The Joy of the Snow: Week 4

Goudge's Last Journeys: Marldon & Peppard Common

Marldon’s Church at the top of the hill during my stop there in April

“Suddenly the war broke out…. My mother never hesitated… (She) said to me, ‘We are going to live here in Devon.’

I think she made the decision chiefly because I loved the place so much, but she too loved it. The lanes with the streams running down them, the wet ferns and the steep banks and the seagulls flying inland, reminded her of the Island...”

🌿 Elizabeth Goudge, The Joy of the Snow

End of Goudge’s Journey: from Devon to Oxfordshire

Many of Elizabeth Goudge’s readers say they wish to visit the locations of her novels and children's books, to see the fabulous homes that she lived in and immortalized in her stories. I have made it a goal on my two trips to the UK to see all that I could, and what I have realized is just how time consuming it is to get to all of her locations! As you will see on the map below, they are spread out across a good portion of England, so it may take a few tries to get them all. But they are all such amazing locations that they are very worth visiting!

Today, I am sharing my own photos from my trips to Marldon and Peppard Common today to accompany our reading. Hope you enjoy them!

Join us for a look at the places where Goudge lived in her later life, which heavily influenced her all of the novels and children’s books she would write from 1939 to 1970…

Marldon Church

I had a wonderful visit to Marldon’s St John the Baptist when I was there in April. I happened upon some ladies whose father had lead the Marldon Historical Society and instigated a collection of Goudge’s works. My time in the church felt like stepping into The Little White Horse since it was full of little children for a scouting program, and they were happily searching for Easter symbols on the tapestries and kneeling cushions.

Photo from my trip to Marldon in April 2025: The first two show the hill behind the church, which Goudge considered Gentian Hill. It contains a cemetery. The church has a fabulous back door!

I found out an interesting discrepancy as well: Goudge considered the hill behind the church (above) as Gentian Hill, but the local lady I talk to pointed to the hill across the valley as what her father identified as Gentian Hill (below).