News Headline: June has just been confirmed as the hottest on record.

This was our last day at Kington and we had left it for washing the hair and then visiting Pembridge. Pembridge because it is the longest of the Black & White trail villages. It's a ribbon village with only a couple of side streets in the centre. How long? Well Ches in the passenger seat took 1 min and 20sec of video footage.

That was the plan. Because Ches had failed to remind me that there was a unique font in the Eardisley church, we (well I) decided to begin there. I'd also discovered something about the Great Oak as well. You remember? The Great Oak a mile outside Eardisley? The trunk is huge and is next to the fence of one of the adjoining houses. How were we to know that if we went around that side that we would find that the trunk is hollowed out and a small child could stand inside. If I'd wanted to, I could have crawled in and stood up myself. I didn't feel like it.

The weather was also better so the photographs even better this time.

Now back to the village and the font in the church.

I've edited another person's blog and will post it at the end of this blog. It's a vivid description of the carvings and possible interpretations.

St Mary Magdalene Church, is famed for this extraordinary carved Norman font, which must be considered one of the finest fonts in England if not one of the finest bits of Norman Romanesque architecture of any kind. The font is built like a truncated hour-glass, or a goblet, with a short circular base supporting a wide circular bowl. I'll post a photo album of just this font and columns. You'll get a better idea of the complexity of the design.

Ches couldn't understand why I had to photograph carvings on the chamfer stops of the piers, including a lion's head and several human heads. A website devoted to Romanesque Carving refers to them "All the chamfer stops are decorated with simple foliage scrolls, except as follows: Pier2, NE chamfer stop: small human head with broad nose and moustache. Pier 3, NE chamfer stop: lion head set horizontally. Pier 3, NW chamfer stop: human head set diagonally, with tragic mouth, broad nose, bulging oval eyes and a cap of curly hair. It is distinctive in that the cheeks are recessed with marked nasolabial ridges linked to a jawline beard. W respond. In form resembling piers 2 and 3 rather than the E respond. The NW chamfer stop is carved with an inverted human head."

I'm sure I read somewhere, may years ago that they were often the work of stonemasons having an "in joke"

There's a connection between the font and the Great Oak. Both are around 900 years old, and the Great Oak is the last of what was a forest back then.

Satisfied, we drove across to Pembridge. The Domesday Book also lists the parish as Penbruge and the name possibly meant "bridge of a man called Pena or Paegna," from the Old English personal name + "brycg."

We'd noticed that there was a car park and thought we'd have to park there, walk one side of the village and then drive to the other end of the village, park, and work our way back. AS it eventuated, we were able to park in the centre of the village and walk along the street on one side and back on the other. Then the other end of the village, out and back.

It's always got to do with timing. Just as we finished our first side of the village and returned to the centre, two Pantech's came cabin to cabin.

We've become experts in negotiating roads and lanes only wide enough for one vehicle. If there is a layby on your side of the road, or you passed one a little way back, you pull into it and let the oncoming vehicle pass. If its because of parked cars; if they are on your side of the road, you wait while the oncoming vehicles come through. What do you do when two Pantechnicons come face to face in the middle of a village. I switched my phone to video and filmed them perform a non-mating dance. I think they might have had to do this before because it didn't take them too long to execute and the driver on my side smiled and gave me the thumb up.

Just to remind you, this is about villages lined by black and white houses, many with thatched roofs. It used to be "rooved" but the language moves on. It's about photographing them, which means walk one side of the street and photograph the opposite side and occasionally duck back and forward.

Finished and back in the middle of the village we visited another church; not for an interesting font but a unique bell tower. St Mary's has a bell tower that is a separate building some way away from the church itself. "Survey work was undertaken on the structure in 1997, funded by a grant from English Heritage, and the detailed measured survey, combined with the dendrochronology undertaken on the timbers, has established that the original tower dates from between 1207 and 1223 and that part of a contemporary roof may survive. The work also showed that the ambulatory surrounding the lower part of the structure was constructed in 1471 or shortly after, and that a major reframing of the tower and bell frame was undertaken in 1668/9."

There's lots of information about the age and structure of the bell tower such as that it is similar to the stave churches of Norway and the bell houses of Sweden, however no idea as to why it would have been built as a stand alone rather than incorporated into the church.

Many of the old Inns have been repurposed …… as tearooms. We chose one with a garden out back and challenged the sun to make an appearance. It had been cloudy all morning but threatening to clear up. It kinda half made it, just in time for lunch. One of our better experiences with a pork and apple pie. No, not your traditional pie. More like a pork and apple stew with a large topping of puff pastry plonked on top. It proved one thing, the pastry had to have been baked just then.

I'm writing this on our second last day on the Isle of Wight in early July, so this is an appropriate time to say that by and large our experience of meals at tea rooms and pubs has been "patchy". That's a polite way of saying, …. largely pretty disappointing. Seriously, we should have always just dropped into Waitrose and bought a pork pie and a prepackaged sandwich. They have been consistently excellent.

In the covid years, both pork spareribs and alcoholic ginger beer have vanished from the Pubs of England. Seriously three years ago, both were on the menu of every Pub we visited. Replaced with Pasties and Sausage rolls heated in a microwave and ciders.

As for customer service, it's on life support. We may have experienced it three or four times. For the most part, its indifference. I have to get this out of my system now, even though it is about our experience today at Osborne House, here on the Isle of Wight. Lunch at 1:00pm … we're out of the Prince Albert (pulled pork sandwich) at L12:00. We order one prepackaged sandwich, two chicken salad wraps with salad, a sweet potato curry (no rice) and four cold drinks. The prepackaged sandwich was the best. The wraps had a bare 50gms of chicken, no salad dressing. The curry dominated by slimy spinach. The waitress response when we tried to order three Prince Alfreds, "It's the one thing that's sold out, don't you hate it when its not available?". Ah! YES. That will be L47.75 …. $AUD90.81. That hurts.

Alright, where were we? Back in Herefordshire and driving home from Pembridge to Kington. Which reminds me of a better experience. OMG, quite unbelievable. I forgot to mention that while Ches was washing her hair that morning in Kington, I was doing the washing at a laundry in town. It opened early, as did the bakery next door. I was supposed to walk the town while the washing was … washing. The bakery was open at 6:30 and Grumpy Grampie was enjoying what he described as the best time of the day. I'm "Grumps" to our grandchildren and he's "Grampie" to his. He served me a slice of toast, sausage, egg, bacon and baked beans for $AUD9.00. How about that for a gastronomic highlight?

Eardisley is a charming little church. It is also, it must be said, somewhat forgettable but for one thing: its Norman font carved by the Herefordshire school. The Shell Guide to English Parish Churches doesn't mince words: "This church has the best Romanesque font in England" it declares.

Of the original Norman church of around 1100 little remains, nor indeed of Eardisley Castle that was next to it. The existing south aisle is believed to occupy the whole of the original site. The existing south arcade dated from around 1200 and was cut through what was the original north wall of the nave. The north arcade was built in around 1300, but was widened and extended to the east by two further bays in the late c13. The chancel also dates from around 1300. The tower was added in 1708 after the original one collapsed. Apart from the tower, little has changed since 1400.

The church is associated with the Baskerville family. The line died out in that inauspicious year (at least for Londoners!) of 1666 and the Barnsley family succeeded them as Lords of the Manor.

The Baskervilles (from Basqueville in Normandy) of the c12 had a poor reputation. Henry II reputedly said "If there were only one Baskerville left in Christendom that would suffice to corrupt the whole mass of humanity". That was the trouble with Henry, he would mince his words so...! Is it coincidence that Conan Doyle chose a Baskerville to own his "Hound"?

Anyway, in 1127 Sir Ralph de Baskerville fought a duel in Hereford with his father-in-law, the Lord Drogo of Clifford Castle whom Baskerville alleged to have stolen some of his land. Baskerville killed his adversary and was forced to buy a pardon from the Pope (as the rich were wont to do in those days). It is believed by some - that this battle is commemorated on the Eardisley font! It's a good story and, who knows, it may be true!

Property disputes also blighted the life of William Barnsley who became Lord after the Baskervilles. He was involved in litigation with his son over a period of 34 years and this quarrel is believed to have been the inspiration for Charles Dickens to create the endless disputes of the Jarndyce family in "Bleak House"! William's memorial tablet wearily records his travails.

The key religious theme of the font is the "Harrowing of Hell", and on English fonts it is unique to Eardisley. There was theory that after his death, Christ descended into Hell for the three days before his resurrection. This is a development of the "Ransom Theory" of man's salvation. The "harrowing" has scant scriptural support, to say the least, and probably emanated from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodaemus of about AD150.

The font depicts Christ, His cross planted firmly in the ground, rescuing virtuous Man - presumed on this case to be represented by the figure of Adam - from Hell. It is worth mentioning that there is a theory proposed by Malcolm Thurlby in his indispensable book "The Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculpture" that the rescued figure was Ralph de Baskerville. This fits, of course with the notion that the font also depicts a fight between Baskerville and Lord Drogo. . Surely, though, Baskerville would hardly have been represented with a halo!?

At Christ's shoulder is a bird that most "authorities" assume to be a dove. Mary Webb, however, explained that in the first millennium Christ was routinely represented as a "Sacred Bird", even as a vulture and the Eardisley bird does indeed have a vulture-like beak so I am inclined to believe that she was right.

To the right of Adam is a mass of tendrils and behind that is a large lion-like figure. There is debate about this figure but most believe it to represent Hell. Similarly, the figure to the left of Christ is variously named as God the Father and John the Baptist. Mary Webb believed the tendrils to refer to the encumbrances man experiences in reaching God through his "dissolute mind" and "loose practices of their behaviour", as expounded by Pope Gregory the Great.

The mason obviously had only the scantiest knowledge of what a lion looked like but a thousand years later we can nevertheless be in no doubt about what he intended. The carving is so distinctive that there is no doubt at all that this man also carved the equally-famous font at Castle Frome which also has a lion, albeit a winged version representing St Mark. Shown entangled with the tendrils it seems that the lion represents the forces of evil.

The splendidly vibrant "Baskerville and Drogo" figures. It's a strange tableau. "Drogo" has sword in one hand but the other is clutching at the tendrils of what are likely to be the a representation of evil - a common theme on fonts. He is surely holding a tendril in one hand in order to slice it with his sword? But is "Baskerville" thrusting his spear through the other man's thigh? If so, this scene is at best ambiguous and maybe supports the "duel" theory. Or is he piercing a tendril of evil and the spear is behind the other man's leg? Note their clothing: they are not wearing armour but are clad identically in loose pyjama-like gear. This is hardly military garb. Is this just two ordinary men fighting with evil? I am inclined to discount the "duel" theory, attractive as it is.

The clincher for me is the tympanum displayed at Billesley in Warwickshire which without any shadow of doubt was carved by the same mason. The man there is dressed identically and is not fighting another man. He is also entangled with tendrils. He is apparently being pursued by a beast (surely the Devil) and struggling to reach a bird - surely a representation of Christ "the divine bird".

It seems likely, then, that these carvings are variations on the same theme. Indeed, it is at least possible that the Billesley tympanum was originally carved for Eardisley. The Harrowing of Hell was not an everyday biblical concept: there is only one very oblique reference to it in the Bible.

Eardisley's is the only font in England to have this theme. Did this concept come from the head of a common mason? Had he read the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodaemus? Of course not! I have already mentioned that we can trace this man to Castle Frome. Malcolm Thurlby has also traced him to Hereford Cathedral.

It is from the monks of Hereford that this mason surely received his biblical instruction. So, ask yourself: would the monks encourage the mason to put the rather wicked Lord Baskerville on a font and to give him a halo? No, I don't think so either. It's a great story but I think it is fanciful.