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30 Dec 21

Deep in the Black Mountains is an ancient oval churchyard. It encloses a church that has clung to the mountain for over 800 yrs. Homeless headstones form a jagged line-up outside. A sundial has told the time since 1686. Inside, an oxblood rood screen survives against the odds.
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This veranda-style screen dominates the interior. It was carved in the 14th century and painted with an ox’s blood. The red background is peppered with stencilled white roses.

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In the centre, a cross is picked out in bare wood. It’s the ghostly reminder of the crucifix that was lost from here during the Reformation.

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Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

29 Dec 21

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.

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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.

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Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

28 Dec 21

Ye Olde Inn. Ye Olde Sweet Shoppe. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese… The word ‘ye’ pops up all over the place – shop names to gravestones. But what if I told you that the first letter of ‘ye’ isn’t a ‘y’ at all but, þ - an Old English letter called thorn (or þorn).

#thread

But how do you get from þ to y? It all had to do with William Caxton’s printing press of 1476. Many of the type fonts used were imported from Germany or Italy. These fonts didn’t have þ, but they did have the letter Y. And so, þ was replaced with Y.

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Now, I’m no etymologist and this is only a skim of the story of thorn, but þ was pronounced ‘th’. It was never pronounced with a ‘y’ sound.

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Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

27 Dec 21

There’s such a romance to brick: they're moulded to fit a human hand, light enough to be carried, and have a soft warmth of colour and texture.
The Romans brought bricks to England, but when they left, they seemed to take brick-making with them.

#thread

Really, it wasn’t until the 15th century that brick came back into widespread use.

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Traditional bricks were made simply from clay or a clay and sand mix. For a good brick, you need two types of clay: a plastic clay and a sand-rich, non-plastic clay to off-set the tendency of the former to shrink and warp during firing.

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Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

26 Dec 21

In cobwebbed corners of churches, are carved alms-boxes. Many, like this one at Watton, Norfolk, are inscribed, urging passers-by to ‘remember the poor’. For centuries, the collections in these oaken boxes were society’s main source of poor relief.

#BoxingDay #thread

Two of the earliest poor-boxes in English churches date from the mid-14th century and can be found on Holy Island, Northumberland. However, most surviving ones – many of which are still in use – date to the 17th century.

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Boxing Day has been a tradition in the UK for centuries. Though it only officially got that name in the 1830s… and didn’t become a bank holiday until 1871. 26th December is the feast day of St Stephen – an early deacon who made it his duty to care for the poor.

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Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

14 Dec 21

Across the road from St Mary's, Fordham, in Norfolk, this old milestone tells us that it's just 2 miles in one direction to Downham Market, and 16 miles the opposite way to Ely (Fordham's diocese). It's a relic from a bygone age of navigation and a remnant of a once busy road.

The milestone was located on what was once part of the A10 or 'Great Cambridge Road' — connecting London to Kings Lynn — before that road was diverted, leaving Fordham stranded and neglected for decades, until we took it into our care.

Once upon a time, travellers depended on milestones and guidestones (known in Yorkshire as 'stoops') to help them navigate unfamiliar routes and estimate travel times.

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