Ever since having this famous poem drilled into me in high school i have been fascinated by what i will see in Stoke Poges, where i plan on going this February.

Though Wikipedia says other country churches also claim to be the locale would Stoke Poges church today be remotely redolent of the one described in the poem?

"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds;

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower
The moping owl does to the moon complain
Of such, as wandering near her secret bower,
Molest her ancient solitary reign.

Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,
Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

And goes on and on

It seems that this is the quintessential church and churchyard - yews, ivy-clad tower, etc.

Q- Is Stoke Poges now rather industrial - is there any romance in this country churchyard - is the town nicer than i think

any comments appreciated by anyone who's been there

thanks

Google is youfr friend:
http://www.stoke-poges.com/

It's got a great golf course (which is where James bond played Goldfinger at golf).

It's not "industrial" - it's in bloody buckinghamshire for God's sake. It is bloody boring though (as is all of Buckinghamshire)

It's also William Penn's hometown before he got involved in the disasterous American experiment.

C-W's got it about right as far as Stoke P's concerned.

You'll struggle to find many ivy-manted towers these days: most churches hacked it away a century or so ago - partly to protect the tower fabric, partly because the taste moved to seeing the tower, not a fake jungle. Birdlife has been conserved more poorly over the past three centuries than buildings - though the bloody owls near us keep going all night.

But otherwise, Anglican churchyards are among Britain's great unsung marvels. The 8,000 churches with listed building protection almost all preserve their churchyards practically intact - yewtrees and all - and astonishingly often have, by knock-on, forced several centuries of conservation onto the buildings - or emptiness - immediately surrounding them.

I'm not aware of any guide to churchyards (now there's a retirement project). But, while the world waits breathlessly for my contribution, get the paperback of Simon Jenkins' '1000 Best Churches'. Practically every one in the book has a great churchyard.

I don't have much to add, but it's funny that I thought I remembered this line from the poem:

"Some mute and glorious Milton here may lie"

However, I was mostly wrong.

The actual line is:

"Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest."

At least I did correctly recall the next line, "Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood".