February 29, 2016

Bloxham, Oxfordshire – St Mary the Virgin

We are having a marvellous couple of days at the Bloxham Festival of Faith and Literature – website – highly recommended! Just to prove we were here, here we are in a photo tweeted by the Reverend Richard Coles. Tell Northern Reader she should blog about it. The Church Times review the whole Festival here. St Mary’s church, Bloxham SP430356 is a short walk through the village from the school. I can’t find a church website, but there are some good photos here. It is a church that is well worth photographing. I walked up the road, past a lovely...
Categories Outside Northumberland/Oxfordshire/Personal/World War 1 Comments: 2
February 28, 2016

A book, another book, a DVD and an app

This book is on a certain internet website (which I will only advertise when they start paying tax) for £35. I found it in Hexham Oxfam shop – website – for rather less than that. It has been updated and is “A beautiful and practical up-to-date guide to over two thousand of Britain’s best parish churches.” Richard Surman, who updated the book, has written his own – which looks worth a buy. He has also cornered the market in books about Cathedral cats – I’m sure the St Edmundsbury cats were included. I must get some of the dvds that have...
Categories Personal Comment: 1
February 24, 2016

Cardington, Bedfordshire – St Mary the Virgin

We are driving south to the festival at Bloxham near Banbury, so the A1 and then south past Bedford is a reasonable route. St Mary’s church, Cardington (TL086479) has a church website here. This website has lots of photos, but no mention of who the photographer is. It seems a little odd that there is a Benefice magazine and a Parish magazine. Lots of different booklets on sale inside – a good use for the coffin trolley. There has been a church on this site since Anglo-Saxon times. The porch is impressive – it dates to the late C19...
Categories Outside Northumberland Comments: 4
February 23, 2016

York – St Mary’s Abbey, the Yorkshire Museum

On Thursday 11 February 2016 we had a day in York with friends Jean and Adrian. We spent most of the day in the Yorkshire Museum. Am I going to start blogging every museum I visit? Yes, if my public want me to! The museum’s website is here. The museum was founded by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, and they were given ten acres of land in 1828, land which included the remains of St Mary’s Abbey (the ecclesiastical link which justifies a blog). The gardens around are lovely and I must have a proper explore sometime. The original church was founded...
Categories Outside Northumberland Comment: 1
February 4, 2016

Wallsend, Newcastle – St John the Evangelist

A meeting at a suburban church I would never normally visit. The church is at NZ293672, and has a website. It was built in 1955-6, the architect was G.E. Charlewood FRIBA of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is a nice interior, with fittings of American oak. The pews and doors were hand-crafted by apprentices from the Swan Hunter shipyard. I don’t know who did the Christ behind the altar – I probably shouldn’t say that it reminds me of the dementors in Harry Potter … Nice wood in the Lady Chapel, and some war memorials. This is a church that keeps its...
Categories Newcastle upon Tyne/World War 1 Comments: 5
January 31, 2016

Melbourn, Cambridgeshire – All Saints’

We crossed the A10 and entered Melbourn. In our day the A10 was Melbourn’s high street – the bypass has made it a much nicer village. All Saints’ church is at TL382448. I can’t find a website and the Melbourn village site has a virus warning. When we lived here (in 1984) we worshipped at the Baptist Church – website – Ron, who was our minister, went on to be an Anglican cleric (do you see a pattern here?). For many years in the 1970s my dad (Jeffrey Barham) taught at Melbourn Primary School – website. We parked by...
Categories Cambridgeshire/Personal/World War 1 Comments: 5
January 29, 2016

Meldreth, Cambridgeshire – Holy Trinity

We had an overnight trip to Cambridgeshire (Monday 25 January) and went to two villages that mean a lot to us. Let’s start with Meldreth and visit Holy Trinity church TL378468 for an explore. The church has a website  and there is an excellent village history site here. The snowdrops and aconites are beautiful – you can tell we’re in the south. The tower is fascinating. Much of the village was given by the King Edgar to the Abbey of Ely in the year 970, and the first church was probably built by the monks for the use of their first...
Categories Cambridgeshire/Personal/Railway History Comments: 0
January 23, 2016

Knaresborough, North Yorkshire – St John

Another day out with my  North East Ranger ticket. Knaresborough has a lovely station – water tank (dating 1851), tunnel, signal box (1890), station (1851 rebuilt  1890) – and The Old Ticket Office café (website). The Bacon Sandwiches were superb, and it was a large pot of tea. The train we got off disappeared into the tunnel – it is an hourly service Leeds to York – while the one on the half hour reverses here. It goes back onto the viaduct then into the opposite platform. There is a proper shunting signal which would be worth a photo, but...
Categories Outside Northumberland/Railway History Comments: 4
January 20, 2016

Halifax, Yorkshire – in 54 minutes

I ended up with a North East Rover Ticket – see the Northern Rail website for a ticket that means you can go on lots of lovely trains. On Tuesday 12 January 2016 I had had a meeting in Bradford, got back to the station, found there was a train to Halifax, and I have a Rover Ticket. From Halifax my plan was to head to Huddersfield, then (eventually) to Sheffield. But my train from Bradford just misses the train to Hudderfield … so I found I had 54 minutes in Halifax – no jokes about second prize being 55 minutes in...
Categories Outside Northumberland/Railway History Comments: 0
January 4, 2016

New year, new links

Happy New Year to my readers. When it stops raining I’ll take my camera out and photograph a church or two. Over the Christmas break my daughter taught me to tweet. I am @revpeterbarham – and still find it difficult to believe that anyone is interested in me! I am finding it interesting to see what others are writing – and have found myself going down interesting pathways. Here is a website called churchdays, lots of resources for church visitors. It has been put together  by the CofE. I don’t know how long it has been around, but I’d never heard...
Categories Outside Northumberland/Personal Comments: 0