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May 27, 2019

Wirksworth, Derbyshire – St Mary the Virgin

Wirksworth is a nearby town, but it is not very Julie-friendly (too many slopes and cobbles). On Tuesday 21 May I caught the yellow bus there (the lovely TrentBarton Sixes that run up and down the A6) and had an explore. St Mary the Virgin is in the middle of the village at SK287539. It is now part of a 10 church team – I still need to blog Alderwasley, Bonsall, Brassington, Idridgehay and Middleton – and there is a website at http://wirksworthteamministry.co.uk/. At last I have found a church website which welcomes tourists: We care for the historic...
Categories Derbyshire/Railway History/World War 1 Comments: 0
May 13, 2019

Langley Mill, Derbyshire – St Andrew

On Tuesday 7 May I went over to St Andrew’s Langley Mill where a new Pioneer Minister was being licensed. Langley Mill is a local ecumenical project, and I am the Diocesan Ecumenical Officer. Archdeacon Chris led it, and he was the only person properly addressed – shall we just say it’s not that sort of church! I mustn’t criticise too much – they are working in a church, in a community, where I could never cope. I’ve just read the noticesheet (on their website) and wonder what happens at the “Local preacher straining morning at Marehay”. Chris preached...
Categories Derbyshire/World War 1 Comments: 2
May 5, 2019

Attenborough, Nottingham – St Mary’s

Jonathan is the Vicar of St Mary’s Attenborough, just this side of Nottingham. He is also an Ecumenical person for Southwell diocese – so I went to see him for lunch. Have a look at the church website – www.attenboroughchurch.org.uk/history.html, and the link to http://southwellchurches.nottingham.ac.uk/attenborough/hintro.php . My camera died, my phone photos are not good, and it is so long since I visited (25 February 2019) I can’t remember a thing. Take these photos as a start – and I’ll go back. The first church here was built in 964, and the oldest visible part of the church is...
Categories Nottinghamshire/World War 1 Comment: 1
March 14, 2019

York, Yorkshire – All Saints Pavement

The third church we visited on our crawl of medieval churches in York, was All Saints Pavement. I have reached the stage of photoing the name boards. Fortunately this church has a good leaflet. The leaflet suggest this was probably the first medieval street in York to be paved – I want a footnote to state their source (this is what doing an MA does to you!). Ancient tradition says the church was originally built in 683 for St Cuthbert, but the church is probably later as it stands on Coppergate and High Ousegate at the heart of the...
Categories World War 1/Yorkshire Comments: 0
March 3, 2019

York – St Olave

York University has a post-grad course in Parish Church Studies – https://www.york.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-taught/courses/pg-dip-parish-church-studies/. There is a blog too – https://parishchurchstudies.wordpress.com/. A chap called Rob Andrews is a student on the course – he is on twitter at https://twitter.com/roberrttoa – and he had organised a church crawl of medieval churches. St Olave’s church is in Maygate – SE 599522, right on the side of the Abbey walls. The church website is https://www.stolave.org.uk/, and you can download an app for all the York city churches. Olave (or Olaf) was Norwegian King between 1016 and 1029 – quite a brutal man from all...
Categories World War 1/Yorkshire Comments: 2
February 2, 2019

Elsdon, Northumberland – St Cuthbert (for the third time)

From Hartburn we drove on through Cambo, and the gorgeous road to Elsdon – stopping before the village to get a few photos. I do love Northumberland. St Cuthbert’s church is a favourite. I’ve blogged it twice, but visited a couple of times more. On one occasion I came here for a meeting to discuss what adaptations they could make to the building to make it more of a tourist centre in the village – although nothing like on the scale of Derbyshire, Elsdon is one of those hub villages. I wanted to see what they had done in...
Categories Northumberland/World War 1 Comments: 0
January 28, 2019

Haworth, West Yorkshire – St Michael and All Angels

We had arranged to start 2019 by meeting friends at 11.30 for a ride on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. We overslept. We met our friends off the train at 12.30, then realised the steepness of the hill in Haworth. There is a disabled parking space in the car park by the Parsonage, but no flat access out of the car park unless you push along the road. It wouldn’t be rocket science to get rid of these three steps. We found a café and had a good lunch – Haworth is busy, even in January. We went...
Categories Uncategorized/World War 1/Yorkshire Comments: 0
December 4, 2018

Alstonefield, Staffordshire – St Peter

This year our MA course has more mature students, and one of them, Carrie, was handing out flyers for “A Visual and audio exhibition to Commemorate the Centenary of the end of WW1” in Alstonefield – their local history group got some lottery money. I spent the morning of  Saturday 10 November fighting with all the talks needed for tomorrow, and it was later than I had hoped before I got away. Alstonefield is just across the border into Staffordshire (and Lichfield Diocese) – SK133553 – and it would have been a gorgeous drive if the sun had been...
Categories Staffordshire/World War 1 Comments: 0
December 2, 2018

London – St Edmund, Lombard Street

And finally, London church number 4 was St Edmund King and Martyr, Lombard Street, EC3V 9EA. I can’t find a church website, but the building now houses the London Centre for Spiritual Direction – website – and this ‘about us’ page has a couple of paragraphs on the building. We wandered in, but if you want to visit it might be an idea to check there’s nothing on – or join them on a Wednesday morning for their midweek service. The original church dated to about 900 AD, which is only 31 years after Edmund was martyred – I...
Categories London/World War 1 Comment: 1
December 1, 2018

London – St Michael Cornhill

London church number 3 was St Michael, Cornhill, EC3V 9DS – website. There was a Saxon church on this site. It is recorded in a document of Evesham Abbey in 1055. The tower was rebuilt in 1421, and destroyed in the Great Fire. Rebuilt in 1669-72, with some debate about whether Wren was involved. The tower was rebuilt in 1715-22 in a Gothic style, later added to by Hawksmoor. Sir George Gilbert Scott carried out a major restoration between 1857-60 – so welcome to a Victorianised church. Over the door, St Michael is disputing the body of Moses with Satan...
Categories London/World War 1 Comments: 0