Amidst all the frenetic activity, a momet of peace.

I did a tour of 20 villages in the ‘battlebus’ with Dominic on the Loudhailer and me walking about saying hello to the few people I met at Pilham.

I stood for a moment in the tiny church. There are more important things even than a General Election.

At the back of St Andrew’s church in Stainton le Vale there is a printed notice from 29th September 1901 that is witness to the vigour of the Anglican revival in rural England in the nineteenth century. The notice advertises not one but two harvest festivals on the same day, celebrated at 9:30am and 6pm, with another service in the adjourning village of Kirkmond le Mire at 2:30pm and collections for Lincoln and Market Rasen hospitals and the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Society. The Rev. Winterbourne invites everybody in the parish “earnestly… to give thanks for the God’s love.”

This notice is an example of the vibrant rural life of the time and is contrary to the image of some dark age that we are led to believe was the case.

Coates is a tiny, sleepy hamlet where one can find one of the finest examples of a surviving mediaeval church, St Edith’s, in the country. Its most striking feature is its’ extremely rare, still intact, glorious rood screen. Most of these screens were ripped out during the Reformation. This specific example only managed to survive because of the hamlet’s remoteness.

Rood is the old English for ‘Cross’. The screen would have been topped with an image of Christ crucified, flanked by Mary and John and latterly replaced during the reign of Elizabeth 1st by the Royal Coat of Arms, which now hangs at the back of the church. It is in this quiet spot that one feels strongly the echoes of centuries past.

From atop the balcony of the rood screen the Exultet would have been sung in Latin during the Easter Vigil, always one of my favorite moments in the liturgy.

Every year on the first Monday in May our parish of the Holy Rood undertake a pilgrimage to Walsingham in Norfolk. Regarded as England’s Nazareth, it was founded in the eleventh century when Richeldis de Faverches, a local noble-woman, had a vision of the Holy House where Mary had the incarnation. It was dissolved in 1538 during the reign of Henry VIII and re-founded in the nineteenth century.

It is a very long drive, but there is something magically inspiring about the place. After mass in the Roman Catholic shrine we walked from the medieval Slipper Chapel, where pilgrims took off their shoes to walk the last mile to the old shrine. This was done whilst saying the Rosary and we then visited the Anglican shrine which is a place of real beauty and calm. Inside is a replica of the original Holy House. In my view the Anglican shrine is one of the finest modern churches in the country and certainly worth a visit.

The weather makes today a good day not to be canvassing.

I give you a new commandment
Love one another
Just as I have loved you
You also must love one another
By this love you have for one another
Everyone will know that you are my disciples.

(John 13:31-35)

We had previously visited and had a lovely time in Willoughton earlier in the campaign, speaking to the Primary School as they prepared for their own mock election. The church here is not typical for Lincolnshire having been built in the Georgian style.

The inside door was locked so I could not read the guide, but it is very attractive from the outside and has obviously been heavily restored with a lovely flat ceiling and rounded windows. It makes a nice change to the typically medieval churches found in the majority of Lincolnshire villages I have recently visited.

We went to the small hamlet of Snarford. Perhaps surprisingly, we met someone there from Essex, but this tiny, insignificant church is known throughout the country for its magnificent Tudor tombs.

Here lies Sir Thomas St Paul, Sheriff of Lincolnshire and MP for Grimsby who died in 1582. A keen Protestant, he might have had me done away with if we had met in the sixteenth century!

Anyway, he lies here alongside his wife and six children, his effigy beautifully presented. The current MP for Grimsby is Austin Mitchell. I wonder, will he make an equally magnificent tomb for himself?

Whilst canvassing in the tiny, remote village of West Torrington I took the opportunity to visit the church. I stood in this quiet spot not realizing that the first vicar here had been St Gilbert of Sempringham in the twelfth century. St Gilbert was the founder of the monastic order of Gilbertine. How strange that from this very place one of the towering figures of medieval monasticism started his career. I later went back into the churchyard and tried to imagine him there.

Earlier I had found a good guide in the open church of East Barkwith. This particular church has some nice perpendicular features, including the porch and also has a worn but attractive statue of the Virgin and Child above the entrance.

The church of St Nicholas, Searby was open, one of the first of the day. Congratulations. Inside I found another good guide on the history of St Nicholas. His generosity in leaving out stockings for the poor and the fact that his feast day occurs close to Christmas have resulted in him becoming Father Christmas. I don’t know why he became this church’s Saint, but of note there is a fine loft donated by a parishioner.

We travelled to Kettlethorpe. Here survives, in the shape of a gatehouse, the remains of the house of Katherine Swynford. She worshipped here with her second husband John of Gaunt and through him this ordinary lady is the ancestor of Kings, Queens and even Presidents. Her sister Philippa was married to Geoffrey Chaucer and she died in 1403.

One of the locals pointed out to me a cross in the churchyard which some think is a pagan site. How do they know? It is interesting to note what obscure echoes of history survive as well as stories of the great.

I was canvassing Claxby. The church there, St Marys, has some interesting features and provided a good guide to the village. It tells us that it is believed the village rests in a hollow at the foot of the Wolds. Bits of Roman mosaic have been found near the church and a Roman kiln for making pottery was also found.

Claxby is old Danish and the village is mentioned in the Domesday Book. There was a lead mine here between 1864 and 1882. The war memorial gives, unusually, the names of those who returned home. It is humbling to think of this long 2000 year history. All of those forgotten people who lived out their lives quietly and unobtrusively; probably with very few possessions, but with rich traditions, also now forgotten.