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14 Feb

Brithdir has powers of transportation.

Behind a thicket of fleshy, fuchsia rhododendrons, a rugged granite church hides. Inside, the stippled plaster walls are daubed in burnt sienna, the ceiling soars in royal azure. But the Mediterranean vibe doesn’t end there...

#thread

St Mark’s, Brithdir was built in the 1890s. Louisa Richards commissioned Henry Wilson to design the church in memory of her husband, the Rev’d Charles Tooth, founder of St Mark’s church in Florence. He had died within a few months of their marriage.

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Wilson was inspired by Tooth’s legacy in Florence, but also by “those delightfully simple churches just south of the Alps”.

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Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

13 Feb

On the evening of 13 February 1923, wireless owners in Cymru (there were just 200 with *official* receiving licenses) could tune in to hear the BBC's first ever Welsh broadcast, transmitted from one room in an old Cardiff cinema.

/thread

At 9.30 pm, their homes would have been filled with the haunting sound of 'Dafydd y Garreg Wen' ('David of the White Rock'), performed live by baritone Mostyn Thomas. It was the first Welsh language song to play on the air.

👇Programme announced in Western Mail 10 Feb 1923

In the 1970s, Mostyn Thomas recalled his nerves that night dealing with the rudimentary technology:

"I hardly had any time to practice, which made me extremely nervous, as in those days microphones weren't simple things to use.”
But they made it “by the skin of our teeth."

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Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

12 Feb

Eastwell church in Kent was once a place of great importance. Royals were regulars. Queen Victoria enjoyed being pulled across the frozen lake there in her sledge-chair. And in the churchyard, are the remains of Richard III’s illegitimate son, Richard Plantagenet…

#thread

It’s thought Richard III fathered three children out of wedlock and that this Richard was one. For years, Richard worked as a bricklayer at Eastwell Park for Sir Thomas Moyle. In his late 70s, he was seen reading a book in Latin. Only then did he reveal his secret...

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He told Sir Thomas that growing up, he didn’t know his parents. He had been brought up by a schoolmaster and was assisted by a gentleman who paid for his schooling and was interested in his well-being.

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Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

7 Feb

#TheDig has been causing quite a buzz this past week and we thought it would be a good time to revisit two archaeological digs that uncovered intriguing burials at our churches. So leave #SuttonHoo behind for now and come with us to Sutterby in Lincolnshire ...
/thread

In 2015, a skeleton was found beyond the west wall of the church. Two femurs protrude, with hands clasped in front the the pelvis. These bones were radiocarbon dated to approximately 1050 - the very end of the era of Anglo Saxon rule, before the Norman Conquest of 1066.

Evidence of a church from this date hasn’t been found but it may have been a timber church of which all traces are now lost. The earliest building archaeology here dates to the 12thC - a rough stone foundation built directly on top of the older burial & an existing north doorway.

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Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

6 Feb

In some churches, you’ll find medieval carved stone grave markers known as cross slabs.

Some cross slabs were laid over graves, while others were standing markers. They all get their name from the central cross that is featured on most of these memorials.

#thread

Two examples, now leaning rather than standing, can be seen at St Decuman's, Rhoscrowther, Pembrokeshire. At All Saints, Bakewell*, Derbyshire, a wall of fragments in the porch showcases a wide variety of cross designs (first photo in this thread).

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Many cross slabs also feature other motifs which can tell us something about the person they commemorate. The earliest designs were heraldic and indicated rank, but by the 13th century they symbolised a trade or profession.

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Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

2 Feb

Ye Olde Inn. Ye Olde Sweet Shoppe. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese…

The word ‘ye’ pops up all over the place – shop names to gravestones. But what if I told you that the first letter of ‘ye’ isn’t a ‘y’ at all but, þ - an Old English letter called thorn (or þorn).

#thread

But how do you get from þ to y? It all had to do with William Caxton’s printing press of 1476. Many of the type fonts used were imported from Germany or Italy. These fonts didn’t have þ, but they did have the letter Y. And so, þ was replaced with Y.

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Now, I’m no etymologist and this is only a skim of the story of thorn, but þ was pronounced ‘th’. It was never pronounced with a ‘y’ sound.

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