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April 10, 2016

Milbourne, Northumberland – Holy Saviour (again)

I wrote “!It is ridiculous that I have never blogged my two churches.” Later I realised I have blogged Mllbourne, in 2011.  I have lots of photos, but it is never easy to find them. I went out on 10 April to take another set – if I find better ones I will edit the blog. You will find our superb church website here – I only have to look at it to tell you the grid reference is NZ117751. Indeed I could simply tell you to look at this page and stop blogging. The church is on the minor road...
Categories Northumberland/Personal/World War 1 Comments: 4
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
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 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
November 6, 2015

Hungerford, Berkshire – St Lawrence

We have headed south for a few days – the inside of the first week of October 2015 – and went to Hungerford. Many years ago, when Hannah was little, we used to drive from Cambridge to Bristol via the A4 and we would visit the Tutti Pole café. Today we parked on the main drag, just to the south of the railway bridge, and went into the Tutti Pole café. I remembered poached egg on toast – and they still do an excellent poached egg. They also do meringues, but I carry more weight than I did 25 years...
Categories Outside Northumberland/Personal/World War 1 Comment: 1
October 16, 2015

Bywell, Northumberland – St Peter (again)

When I read my older blogs I am surprised how short they are. It is a long time since I went to Bywell. We went back on Saturday 19 September for a Confirmation Service – we only had a couple of candidates (Maureen and Aidan) so it was lovely to join Corbridge Deanery and +Stephen. The patterns of the evening sun were lovely on the church. A lovely altar frontal. Some good glass – with a couple of Evetts. A great group of candidates, and the bun fight was good too. Thanks good folk of Bywell.
Categories Evetts' windows/Northumberland/Personal Comments: 0
September 12, 2015

Whitley Bay Crematorium

I have been sorting out old photos, and found several I took of the Crematorium Chapel at Whitley Bay (NZ345744). You will see that the chapel is worth a blog. I don’t do many funerals over here – most of mine are in Newcastle. Whenever I do come over, the parking notice always makes me smile. At last Julie and I have equal parking priority!   The Chapel was designed by Edward Cratney of Newcastle in 1913. It was originally the cemetery chapel. The Crematorium was added in 1960. The chapel has very fine quality Arts & Crafts style plaster...
Categories Newcastle upon Tyne/Personal/Railway History Comments: 4
September 4, 2015

Fenham, Newcastle – St James and St Basil (again)

Thursday 27 August was another glorious day, and another day out. For those of you who don’t know, the Church of England is its own planning authority, and planning decisions are made by the DAC (Diocesan Advisory Committee) – well, to be exact, we recommend to the Chancellor of the Diocese who makes the decision. The DAC has a wide group of members – architects, archaeologists, a bells’ expert, a stained glass window expert, heating chap, representative of English Heritage, etc. etc., and a few clergy (“that’s me folks”). We meet monthly, on several occasions in a year a...
Categories Newcastle upon Tyne/Personal/World War 1 Comments: 0