Welburn’s church, dedicated to St John the Evangelist, stands on the hillside at the southern edge of the village. Although consecrated in 1865, St Johns’s remained a ‘Chapel of Ease’ within the parish of Bulmer until 1986 when it became a separate parish.
The village has many Grade II listed buildings, including the former reading room which dates from the eighteenth century. Above the old doorway is a working First World War memorial clock with the dedication inscription on the keystone underneath. The bell-cote to the right of the centre stack houses the clock bell. The village’s red telephone box is also Grade II listed. The box is a type …show more content…
Built in 1714-15 the Obelisk is 79 feet (24m) high; it commemorates the Duke of Marlborough’s campaign victories in the War of the Spanish Succession. The route to Coneysthorpe passes the Obelisk Ponds, and there are also views of the Great Lake.
The picturesque village of Coneysthorpe has a large green, lined with stone cottages. Standing at the top of the green is the 1835 Chapel of Ease, refurbished in 1894 by Temple Moore; it has a large bell-cote housing one bell. The former schoolhouse and reading room built in 1852 now serves as the village hall. The War Memorial sits at the bottom of the green near the road.
Leaving the village, we re-enter the estate grounds and continue to the boundary of Ray Wood; a walled garden containing an impressive collection of trees, shrubs and flowers gathered from exotic places around the world. The pavilion on the south-east corner of Ray Wood is the Temple of the Four Winds, designed by Vanbrugh two years before his death in 1726 and completed in