Tweet

Friendless Churches

6 Apr, 11 tweets, 3 min read

Have you seen #TheTerror season 1?
It’s a gripping portrayal of 19th century Arctic exploration, and the true tragic events it’s based on are linked to this deeply moving memorial in St Mary’s church, Hardmead ...

#thread

If you haven’t watched (or read the book), Sir John Franklin leads an expedition in 1845 to complete charting a North West passage through the Canadian Arctic. When the ships become ice-bound, the crews battle the elements, disease and starvation (& other-worldly terrors).

The historical ‘Lost Franklin Expedition’ was an infamous example of Victorian exploration and bravado, and its tragic outcome is still shrouded in mystery and horror.

After more than a year trapped by ice, and following the deaths of Franklin and dozens of crew, the survivors, led by captains James Fitzjames and Francis Crozier, set off on foot for the Canadian mainland. All of them disappeared.

Over the next decade, more than 40 British and American expeditions set out to find the lost ships and crew (each adding new knowledge of the region). One of the first to volunteer was ex-Navy mate Robert Shedden.

Shedden had recently become the first to circumnavigate the globe in a yacht - the Nancy Dawson (named after a popular shanty). Now, Shedden and the Nancy Dawson set sail for the Arctic.

Lithograph of the Nancy Dawson © National Maritime Museum Collections

But after searching fruitlessly in the frozen waters, Shedden’s quest ended in tragedy, when he died at sea.

At St Mary's in Hardmead, Robert Shedden's mother Wilhemina erected a marble memorial to her only son. The inscription rings with her grief and pride:

HE BUILT AND FITTED OUT HIS R.T.C. SCHOONER YACHT, THE 'NANCY DAWSON,' AND IN THIS FRAIL BARK HE BRAVELY EXPLORED THE FROZEN OCEAN IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS, IN A DISINTERESTED SEARCH AFTER THE LONG MISSING SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, AND HIS GALLANT BAND IN VAIN.
...

DISAPPOINTED IN HIS GENEROUS HOPE, AND WORN DOWN BY ANXIETY, AND SLEEPLESS WATCHING, HE DROOPED AND DIED, AS HE WISHED — ON THE DARK BLUE SEA. HE EXPIRED ON BOARD HIS YACHT, ON 16TH NOVEMBER 1849, AGED 30 YEARS.
...

HIS NOBLE REMAINS ARE INTERRED NEAR THE WILD WAVES OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN, IN THE PROTESTANT BURIAL GROUND AT MAZATLAN.

HIS PRECIOUS SOUL RESTS WITH HIS FATHER AND HIS GOD.

The Terror is streaming now in the UK on BBC iPlayer.

Learn more about St Mary’s, Hardmead, Buckinghamshire at our website:

friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk/hardmead/

• • •

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

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

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

More from @friendschurches

Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

8 Apr

In some churchyards you might discover these black, bulbous balls growing on trees.
They’re known as King Alfred cakes, cramp balls or coal fungus… because a king possibly burnt some buns in the 9th century, they warded off cramp and because they’re good firelighters.

#thread

The nickname King Alfred cakes comes from the legend of how, in a bid to escape the Vikings, King Alfred fled to the Somerset Levels, where a peasant woman gave him refuge.

2/

Unaware of his majesty, the woman tasked Alfred with keeping an eye on some buns as they baked. Alfred was a bit preoccupied, forgot about the buns… and they burnt!

🖼: King Alfred burning the cakes, Sir David Wilkie, 1806

3/

Read 7 tweets

Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

5 Apr

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/

Read 8 tweets

Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

3 Apr

We’re delighted that roofing works at St Mary’s, Long Crichel, Dorset are complete. Long overdue, works included repairs to the oak wall-plate, renewing handmade plain clay tiles, installing new hamstone eave slabs and ridge tiles, and reinstating the angel in the apse.

#thread

The roof at St Mary’s is a king-post truss design, and ranges from 15th century in parts to 1850s in others, as the church was largely rebuilt after a fire in the early 19th century. We found the wall plate to be decayed in places, and new sections were spliced in.

2/

When the builders started stripping the roof, they found that a vast number – far more than anticipated – of the clay roof tiles were cracked, disintegrating, defective. We ordered new handmade clay tiles, and managed to reuse about 50% of the existing tiles.

3/

Read 7 tweets

Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

25 Mar

Around the font at St Mary Magdalene’s, Caldecote, you’ll find small circular hollows where the stone was ground out. The stone dust was mixed with wine or water, and drunk as medicine, a small cure all – or ‘poor man’s aspirin’ as it was known on the continent.

#thread

@MedievalG

Medieval graffiti expert, @MedievalG, recently wrote an excellent blog on the etchings all over the walls, floors and doors of this weather-beaten, diminutive church. When writing his blog, he explained to us about these curious dots.

2/

Matthew explained how the ground stone dust from a consecrated building, and thus carried God’s blessing, and when mixed with liquid, was a general cure for all ailments.

3/

Read 6 tweets

Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

24 Mar

A bird's eye view of St Mary's, Mundon in Essex.

This wonderful brick and timber medieval church has been in our care since 1975. Before we adopted it, its fate was a race of how quickly it could collapse or be demolished...

#thread

We've undertaken many phases of repairs over the past 45 years, but with damage from an errant V-bomb in 1944, dereliction and vandalism in the 1970s, and the unstable soil, this is a church that needs a lot of care.

2/

St Mary's will always be a work in progress.

We’ve just completed repairs to the woodwork: windows, beams and boxpews. We've also installed monitors throughout to help us understand how, why and when the church is moving, so we can develop a plan for structural repairs.

3/

Read 4 tweets

Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

19 Mar

The mountain oak used to form the trusses at St Brothen’s, Llanfrothen were felled in the 1490s. At eye-level, they create a diminishing diamond shape. They form a continuous roof over the nave and chancel. It runs to 73ft (22m) and it takes 14,500 slates to cover it!
#thread

The church building dates to the 1200s, but the arch-braced roof trusses and cusped wind braces form a late 15th – early 16th c roof. They’re still doing their job perfectly.
The site slopes from east to west, and until the 19th century, the church was part of the seashore.

2/

We’ve recently re-roofed the entire church. This was the first time in about 150 years the roof had been overhauled. A combination of slipped and broken slates, and nail fatigue meant we had to strip everything back and create a watertight covering.

3/

Read 7 tweets

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!