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Sep 19, 2021 8 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Great art is created when the hand, the head, and the heart come together.

Llandeloy church was nothing more than a few medieval stumps by the 1840s. In the 1920s, John Coates Carter set about re-imagining the ruins to symbolise a personal journey through life...

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Rebuilding the church from the fragments was meant to start in the early twentieth century. Locals donated more than £600 towards the work. But, just as they were about to begin, the Great War broke. Progress was halted for more than a decade.

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In 1926, Carter returned. He designed a simple church to nestle deep into a hollow in the churchyard. An ancient holy well is hidden in the greenery to the south.

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For Carter, the church with a “floor of slates won from the earth, and a roof of trees whose branches once reared skywards, become symbolic of the earth and the heavens”.

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It is symbolic of a Christian’s journey as they move from the font (baptism), through the narrowing of the chancel arch, which was given by a mother in memory of her son who was killed in the war.

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At this point, they are tempted by the generous, easeful byway of the transept, before stepping up into the chancel, stepping closer to the heavens, to the altar, where the reredos depicting Christ in Majesty was painted by Carter himself.

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St Teilo’s, Llandeloy, Pembrokeshire would be Coates Carter’s final church.
He died less than a year after it was consecrated.

His earthly journey was complete.

Read more: friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk/llandeloy/

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Bonus tweet: this church is a joy, full of delightful little details, like this piscina and shelf.

(Shouldn’t really be books there, but hey ho.)

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Oct 24, 2023
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Sep 23, 2023
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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.

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... Yan-a-dik, Tan-a-dik, Tethera-dik, Pethera-dik, Bumfit, Yan-a-bumfit, Tan-a-bumfit, Tethera-bumfit, Pethera-bumfit, Figgit.
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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.

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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.

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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.

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Patrick lived in the 5th century. Upon leaving Ireland in his early 20s, he devoted his life to Christ. He returned to Ireland after hearing Vox Hiberionacum – the voice of the Irish – in a dream.

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Read 8 tweets

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