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Friendless Churches Profile picture
@friendschurches
Oct 20, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
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In 1914, Emile de Vynck, his wife and baby arrived in North Wales. Their home in Malines, Belgium had been bombed. Lloyd George found houses for several displaced families in Gwynedd, and took the de Vynck family into his own home in Criccieth.
#thread
On 16th October 1914, Emile was interviewed by The Cambrian News:
“I left Malines when the Germans bombarded it for the fifth time. Nearly everyone fled the day after the German brutes entered the town. In terror we rushed to another village. 2/
A kindly farmer hid us in his barn and we lay there on the straw. When we woke we escaped to Duffel and from there to Bruges where we arrived at midnight and found the town in darkness. Two ladies gave us hospitality and the next day at a very early hour we went on to Ostend. 3/
We stayed there only a quarter-of-an-hour and then took the boat for Folkestone. Everyone gave us food and dainties and when we arrived in London we were taken to St Giles Home where we stayed 4 days. Then they sent us down to Criccieth where we have been very kindly received. 4/
My wife and I and the baby (Pauline) thank from our hearts the ladies of the Committee for all their kindness to us and also the people of Criccieth. I desire to be excused, being a Fleming, for writing such a short account but I have done all I can to make myself understood”. 5/
Emile and his family eventually moved to a property of their own in the small village of Pentrefelin. Here, you will find the church of St Cynhaearn. Being a talented wood carver, Emile created beautiful objects for several churches in the area. 6/
At St Cynhaearn, he carved the cross above the altar. He carved items for St Beuno’s, Penmorfa. And at Tremadog, he carved a reredos in a Renaissance style that had been designed by C R Ashbee.
7/
The de Vynck family stayed in North Wales until the 1920s, when they returned to Belgium, but their legacy remains.
 
All images are of our church St Cynhaearn’s at Ynyscynhaearn.
 
8/8

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More from @friendschurches

Friendless Churches Profile picture
Dec 18, 2024
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
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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
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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

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