Monday, 23rd September, 2019.
St Gregory's Minster at Kirkdale was built around 1060. While the term "minster" usually refers to a large or important church, which this one didn't seem to be, it can also refer to a church with monastic origins, or just be a vagary of local custom, which we decided must be the case here. There was a garland of fresh flowers over the door, and the path was strewn with rose petals, as there had recently been a wedding here.
St Gregory's is famous for this rare sundial (now over the door and out of the sun) which dates to the 11th century (Paul's picture).
While we were sitting on a bench outside having a cup of tea and a Kit Kat, an elderly Yorkshireman, Edward Christopher Wood, drove up to bring in the bins, and we had a great chat with him. While the front part of the graveyard, near the entrance to the church, had pristine green grass, the back part is fenced off and has sheep on it. However, Edward told us that Mrs Binks and some other ladies of the village had identified some endangered wildflowers growing in the back part of the graveyard, and asked for the sheep to be kept out of that area until the end of summer, when the wildflowers had finished (Paul's picture).
The wildflowers must have finished, because the sheep are back.
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