OFFCHURCH
 | Offchurch, 3 miles East of Leamington, lies on the Welsh Road, a former sheep droving road from sheep farming areas of Wales to London. |
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Anglo-Saxon artifacts from the 7th century have been found here.
Offchurch takes its name from King Offa of Mercia (757-796), who had a manor nearby and built the first church here.
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 | The present St Gregory's Church is mainly Norman, with some Saxon features. |
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The windows in this church are very small, so it is quite dark inside.
The darkness accentuates the brightness of the stained glass windows. The area of the church near the main door is bathed in blue light coming from one window near the door. The picture below shows the doorway into the church and the adjacent window.
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Offchurch is one of the most interesting living churchyards. A notable feature at Offchurch is its communities of different species of tall wild flowers. |
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There are ivy covered tombstones, and many bird and bat boxes up in the yew trees.
There were also squirrels in the trees. Squirrels are quite common in churchyards, but this churchyard was the only one in which I noticed them. |  |
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