170 



PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 



igii 



EXTENSION.— July 15th— WANSFORD, WITTERING AND 

 BARNACK 



[Report by the Rev. Walter Butt) 



In company with another Member of the Club, Mr J. M. Dixon, I took 

 the train for Wansford, accompanied thither and throughout the afternoon 

 by Mr H. N. Dixon, F.L.S., the Hon. Secretary of the Northamptonshire 

 Natural History Society. I would that more of our Members had availed 

 themselves of Mr H. N. Dixon's kind offer to conduct them to Bamack. 

 The line to Wansford lay through the rich, lush meadows of the Valley of 

 the Nene, and we were never out of sight of one or more church spires. Never 

 have I seen in the course of one afternoon so many or so decidedly graceful 

 ones. At Wansford Church we saw a very fine Norman font with somewhat 

 unusual sculptures on it, and a rare billet-moulding. Apparently, the base 

 had been itself a font of much earlier date. The font is well figured in Bond's 

 " Fonts and Font Covers," which was published by H. Frowde in 1908. We 

 then went on to Wittering, an out-of-the-way place, and seemingly little 

 visited. And this is a pity, for the Church is of extreme interest. There 

 is much Saxon work in it, both outside and within. The imposts on the 

 pillars carrying the chancel-arch are unique. Their size and thickness are 

 quite cyclopaean in character. From Wittering we walked on to Bamack, 

 and led by Mr Dixon, found many rare plants — some especially so. 



Among the less common plants, wc collected Carex fidva, Lithospermum 

 officinale, Schcenns niericaus, Menyanthes trifoliata, Anagallis tenella, Hydro- 

 cotyle vulgaris, Cnicus palustris, Antemiaria dioica, Echitim vulgare, etc. 

 .•\nd among the quite rare plants of Britain, we found Anemone Pulsatilla, 

 of course in fruit, not in flower, Epipactris palustris, Legousia secularia, 

 Trifolium ochroleucon, in probably its western-most station. It is found 



Fig. 3. — The "Hills and Holes," Bamack. (Old quarries where the " Bamack Rag ' 

 was once worked.) 



