Share this page!

Friendless Churches Profile picture
Twitter logo
12 Mar, 4 tweets, 2 min read
In 1909, prominent suffragette Isabel Seymour drove around London's West End in a press cart draped in WSPU flags of purple, green, and white, handing out copies of 'Votes for Women' to everyone who would take one.
The following year, she took her show on the road ...
#thread
Seymour was fluent in German, and travelled to Germany, Austria, and Russia, where she spoke to suffragist groups about the militant tactics being used by suffragettes in the UK. She hoped that British suffragettes could inspire women to fight for their freedom around the globe.
But back home, British women still could not vote, participate in government, or even be a churchwarden. Yet women have always found ways to break through these barriers. Like Mary Flint, the only woman Parish Clerk in the Church of England from 1818-1838.
Mary Flint served at St Mary's, Caldecote. Isabel Seymour was buried at St Mary of the Angels, Brownshill. Read about these pioneers, and other trailblazing women in our churches' history: friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk/womens-history…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Friendless Churches

Friendless Churches Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @friendschurches

Friendless Churches Profile picture
13 Mar
In our churches are the stories of countless women. Women who worked lead, glass and oak. Women who fought and suffered for their beliefs. Women who made scientific breakthroughs. Women who poured their pain, love and devotion into making their corner of the world better.
#thread Image
In the 5th century, at Llanelieu, Powys, Ellyw defied her family’s wishes, dedicating her life to Christ. At the site of her murder, a church was built.

1,500 years later, Bertha Kessler and Katherine Hudson built their own church overlooking Gloucestershire’s Golden Valley.

2/ ImageImage
World Wars shaped Constance Greaves and Joan Howson’s lives. Working more than 60 years apart, they each lent their craft skills to enrich St Beuno’s, Penmorfa. In the 1890s, Greaves carved the screen, pulpit and lectern. Howson created hagiographic windows in the 1950s.

3/ ImageImage
Read 6 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
10 Mar
The church of Barmby on the Marsh in East Yorkshire is dedicated to St Helen of the True Cross, the powerful Greek mother of the first Christian Roman emperor who - in her eighties - travelled the Holy Land in search of Christian relics. Image
The remote church at Llanelieu in Powys, on the edge of the Black Mountains, is dedicated to the more obscure and mysterious St Ellyw, a Welsh virgin martyr and legendary princess. Image
And in Llandawke, Carmarthenshire, the church of St Oudoceus (a male bishop) is closely connected with medieval holy woman St Margaret Marloes, who founded a religious community of women there free from the confines of a convent. Image
Read 4 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
8 Mar
St Beuno's at Penmorfa, Gwynedd showcases the talents of two great craftswomen: windows by the renowned stained glass artist Joan Howson, and a wealth of wood carving by the mysterious Constance Greaves.

#thread
Joan Howson trained at the Liverpool School of Art before being apprenticed to Caroline Townshend. Together, Townshend and Howson opened a studio in Putney in 1920. As well as their shared skills and business they both supported suffragette and socialist causes.
Howson was also an expert conservator of medieval glass; Westminster Abbey entrusted her with the restoration of bomb-damaged windows after WW2.

Two of her windows were installed in St Beuno’s porch between the wars.
Read 6 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
7 Mar
Meet Lady Mander, the only woman founder of the Friends of Friendless Churches. After a short career in politics she became a noted biographer of writers and artists, and gave the @nationaltrust its very first house.

#thread

Photograph in the collection of the @NPGLondon Image
Several of our churches were also founded by women, such as Mary Barton and Louisa Tooth - grieving the loss of loved ones, Louisa Harris - who wanted a place for an unusual memorial, ... Image
and Bertha Kessler and Katherine Hudson - WW1 nurses devoted to spiritual and mental healing.

These women have left us with a legacy of four glorious Arts and Crafts places of worship. ImageImageImageImage
Read 5 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
5 Mar
Squelching marshes, cockleshell spits and open skies broken by bird-calls make up the Dengie Peninsula: a mass of land in Essex washed into existence by the Rivers Crouch and Blackwater, and the North Sea.

On it you’ll find St Marys, Mundon with its timber-framed skirt.

#thread
At the end of a winding lane, it looks as though it just landed on earth. It could almost pass as a spaceship. This oak and clay frame wraps around the weather-boarded bell-tower of 1600, steadying the double-storeyed structure against the shifting earth.

2/
The peninsula was once thick with trees. Now, the Mundon Furze - with its petrified oaks poisoned by the salty marsh - is one of the last remaining ancient woodlands. The gnarled branches reach, almost in agony, to the sky. Here, it feels like time has ended…

3/
Read 8 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
27 Feb
By the 1860s, St Andrews, South Huish was showing its age.

During a service, high winds blew in a pane of glass. Shards narrowly missed Fr Hole, the officiant.

It was the death knell for the church...

But not before it gave up one final secret hidden in its walls...

#thread
Fr Hole stopped all services. To repair the church they were quoted £300. (About £37,000 today)

That sort of money simply wasn’t available. It would be cheaper to build a new church.

Fr Hole set about dismantling St Andrew’s bit-by-bit…

2/
The 14th-century font and marble tablets were relocated to the new church at Galmpton. The ancient stoup found its way to Salcombe church. The 16th-century painted screen was sold to Mr Ilbert of Bowringsleigh for 20 guineas. The Earl of Devon bought the pews.

3/
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @friendschurches has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @friendschurches!

Read all threads by @friendschurches