poliphilo

As often as not I eschew the use of guide books when I'm out church-crawling because I like surprises- and we made a little detour to Queen Camel not because I'd read that the church was splendid but because I couldn't resist the name. As it happens St Barnabas is notable for all sorts of reasons- and here's one of them- a splendid little imp I found lurking in a shady corner of the chancel....

Incidentally the place has nothing to do with ships of the desert but (according to Wikipedia) is a shortening of the Celtic "cantmael" which means place of the bare hill. The Queen in question could be Henry III's wife Eleanor or Edward I's wife Margaret- both of whom held land in the area. There are those- John Leland for instance- who hold that the Battle of Camlann- in which King Arthur died- took place hereabouts.

This is the church tower. It's unique in Somerset for being built in five stages (I think I know what that means.) Anyway, Somerset is a county of noble towers and this is one of the noblest.