On tour with an assortment of tales from three rural churches

The Brinks Festival, a ten-day arts and music event based around Wisbech, strayed across the border into Lincolnshire for a guided tour around three village churches in South Holland.

A tight group of about 12 tourists started their 90-minute journey in Tydd St Mary and the Grade I-listed parish church which dates back to the 12th century and was reputed to have once been the parish of one Nicholas Breakspear – or Pope Adrian IV, the only English Pope to date.

The small group of visitors then drove themselves nearly three miles to neighbouring Sutton St James, with its odd formation of a tower and church – separated by a 60-foot burial space. Responsibility for the missing chunk falls on the shoulders of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell and his army who destroyed large parts of the church in the 17th century.

The small convoy of cars, headed by a vintage Daimler V8-250 that looked like it came straight from the set of TV detective series Endeavour, then took a four-and-a-half mile trip to Sutton St Edmund where guests marvelled at the parish church which dates back to 1295.

Its outstanding features where the quirky box pews, complete with doors, Georgian brass chandelier and ground floor rope for the church bell.

Review by Winston Brown