As I mentioned in my September Shoots post most of my shoots recently have been on foot, but I did make one train trip in September (my first since February!) all the way to Cattal – one stop down the line towards York…

Although the station is called Cattal, it is halfway between Cattal and the much larger village of Whixley, which is easily accessible as there’s a roadside path all the way there (as long as you detour through the amusingly named Roman Barfs).

Whixley has a lovely old church, which is a grade II* listed building. There’s a rather sobering inscription on the Lychgate as you enter the churchyard!

The main reason for my visit, though, was to have a look at another grade II* listed church – the lovely Church of St Martin at Allerton Mauleverer, set in parkland near the entrance to the Allerton Park estate.

This fine building is now a redundant church and is looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust. There was an earlier church on the site but it was remodelled in 1745-6 in Norman style.

I was pleased to see the Churches Conservation Trust “Church Open” board at the gate, so I had a look inside too. It was easy to observe the social distancing signs as I was the only person there. There are some interesting effigies in the north transept and a vast tomb to a Mrs Mary Thornton in the south transept (which you can just see in the image above). You can see more images of the church and the rest of the shoot in the North Yorkshire gallery on my website.

I returned to Whixley via a shorter path and followed the roadside path back to the station. I had a while to wait for the train, but it’s not a bad spot to wait on a sunny day, listening to the tinkling of the bells from the Victorian signal box!