Half a mile away from the village of Bolnhurst, in the middle of a field, a church tower rises from a clump of trees. The tower belongs to St Dunstan's which became 'socially distanced' from the village when the Black Death wiped out the village population in 1348. It seemed appropriate to walk there, alone, for my daily exercise. I opened the iron gate and entered the short tree-lined avenue. Signs warned me of uneven ground caused by rabbit holes. There was no one else about, but someone had thoughtfully strapped a bottle of hand sanitiser to a post. St Dunstan's has more reason than most churches to know how to cope during a pandemic. The 14th century windows reflected the late afternoon Bedfordshire sky. It was bitterly cold. So I took some photos and went home to paint, while listening to an 'In Our Time' podcast on 'The Plague of Justinian in 541 AD'. |