hospitality to people seeking personal growth, spiritual refreshment and healing. The Abbey also runs a programme of events for the public in the areas of spirituality, personal development, education, and music and the arts. Prime Minister's home In 1912 the then Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, chose The Wharf (which he built in 1913) and the adjoining Walton House for his country residence. Asquith and his large family spent weekends at The Wharf where his wife Margot held court over bridge and tennis. She converted the old barn directly on the river which served for accommodation for the overflow of her many weekend parties. A painting of the period by Sir John Lavery (now in the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin) shows Elizabeth Asquith and her young friends lounging in boats by the riverside. Asquith signed the declaration that took Britain into the First World War here. The house has a blue plaque in honour of Asquith. He and his family remained in the village after he resigned as Prime Minister. He is buried in All Saints' parish churchyard (see below). All Saints' parish church The earliest parts of All Saints' parish church include the 12th-century Norman west tower and responds of the chancel arch. The most easterly arch of the south arcade is pointed but has zig-zag ornament. On the tower door are crusader crosses inscribed by soldiers either hoping for or giving thanks for a safe return from the Crusades. The main south door has a brick south porch built with money left to the poor of the parish by Thomas Bekynton, a 15th-century Bishop of Bath and Wells. Over the porch is a parvise reached by a narrow stairway from inside the church. Other fittings include a 17th-century wineglass pulpit (installed in 1901), a carved mid-12th century font with fleur-de-lys pattern and three late 14th-century misericords. There is a close resemblance between the misericords at Sutton Courtenay and those created shortly afterwards at Soham, Cambridgeshire and Wingfield, Suffolk. It is possible that the same itinerant carver made all three sets. The church was nearly destroyed during the Civil War when munitions stored by the Parliamentarian vicar exploded in the church. Churchyard The churchyard is the burial place of Eric Arthur Blair (1903–50), better known by his pen name George Orwell. As a child he fished in a local stream. He requested to be buried in an English