Thread by @friendschurches

Rafters in floors. Doors cut into pews. Pews worked into screens. Screens becoming vestries.

Churches have a long history of assimilating themselves. At Llanfaglan, 14th-century cusped chancel roof timbers were cut out c.1800, shortened, and worked into a distinctive porch.

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Similarly, at Sutterby, Lincolnshire, the doorway to the porch is framed with some rather fancy mouchettes. While the porch dates to the 19th century, this carving is much earlier – five hundred years earlier, in fact, and we believe was originally a window arch in the church.
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Llanbeulan church on Anglesey sits in a sea of bobbing gravestones. They’re everywhere. So many in fact, that they are built into the walls and thresholds of the church… and one has even become a step on the stone stile into the churchyard…

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The four banks of 15th-century pews at Caldecote, Hertfordshire are utterly charming. They’re worn, wormy, patched and creaky. Look a little closer and you’ll see that in one pew the seat has been completely replaced… with an old door! Keyhole still in place for all to see.

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St Anno’s, Llananno in Powys has some of the finest and best-preserved medieval woodwork in Wales. They clearly didn’t think much of the 17th-century church warden’s box-pew though, as in the 19th century, it was cut up and used to make a new vestry.

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In 1874, celebrated architect William Butterfield came to East Hatley, Cambridgeshire. He was there to restore their medieval church. He intended only minor repairs to the 14th-century chancel roof, but one thing led to another...

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...and the church got a whole new roof! Happily, though, the ancient timbers were recycled into floor joists.

As a part of our recent work, we’ve created inspection hatches, so you can see the old roof… now in the floor.

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Have you any interesting examples of recycled materials in churches you can share with us?

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📸: Gwernesney, Monmouthshire, where the medieval screen has been reused to form a baptistry.