Nestling on the edge of the Thames is this little bargees’ church. To reach it, you must cross the vast Dorney Common, dodging cattle and catching glimpses of Windsor Castle.

The setting of Boveney church couldn’t be more bucolic...

#thread
This church was founded in the 12th century – and still has its massive tub font from that date. Originally, a wharf ran just outside the south door and was used for transporting goods. The church was built to serve the bargemen.

2/7
The quay is long gone, but we do know that barges were loaded here with timber from the Windsor Forest for shipment downriver. A 14th-century brass at the nearby church in Taplow holds another clue to the wharf. This brass remembers Nichole de Aumberdene...

3/7
Nichole was a fishmonger in London. Specifically, he sold eels. In order to get his eels to and from London, it’s believed he travelled by boat along the Thames... setting off from the nearest wharf, which was just outside Boveney church.

4/7
Boveney is small and uncomplicated. It’s built of chalk and flint with a timber tower that’s a bit of a wibbly, wobbly wonder: it has four massive oak legs and criss-cross of braces to hold it up. The panelled interior is a romantic vernacular of 18th and 19th-c fittings.

5/7
A few years ago, we uncovered a small section of wall-painting on the north wall. We believe it's St Christopher – rendered large, with a stripey collar, a red bushy beard and rosebud lips, looking out the south door on to the river…

6/7
And for all the Kevin Costner fans out there – Boveney church featured fleetingly in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in 1991.

Read more here: friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk/boveney/

7/7

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More from @friendschurches

31 Dec
At the bottom of a dead-end, tucked down a steep slope is St Jerome’s, Llangwm Uchaf. It’s a quirky-looking church with a 15th-century octagonal turret tacked onto an off-centre, defensive-looking tower. Turning the door handle, you really wouldn’t expect to see… this

#thread Image
Despite dating from 1128, the chief glory of St Jerome’s is the late 15th-century screen, one of the finest in south Wales. It fills the entrance to the chancel and is “superabundantly encrusted with carved decoration”.

2/7 Image
The screen is embellished with fleshy vines with small, tight bunches of grapes, a garden of floral bosses, and delicate architectural tracery.

3/7 Image
Read 7 tweets
30 Dec
We thought we knew the church at Caldecote, Hertfordshire like the back of our hand. But on a recent visit, we took a closer look at the 15th-century benches. We shone a torch into every corner and crevice... And gradually revealed a complete set of carpenters’ marks.

#thread Image
The marks are Roman numerals and were gouged into the timber to identify different elements of the structure. The elements would have been carved in the carpenters’ workshop and assembled at the church according to the numbering system. A sort of medieval flat pack.

2/4 ImageImage
The eagle-eyed will spot that the number four is denoted by IIII and not IV, as you might expect. That’s because the IV numbering convention (and nine as IX) was only introduced in the 16th century, and of course, took time to be adopted throughout the country.

3/4 Image
Read 4 tweets
30 Dec
By the 1880s, Llandawke church in Carmarthenshire “resembled a barn more than a House of God”.

Mrs Abra Weinholt, wife of the J. P. of Carmarthen decided to host a grand bazaar and garden fete to raise funds to restore the medieval church.

#thread Image
As day broke on 3rd May 1882, morning showers threatened the bazaar... but soon the azure sky appeared, and the sun shone out in warmth and glory. As two brass bands played, some more adventurous spirits attempted to dance on the wet ground under a goodly display of bunting.

2/7 Image
Laugharne's ladies were out in force to support the cause. The local newspaper reported the day in detail: Mrs Norton of Laugharne Castle had Stall 1, which boasted terracotta, medallions of stuffed birds, rare vases and a beautiful model of a ship full-rigged. 

3/7 Image
Read 7 tweets
29 Dec
In 1746 in West Africa, a child is playing on the banks of a stream. He's trying to catch a moorhen. It sounds picturesque, but within seconds this little boy will be abducted. He will be shipped across the globe to North Wales. This is the story of John Ystumllyn.

#thread
He is taken far from his home, far from everything and everyone he knows. Eventually, he arrives in Ynyscynhaiarn, Gwynedd to work for the Wynne family. We don’t know what name his parents had given him, but the Wynnes named him ‘John Ystumllyn’ after their estate.

2/8
If you’ve been watching #AHouseThroughTime you'll have seen the story of Thomas, a black boy who was a 'servant' of a family in Bristol until he ran away in 1759. Boys like Thomas often appeared in portraits and still-life paintings in this period.

3/8
Read 8 tweets
28 Dec
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 the 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
28 Dec
Off a layby on the A483, you'll find a sunken churchyard. Walk down the avenue of sentinel yews and you'll discover the little church of St Anno.

From the outside, it’s not much to look at. But inside is one of the greatest glories of Welsh craftsmanship...

#thread
The majestic 15th-century roodscreen fills the interior. It bursts with life: the bressumer trails with vines, pomegranates and water-plant issuing from the mouth of a wyvern. The vines symbolise Christ. The pomegranate represents eternal life.

2/7
The thirty-four coving panels are decorated with seventeen different designs, creating a restlessness. The tracery heads hang like lace. The loft carries a line of twenty-five canopied niches. The carving is the work of the Newtown School of Carvers, Montgomeryshire.

3/7
Read 7 tweets

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