STONE-CUM-EBONY

 ( Stone - literally 'at the stone'. A meeting place or boundary marker. In this case, the name means 'Stone with Ebony' - Ebony being a village in the Oxney Hundred. So the stone in question was probably marking the boundary between the two villages)

A book I was reading reckoned that the church and surrounds of Stone-In-Oxney was worth visiting. Although I'd never been there, I  know where the Isle of Oxney lies, so  I was sure I could just follow the signs for it.

Oh dear, it's small wonder foreign tourists get lost in this strange country of ours. 

So I left Appledore heading towards the Isle of Oxney. Of course, it was an island once, but since the draining of the marshes etc., it is no more.

I don't see any signposts for Stone-in-Oxney, but I do come across a few with just 'Stone' written on them. I figure they must just be saving the cost of bigger signs, and that it's where I'm  heading for.

Didn't think I'd find Stone-in-Oxney .........but that's because the village actually lies within the parish of Stone-Cum-Ebony! This confusion is why the signs just say Stone.............

It's a pretty church, surrounded by some lovely tudor houses.

commemorative shrubbery planted in honour of the Festival of Britain in 1951

The church is dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin.

lovely Tudor house skirting the churchyard

This is a Roman Mithraic altar, that was being used as a horse mounting block at the nearby Ferry Inn

Mithraism, the worship of Mithra, the Iranian god of the sun, justice, contract, and war in pre-Zoroastrian Iran. Known as Mithras in the Roman Empire during the 2nd and 3rd centuries ce, this deity was honoured as the patron of loyalty to the emperor.

Until the nineteenth century the north chapel, separated from the church by a medieval screen, was the village school.