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@friendschurches

11 Jan

At St Beuno's in Penmorfa, Gwynedd, a fragment of 16th century stained glass remains in a window on the west wall. In 1905, it piqued the curiosity of Charles E Breese — a local solicitor, Liberal politician and antiquarian …

Breese learned that until about the 1860s it had been a part of a larger window on the east wall, which was known, from its inscription, to have commemorated Maredudd ab Ifan ab Robert (aka Meredith ap Ivan ap Robert, or Meredith Wynn) and his third wife, Margaret Maurice.

Meredith, the founder of the influential Wynn(e) family, was said to have fathered 20 children and to go everywhere with a personal bodyguard of 20 tall bowmen.

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Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

8 Jan

The old church of St Matthew's in Lightcliffe, West Yorks is now just a tower. The rest of the church was demolished in 1973, despite our strenuous efforts to save it.

The loss was of historical significance — because this was a building of pioneering Georgian construction.

#🧵

The Neoclassical building had galleries of 'pews with a view' on three sides, and surviving photographs suggest that the quatrefoil columns supporting them were made of cast iron.

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The material had been used in buildings since the late 17thC — Christopher Wren employed it in the House of Commons — but the oldest surviving example of cast iron used for gallery supports is at St James's, Toxteth, built in 1775. Lightcliffe's church was built the same year.
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Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

3 Jan

Last September we took the medieval church of St Helen's, Skeffling, in the ancient wapentake of Holderness into our care.

St Helen's, now remote, once stood at the gateway to trade across the North Sea.

#thread

This region, at the mouth of the Humber, was marshland until it was drained in the medieval period, which explains the challenges we face today with structural movement.

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Inside the church, amidst clutter and green-streaked walls, are the architectural and artistic flourishes of six centuries, including finely carved corbels, numerous neo-classical monuments, a triple sedilia, ship graffiti, carved roof bosses, and countless other delights.

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Friendless Churches

@friendschurches

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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