A watercolour sketch of the church and almshouses at Ewelme in South Oxfordshire.

This is one of my favorite churches, combining a great sense of history with a glorious setting in the rolling countryside of South Oxfordshire.

The church was already old when it was rebuilt in the 15th C. under the auspices of William and Alice de la Pole. Alice was Geoffrey Chaucer’s granddaughter and the village is also associated with Henry VIII.

Between 1437 and the 1450s almshouses and a school were built next to the church and the school remains one of the oldest in the country.