Instead of bothering about dates and what the guide books say, use your eyes
John Betjeman – In praise of churches
It took a young organist and his YouTube channel 1 to remind me again of how fortunate we are to still have so many wonderful, ancient English churches. With a continuing trend of dwindling congregations as well as as village de-population and clefts in the clergy, many of these stone and wood and glass edifices are being sold off, to be refashioned as fashionable homes or some such secular use, So as and when the opportunity arises, my camera and I will be following in the footsteps of Betjeman and becoming a ‘church crawler’. Taking a look inside whenever I (gratefully) find a church still left unlocked outside service hours, or making do with exteriors and the churchyard’s resting places for past congregants.
One way of preserving the smaller parish churches is for several to join together and rotate times and styles of services between them, as for example, St. Mary’s, Callington, in Cornwall. It being a Grade 1 listed building 2 also ensures its preservation as well as continuance.
Fresh flower arrangements in the porch, aisles and chancel are a clue as to how well looked after, attended and loved a church is.
At the sign of the fish a light, airy room for the children
We have to thank the Victorians for renewing and restoring so many of our parish churches though it was less an act of preservation as of ‘improving’ the originals and much design will have been subsumed in the process, as Betjeman hints in his “Hymns” poem:
He who took down the pew ends
And sold them anywhere
But kindly spared a few ends
Work’d up into a chair
Fortunately the angel and book carved pew ends remain still at St Mary and are polished to a shine.
Thursday Thoughts: Some random topics for prose and photos though churches may feature
PoetryPix 