - PLATE. Paten, 1798; Cup, 1809.

EYE. In ages past it was an eye, or island, in the Fenland marshes now it lies amid stretches of level land with dykes in place of hedges and the wide arch of the sky extending from horizon to horizon. A giant windmill 80 feet high keeps company with the slender church spire.

The stone-roofed church is separated from the long village street by a narrow strip of ground with lavender bushes which scent the air in due season. The church is 19th century, built on the site of the old one, and has in its keeping the 14th century font with eight arches, each arch having below it a recess decorated with window tracery. All the windows in the church are lancets, and the painted glass in one of them represents the innkeeper at Bethlehem refusing accommodation to Joseph and Mary.

Flickr.