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

15 Oct
At St David's, Llangeview, Monmouthshire, 18th century ledgerstones commemorating James Blower, Mary Jones and James Meredith lay before the wooden altar rail with its twisted balusters, made in the same century. And more can be seen in the nave.
The name 'ledger' comes from Old English via the Middle English words lygger, ligger or leger - to lie down. There are an estimated 250,000 surviving ledgerstones in churches in England and Wales, most from the late 17th to late 18th centuries.
The chancel was the usual resting place for members of the clergy, while the nave was usually the option for those with the financial means and local influence — from aristocracy and gentry to families of middle class professionals and tradesmen.
Read 8 tweets
13 Oct
The church at Castlemartin cuts into a steeply sloping rock bank. Perhaps the proximity to a stream and two holy wells gave this site spiritual significance... Or perhaps, nestled in a tree-lined hollow, it offered invisibility from marauders coming from the sea...

#thread Image
This Pembrokeshire site is encircled by earth-banked encampments, possibly prehistoric, and an ancient burial mound, while several early pilgrim paths lead to the church. A 7th-9th century carved cross was found in the churchyard in 1922, but hasn't been seen for decades...

2/ Image
Architecturally, we can place the church in the late 12th century when the parish enjoyed wealth and status due the abundance of fertile, lime-rich soil in which crops thrive. The massive scalloped font and north arcade are the oldest visible remains of this early church.

3/ Image
Read 7 tweets
11 Oct
This is the most important #thread we’ve ever written.

The Church Commissioners are running a consultation that makes deeply worrying proposals that we believe would diminish the democracy of the church closure process, and reduce transparency and accountability of the Church.
In summary, the consultation seeks to make it faster and easier to close churches. They propose dispensing with expert advice from bodies such as Church Buildings Council and the Statutory Advisory Committee, and limiting rights to object to closure or reuse schemes.

2/
Trying to squeeze this into a tweet is going to be hard, but I will do my best.

There’s a piece of legislation called the Mission & Pastoral Measure (MPM) which, among other things, governs the disposal of churches no longer needed for regular public worship.

3/
Read 13 tweets
10 Oct
Digging into records about St Helen's, Skeffling (the most recent church to come under our wing), we've discovered a connection to *Madame Sarah Grand* — a Victorian feminist author who was internationally famous (and scandalous!) in her day but has since been largely forgotten.
Born Frances Bellenden Clarke, she married at 16 to a much older widower with children not much younger than herself. It was an unhappy marriage, and after leaving her husband, she devoted herself to writing, lecturing on women's issues and campaigning for votes for women.
Grand's novels centred on the 'New Woman', a name she coined for educated women who sought independence from oppressive marriages, and greater social freedoms. She promoted women's cycling, and argued for less restrictive, 'rational' clothing, such as split skirts.
Read 15 tweets
9 Oct
St Giles’, Tadlow is a “well-lit by jewelled blue-grey windows; a characteristic floor, delicate strips of pink and yellow on the sanctuary walls, and a delicious font of pinkish grey on a white base”.

And it’s on the Heritage at Risk register.

#thread
The quotation above is from Paul Thompson, William Butterfield’s biographer. You see, this is a medieval church “pleasantly placed, in a leafy position”  that had a Butterfield restoration in the late 1800s.

2/
If, like us, you keep an eye on the Church Commissioners’ consultation page on closed churches, you will see that there is a live consultation which seeks to put this Grade II* Cambridgeshire church into our care.

3/
Read 10 tweets
7 Oct
This image of the Llananno screen has always spoken to us. We love that you can see the human hands that carved it over 500 yrs ago in the way the timber thins and thickens, the shapes squeeze and spread..

The design is restless, alive.

And it inspired our new logo.

#thread
The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed that we've updated our profile photo. The egg-yolk yellow logo was inspired by the perfectly imperfect quatrefoils in the majestic medieval roodscreen of St Anno's, Llananno, Powys.

2/
This screen has borne the whips and scorns of time.

Candle wax streaks, beetles gnawed the oak, hands gripped the frame, bats roosted in the loft, the roof leaked, worshippers left - and came back.

This screen - chipped, cracked, crumbled, surviving - has seen it all.

3/
Read 9 tweets

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