The churches in our care are derived from the landscape they occupy. Forest, mountain, field and sea, in many cases, we know exactly where the raw materials came from. Locally sourced limestone formed the lime mortar that sticks masonry and brickwork together.

#thread
When it comes to buildings, mortar really does the heavy lifting. It sticks masonry together, keeps masonry apart, and impacts everything from load distribution to acoustic insulation.

2/6
Mortar is a binding agent composed primarily of binder and aggregate. Generally, it is defined by the binding agent, i.e. lime. Aggregate provides a vital framework and prevents shrinkage. The proportion, grading and packing of aggregate will affect quality, porosity and strength
Binder is generally classified by its hardening mechanism. For example, clay hardens by dehydration, gypsum by hydration and lime by carbonation. What’s so wonderful about a natural material like this is it is *alive*, responding to its environment.

🎥: slaking lime

4/6
One of my favourite lime mortar phenomena, something we see often in our churches, is the formation of Liesegang rings - swirly ridges in the surface of a lime mortar.

5/6
They are formed under certain (often damp) conditions when components of the mortar precipitate to the surface. They reform into rings and spirals, disrupting the smooth surface. Nature making its own decoration.

6/6

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More from @friendschurches

17 Nov
And at the dead end of the small secret valley
Folded neatly into its ancient habitat
Stands St Jerome’s, a long way from Rome
Hidden from view, tucked away safely
Unless you know that it’s there
Hidden from time and slow to transform

#thread
By the side of its small stream
Whose other small gods must once
Have played before a crucifix arrived
It hides the curlicues of its delicate screen

2/4
And silent green men, who stare down
At you, unchanging over the centuries
Knowing more about you, than you know of them
Because they have seen footprints and faces
For hundreds of years, approach the altar
In love, in despair, in sin, in reverence...

3/4
Read 4 tweets
6 Nov
In some churches you might spot Christ, mid ascension, carried within a colourful oval. The oval is known as the mandorla. It represents the intersection of the terrestrial and the celestial, of the human and the divine, which are linked by Christ’s resurrection.

#thread
The shape is also known as vesica piscis, and in mathematical terms is formed when two circles overlap equally. From the earliest times, it has been loaded with meaning. As its basic shape recalls the vagina, it has been a symbol of fertility and femininity, of growing life.

2/
When it came to iconography, Early Christians needed a way to visually symbolise the Glory of God. In the absence of divine inspiration, they borrowed ideas from the world around them. The ancient vesica piscis symbol created a visual device into a sacred space.

3/
Read 6 tweets
5 Nov
When you 'remember, remember' the 5th November, BELLS probably aren’t the first things that come to mind.

But in the years following the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, the ringing of church bells became synonymous with this date ...

#Thread

📷 Gwernesney church bells @fotofacade
Just 10 weeks after Guy Fawkes and other English Catholics were discovered in the act of attempting to assassinate King James I by blowing up the House of Lords, a bill was introduced in England for a public, annual thanksgiving for the failure of the plot.
Although ostensibly a day of celebration, the wording of the ‘Thanksgiving Act’, which pointed a finger at 'malignant and devilish Papists', also sent a clear anti-Catholic message and served as a new focus for anti-Catholic sentiment and continued oppression.
Read 8 tweets
3 Nov
This morning, come with us as we watch one little church make its daily spin around the Earth’s axis.
Arriving at dawn through farmland on the edge of the river Usk, the autumn sun rises over St Mary the Virgin, Llanfair Cilgedin, its pale light catching the bell-cote. 

#thread Image
The church and bell-cote, designed by J.P. Seddon, were completed in 1876, but inside, St Mary's ancient foundations make their presence known in the stone of its two fonts - one Norman, one medieval –  

2/7 Image
... and in the hodgepodge fragments of stained glass, salvaged from the medieval church, where ancient faces look out at us from the past. 

3/7 Image
Read 7 tweets
30 Oct
England has about 3,000 'lost' or deserted medieval villages. We have churches in a fair few of them. Like St Mary Magdalene, Caldecote: a weather-beaten majesty with embattled parapets, cinquefoil tracery and a rather regal porch. Hinting at grandeur within…

#thread
Entering through the south porch visitors are met by an extraordinary, floor-to-(almost) ceiling stoup. Dated to the 15th century, the shaft is carved with rows of quatrefoils, while acanthus clambers up the canopy. The proportions are so great, it feels very out of place.

(2/7)
Step beyond this to see the font: an octagonal affair from the same century encrusted with cusped panels, heraldry and foliage. The simple moulded pews also date to the 1400s, as do the glittering fragments of stained glass...

(3/7)
Read 7 tweets
25 Oct
Keeping time, saving time. On time, in time. Lost time, out of time... 
 
The hand of the clock guides us from dawn to dusk and back round again. The ticking heart of our existence, time has preoccupied people... since, well, the beginning of time...

#thread
In England, time began to become part of our day-to-day lives when the Saxons brought us scratch dials. These were a method of dividing their days and nights into eight divisions known as ‘tides’. 

2/8
Later, during the Middle Ages, this model was adapted for ecclesiastical purposes to herald prayer recitals at specific times of the day, known as the Divine Offices. These etchings became known as mass dials and were cut into south-facing walls in order to catch the sun.

3/8
Read 8 tweets

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