Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Friendless Churches Profile picture
@friendschurches
Apr 5, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
Scrolly
Grandson of a king called “superbus tyrannus”, 7th-c Cynhaiarn lost his brother and father in battle. Another brother was mauled by animals but pieced back together like Frankenstein’s Monster…

To escape, he paddled out to the middle of a lake and built a cell there...

#thread
We know very little about St Cynhaiarn. He was the son of Cyndrwyn. His brother was Cynddylan, who plundered Lichfield monastery and slaughtered “book-clutching monks”. Upon Cynddylan's, his sister Heledd wrote Canu Heledd – a series of short poems describing her loss.

2/
After this tragedy, Cynhaiarn and some his brothers turned to God. And to learn, they went to none other than St Beuno.

St Beuno was a popular guy. To get away from pupils and parishioners, he used to wade out into the middle of a river at and kneel on a stone to pray.

3/
One night, Beuno was out there praying, when Cynhaiarn’s brother Aelhaiarn approached him. Incensed at being disturbed, Beuno muttered that God should teach that man a lesson. (Or something more fitting to a 7th-century saint.)

4/
At once, wild animals burst through the woodland and ripped poor Aelhaiarn to pieces! Beuno was horrified. He shooed away the beasts and looked at the dismembered body before him. It was then that he recognised that it was his student, Aelhaiarn!!

5/
Beuno dashed about gathering up all the bits of Aelhaiarn’s body. He reassembled the bits and brought Aelhaiarn back to life! But, upon completion he noticed that Aelhaiarn was missing an eyebrow…

6/
Searching about him for something eyebrow shaped, Beuno took the iron tip of his staff and fixed it to Aelhaiarn’s brow. From then on, Aelhaiarn was known as ‘iron eyebrow’.

7/
The photos in this thread are of the church at Ynyscynhaiarn, which stood on an island in the middle of Llyn Ystumllyn until the 1800s, when the lake was drained. The church is on the spot where Cynhaiarn rowed to all those centuries ago to build his cell and live in solitude.
8/

• • •

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
Dec 18
Caring for over 60 places of worship in England and Wales means that from a few of our churchyards you can see some varied sights.
From 20th century infrastructure to cultural landmarks, the fabric and fate of our churches has been shaped by their localities.

1/6
 📷 Sutterby Image
On the Welsh border, in the remote fields of Herefordshire stands St Peter's, Llancillo. Adjacent to the church is an 8 meter high earthen Motte, which is all the remains of Llancillo Castle. This fortification was originally constructed in the 1090s by Richard Esketot.

2/6 Image
Image
Releasing plumes of steam into the sky, the cooling towers of the Drax Power Station are visible, across the flat Yorkshire’s Ouse Valley, from St Helen's, Barmby on the Marsh. While St Helen’s tower was built in the 1770s, the cooling towers were constructed in the 1970s.

3/6 Image
Image
Read 6 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
Oct 24, 2023
Red and yellow and pink and green ... most children can tell you that rainbows contain seven colours, and many of us use 'ROYGBIV' to remember them. But people haven't always seen rainbows this way. Photograph of St Mary's, Tal-y-Llyn, Anglesey by Wynne Jones, with a rainbow in a grey stormy sky. The simple church is lit up with yellow light.
Rubens' 'The Rainbow Landscape' of 1636 was painted just three decades before major new scientific theories about colour and light emerged. The rainbow lights up surrounding clouds with highlights of lemony yellow and blue.

© The Wallace Collection Painting by Rubens: The Rainbow Landscape. A rainbow forms an arc across most of this landscape painting. Below it is a idealised rural harvest scene, with agricultural workers (men and women), cows, and carts with horses at the edge of a stream. From the Wallace Collection (licensed under Creative Commons).
In 1664, Robert Boyle conducted experiments with prisms, and in the 'artificial rain-bow' he produced, he observed five colours: Red, Yellow, Green, Blew and Purple. ... The frontispiece of Boyle's book, 'Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours'
Read 9 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
Sep 23, 2023
The church at Skeffling was built from glacial clutter and recycled masonry in the 1400s. It sits in Holderness. A landscape of mudflats and salt-marshes washed into existence by the North Sea.

Here ‘leaves unnoticed thicken, hidden weeds flower, neglected waters quicken’. An aerial view of Skeffling, with the church tower peeking out above the trees, surrounded by flat marshes and fields
Those are the words of poet, Philip Larkin. Larkin explored this area after he moved to Hull in 1955 to take up the position of librarian at the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull. He lived there and held that job for thirty years, until his death in 1985.
Of Hull, he wrote "I never thought about Hull until I was here. Having got here, it suits me in many ways. It is a little on the edge of things, I think even its natives would say that. I rather like being on the edge of things.” A view of the salt marshes at Skeffling, with a brooding dark blue sky lit by the sunrise, and a man-made glow on the horizon
Read 5 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
Jun 18, 2023
The next time you're lying in bed counting sheep, you might like to try out the counting system that was used by shepherds In medieval Lincolnshire.

From 1-20, the numbering sequence ran as follows: Yan, Tan, Tethora, Pethera, Pimp, Sethera, Lethera, Hovera, Covera, Dik ... Aerial view of St John the ...
... Yan-a-dik, Tan-a-dik, Tethera-dik, Pethera-dik, Bumfit, Yan-a-bumfit, Tan-a-bumfit, Tethera-bumfit, Pethera-bumfit, Figgit.
If there were more than 20 sheep in the flock, he could note the first 20 when he reached Figgit by putting a pebble in his pocket, and then starting the sequence from Yan again.

(info from 'Alex's Adventures in Numberland' by Alex Bellos)
Read 4 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
Mar 19, 2023
In about 1300, five massive oak legs were pushed into the soil at Boveney to raise a belltower out of the clay tile roof of the 12th-century church. Inside, in the 1800s fielded panelling was installed, hiding those hardworking legs.

#thread
Perfect as that panelling looked, it obscured the most important timbers. Noticing that the bellcote was somewhat slumped, our architect removed some panels, and we found the legs were rotten. Boveney church was *almost* without a leg to stand on.

2/
Many things contributed to the decay-the high water-table of the river-bank church, deathwatch beetle, fruiting bodies… The panelling concealed this until it was almost too late. The words, ‘catastrophic collapse’, were used. Panic set in. The £60,000 repair bill quadrupled.

3/
Read 6 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
Mar 18, 2023
Between 1666 and 1680, the English parliament sought to protect the wool trade, by requiring the dead to be buried in nothing but a shroud of English sheep's wool. Plague victims and the destitute were the only exceptions. A section of a 17th century affidavit shows a wood-cut print
The 'Burying in Woollen Acts' required an Affidavit within 8 days of burial, proving before a JP that the law had been complied with. Those who didn't comply were fined £5, half of which went to the poor. This blog has some terrific examples of affidavits:buff.ly/3YkB33B This signed affidavit from Worcestershire for Burying in Woo
Many wealthy families preferred to simply pay the fine and bury their loved ones in clothing or shrouds of finer materials, such as linen.
Read 6 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

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

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

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(