St Bartholomew's Church (and Benchmark)

 Binley, Coventry

Easter Sunday Afternoon

Follow this path to enter the church on your left.

Just to the right of the entrance (behind a camelia bush) level with the step

you will find a chiselled horizontal mark known as a survey benchmark and bolt.

This is an elevation reference point.  I love finding them.

Click on the link and you'll see a few more in and around Coventry HERE.

For more information about benchmarks, follow the link HERE.

And for more photos in and around St. Bartholomew's, follow the link HERE.

Monks Kirby - Benchmark

Church of St Edith, Monks Kirby

I take great delight in finding a

'benchmark'.  See the cut mark in the stone 

of the church tower (below)?  This serves as

an elevation reference point. 

Below are a few more photographs around the church.

The view behind the church is a fine example of

why I love living in Coventry.  It only takes me

5 minutes by car from my home to be out in countryside like this.

Below is a view of the church across the fields.

It looks a big church and I can assure you - it is!

For more about benchmarks, please click the link HERE

For more about the Church of St Edith, please click the link HERE

Also, please click on the 'labels' below for other benchmarks I

have photographed, pictures of St Edith and/or Monks Kirby.

Coombe - Benchmark

Entrance to Coombe Abbey Hotel

as well as Coombe Country Park

Brinklow Road

When you drive down the Brinklow Road,

just outside Coventry, you can't help but notice

these two pillars and the magnificent Coombe Abbey Hotel beyond.

My interest today is the curious mark on the

left pillar noted by an arrow in the photo below.

Have a closer look below.

The white arrow is pointing at a

benchmark at the base of the pillar.

The benchmark is that 'line' with (what looks

like) an arrow pointing up to it.

The benchmark serves as an elevation reference point.

This one no longer appears on Ordnance Survey maps.

When the reference point was chiseled in the stone,

 these pillars were located just down the road, 

presumably at a different elevation.  

* * * * * 

In preparing for today's post, I was interested to read that

at some point in the 1960s these pillars were originally sited about 60 yards

to the east.  The pillars supported wrought iron gates

 known as the Griffin Gate. I have read further that these gates were

removed for safekeeping when the pillars were moved to their present

location.   I wonder where the gates are now.

In the photo below I am looking towards what was the 

carriage entrance (next to red car behind the trees).
The main entrance is behind me.

(Below) The Griffin Gate was originally here

at the carriage entrance to Coombe Abbey.

This road runs parallel to the main entrance driveway.  

Participating in Skywatch Friday

Brinklow - Benchmark

Church of St. John the Baptist

Broad Street, Brinklow Village

(near to Coventry)

In the photograph above, you will see a white arrow

that shows the location of a chiseled horizontal

mark that surveyors have made in the stone

to serve as an elevation reference.

It is difficult to see above - it looks like an

arrow pointing up to a line and I believe it dates back to 1856. 

The church is much older than that.

Below is the benchmark at the Council House, Coventry.

When I noticed the benchmark on the 

Council House, Coventry,  I hoped wondered if I had

discovered a secret coded message of sorts.  Of course, it was

nothing like that.  This benchmark in Brinklow is the 

second one I have found.  I'll show you the 3rd tomorrow.

In the meantime, enjoy the view from the churchyard

(similar to the one I shared on 1st April.)

Interestingly, this church isn't the only church around

here to have a blue door.

Benchmark

Council House, Coventry

(constructed 1913 - 1917)

I noticed this mark in the sandstone at the front of Coventry's

Council House and for ages thought it was a stonemason's mark or signature.

I was wrong.

Turns out that this is a 'benchmark'. If you follow the

link, you will probably understand better than I

what this surveyor's mark is all about.