Ford End is a village in Essex with a collection of pretty 15th century cottages, among other more recent houses. With such old buildings at their core, you'd be surprised to come round the corner and find an odd-sized red brick church, far from the traditional old churches you normally find in the area. 

The church of St Mary Magdalene at Barkway was the first church I went to, as my primary school hosted many nativity shows, Easter ceremonies and harvest festivals in this building over the years. As a child I mostly just remember it being a rather plain and very cold building (especially during the nativity show), but as an adult I have gone back repeatedly to remind myself of it's beautiful memorials and some nice stained glass. 

The High Kirk of St Giles is one of the landmarks of Edinburgh. But despite it's size, the church isn't a cathedral. Before the reformation the Cathedral for Edinburgh was actually at St Andrew's, while the reformed Church of Scotland has no bishops, and therefore cannot have a cathedral. The name "High Kirk" has been in use in Scotland for some time, and so St Giles' is known as the High Kirk of Edinburgh, rather than Edinburgh Cathedral. 

The church of St Mary the Virgin in the village of Brent Pelham in Hertfordshire looks rather unremarkable from the outside. Like a lot of churches in the local area the walls are flint rubble, while the square tower has buttresses and a Hertfordshire spike. Inside the church is a collection of memorials, including one from the 17th century depicting Mary and Ann, the two wives of a man named John Rowley, and some 18th century marble memorials. 

The hamlet of Littlebury Green stands up the road from the larger village of Littlebury in Essex, and forms part of the parish that includes Audley End. Although I'd been past the main church at Littlebury in the past, I only spotted the tiny chapel of St Peter at Littlebury Green when I drove through the hamlet. 

The church of Saint Cecilia is in Trastavere, a beautiful part of Rome that's filled with tiny alleyways and old buildings. The church is down one of those alleyways, our guidebook had to give us pretty precise instructions for us to find it, and we were glad that we went out of our way to track it down. 

The town of Leigh on Sea in Essex has become a regular visiting spot of mine over the past year, as my fiancee's parents live there. While walking around the town with my fiancee we had a wander up to the local parish church. A building has stood here since the 13th century, but the current church was built in the 1500's, with additional works carried out in the 19th and 20th centuries. The position of the church means that it virtually looms over the area known as "Old Leigh", but the proximity to the Thames Estuary makes this quite an apt place for a type of memorial that I've never seen before - a Dunkirk memorial. 

One of the great things about driving around the countryside is that you often find very odd buildings or additions that mean you just have to stop and take a photo. If you are driving around the Cambridgeshire/Hertfordshire border then you might stumble on the tiny village of Heydon, and it's very odd red brick church tower. 

The church of St George stands in the village of Anstey in Hertfordshire. A church has been on the site since Saxon times, but was rebuilt by the Normans after the invasion of 1066, and then restored in the late 19th century by William Butterfield. Despite this restoration there are still remains of the old Norman structure, including part of the tower. Unusually for the area, the church is built as a cruciform, with the tower in the middle of the building. A south porch was added in the 15 century, and there is also remains of 14 century work, such as the corbels. 

Despite it being the closest cathedral to me growing up, I finally visited Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire for the first time in 2015. What I found was a beautiful building, which after a full Victorian restoration, was left with a visually stunning interior.