Some churches were deserted hundreds of years ago. Villages lost for generations. In others, people left less than 30 years ago. In these ancient places, over centuries, people come and go, use ebbs and flows. Sometimes they flourish, sometimes they’re fallow.

#thread
There are about 3,000 deserted medieval villages in England alone. One example is the diminutive St Mary Magdalene in Caldecote, Hertfordshire. The most common reason for desertion of medieval villages is death, depopulation and harvest failure as a result of the Black Death.

2/
The population of Caldecote declined heavily during the 14th century - by the end there were less than ten householders. The village limped on until the end of the 16th century when it was all but abandoned... Luckily, it now has a small group of steadfast friends.

3/
The 19th century brought railways and industry. The move to industrial centres leading to new churches, but the abandonment of older, rural ones. In 1801, 20% of the population lived in cities. By 1901, that was up to 75%.

4/
In 1850, St Peter’s, Wickham Bishops, Essex found itself on the wrong side of the tracks. Literally. With the arrival of the railway, the village migrated to the east. Out of sight, the church spiralled into decay. The threat of demolition loomed – until we saved it.

5/
St Decuman’s, Rhoscrowther near Milford Haven has its origins in the 1200s. In 1964, it gained a new neighbour – a sprawling oil refinery.
In 1993 an explosion at the refinery caused material damage locally, including the church.
The village was eventually evacuated.

6/
We are so grateful that some of the villagers – now relocated to other homes m - still look after and care for this complicated, hulking old church.

7/
We take on more churches every year. Some have a thriving community presence. Others don’t. Both are equally important. People always come and go. But the importance of these places doesn’t diminish. We’re here for the fallow periods. We’re a safety net.

8/
(And if you would like to help us care for these places, you can do so by becoming a member. It costs £30 and we make every penny stretch:

friendsoffriendlesschurches.org.uk/become-a-frien…)

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More from @friendschurches

27 Nov
In churches all across this island are traces of rood-screens. Sometimes just the rood-beam remains, sometimes high in a wall a door that leads to nowhere...

In Wales, we have eight rood-screens in our care, today’s #thread celebrates their craftsmanship and survival.
The majestic 15th-century roodscreen is the glory of Llananno church, Powys. The rood-beam trails with vines, pomegranates and wyverns. There are thirty-four carved coving panels. The rood-loft above carries twenty-five canopied niches framing Biblical figures.

2/
St Brothen’s, Gwynedd is a 13th-century church with awe-inspiring woodwork from the 15th century. The screen runs to nine bays with simple chamfered edges. Like many others it lost its rood loft and the rood itself, after the destruction of roods by government order in 1548.

3/
Read 10 tweets
20 Nov
In 2009, we found St Edmund’s head all over again. This time, it was under hundreds of years of paint and plaster - not in a woods guarded by a wolf…

#thread Image
Edmund was an Anglo-Saxon Christian king who ruled East Anglia in the 9th century. He was killed in battle by Danish invaders. Legend has it Edmund was captured alive; whipped and lashed while tied to a tree, then shot with arrows and decapitated.

2/ Image
His head was cast away in the forest. A grey wolf guarded it. Some of Edmund's supporters found the head of the king, which miraculously reunited with his body, and was then buried in a small chapel...

3/
Read 8 tweets
19 Nov
A couple of years before we took the church at Hardmead into our care, two masons, Stedman and Hollowell were on the roof repairing the medieval crenellations. They used a small tin to make a time capsule, and buried it within the walls.

Last week, we unearthed it.

1/5
It’s just over 40yrs old, but finding a time capsule is such a thrill. It’s meeting a person who worked on this church before you. It’s a reminder that we “are only trustees for those that come after us”. That we’re just fleeting moments in the long lives of these places.

2/5
Elsewhere, we found a scrunched-up newspaper – the front page of the Daily Worker from Tuesday 1st April 1947. Perhaps one of Hardmead’s earlier workers had been reading about Clement Attlee, MI5, and the price of tangerines on their lunch-break.

3/5
Read 5 tweets
24 Oct
The restoration of Papworth St Agnes is one of our greatest success stories. But in 1979 it looked like this. The stained glass had been cut out, the roof tiles lay in piles ready to be sold, the font was thrown into the churchyard. A demolition order had been published.
#thread
The Domesday Book of 1086 records a church in this Cambridgeshire village, but today, the earliest surviving fabric dates to the 15th century. Interestingly, at this time, the hamlet was the family seat of Sir Thomas Malory, author of Le Morte d’Arthur in 1469.
2/
In the mid-19th century, the distinguished Ecclesiologist, J.H. Sperling arrived as the new rector. Sperling had a habit of rebuilding churches and Papworth St Agnes would be no different. He's responsible for the distinctive chequerboard patterning of flint and clunch.
3/
Read 7 tweets
20 Oct
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/
Read 8 tweets
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

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