In the Vale of Aylesbury, there are low-lying limestone hills surrounded by clays and sands. There, at Waddesdon Hill in 1792, ragged limestone was used to build the Strict & Particular chapel. And under the pebble-dash render, we found an ammonite as big as your head!

#thread
The chapel had a thick layer of lumpy cement render on three sides, the last side had a light slurry of lime mortar. The render was causing problems of damp and decay, so we removed it to replace with a more permeable lime layer.

2/6
During the removal, we’ve been fascinated by all the fossils – some small, some enormous – that we’ve uncovered. The gigantic ammonite spiral is a real thrill, but there are several brachiopods (clam-shell shape) and chunky crinoid stems too.

3/6
I’m no geologist, so correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this area is part of the Upper Jurassic Corallian Group, which was formed about 160 million years ago, when the area was covered by a shallow, tropical sea and marine life flourished.

4/6
Stone from the area has been used in building since the Middle Ages, and the geological significance of the area - of the stone and creatures immortalised with in it – has been studied since the 1800s.

5/6
Unfortunately, the fossils in the chapel walls will be covered over – and protected – by the new lime render, but we have made a photographic record of what’s been found.

6/6

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More from @friendschurches

Feb 12
Off a layby on the A483, you'll find a sunken churchyard. Walk down the avenue of sentinel yews and you'll discover the little church of St Anno.

From the outside, it’s not much to look at. But inside is one of the greatest glories of Welsh craftsmanship...

#thread
The majestic 15th-century roodscreen fills the interior. It bursts with life: the bressumer trails with vines, pomegranates and water-plant issuing from the mouth of a wyvern. The vines symbolise Christ. The pomegranate represents eternal life.

2/7
The thirty-four coving panels are decorated with seventeen different designs, creating a restlessness. The tracery heads hang like lace. The loft carries a line of twenty-five canopied niches. The carving is the work of the Newtown School of Carvers, Montgomeryshire.

3/7
Read 7 tweets
Feb 11
In churches, hard surfaces and sharp angles of stone, brick, glass and wood are softened by the delicate draping of intricately woven and embroidered altar-cloths, comfortable cushioning of communion kneelers & pleasing curves of plump hassocks, stitched with great care. 🪡

1/5
Today we’re celebrating our churches’ softer side …

1. Altar cloth, St Mary's, Long Crichel, Dorset ⬆️

2. Altar frontal, St Philip's, Caerdeon, Gwynedd ⬇️

2/5
3. Hassocks, St Andrew's, Woodwalton, Cambridgeshire

📷 @badger_beard

3/5
Read 5 tweets
Feb 10
When we took Tuxlith Chapel in West Sussex into our care in the 1970s, it had been derelict for decades. At the time we didn't have enough money to re-instate the lath and plaster ceiling, so we nailed some painted boards across the ceiling.

1/5
This did the trick until last year, when the boards began to fail, so we went back, and this time, thanks to a Culture Recovery Fund grant, we can restore the lath and plaster ceiling.

2/5

#HereForCulture
Here it is in an early phase of the work.

The plasterer, Ian Holloway, carefully removed all the rusting nails and damp boards, and has set out the base for his plaster: carefully spaced riven oak laths.

3/5
Read 6 tweets
Feb 5
While we don’t mean keep visitors away from Llancillo church, getting there is a bit of battle, involving sharp turns, potholes, rattling cattle grids, boorish cattle, watchful sheep and a busy train-track. But this area is no stranger to battles...

#thread
It’s here, along the spellbinding Welsh Marches, that you’ll find the densest concentration of motte-and-bailey castles in England and Wales. These castles were the result of William the Conqueror’s plan to subdue the Welsh by installing Marcher Lords along the border.

2/7
But defence wasn’t new to the Marches: along their length, the Romans built forts to defend themselves from the Welsh. The Anglo-Saxons dug an 80-mile ditch. So, it's no wonder really that our little church at Llancillo is in the shadow of an ancient castle.

3/7
Read 7 tweets
Feb 3
This beautiful door is in the Tuscan-inspired Arts & Crafts church of St Mark's, Brithdir, Gwynedd — built at the end of the 19th century.

It’s inlaid with teak and ebony woods, and with mother of pearl from abalone shells.

#AdoorableThursday

1/3
Mother of pearl, or nacre, is produced by some molluscs to build their inner shell layer.

It's formed of octagonal platelets of aragonite, whose thickness is close to the wavelength of visible light.

2/3
When viewed from different angles, the lightwaves are disrupted, giving it its colourful and lustrous iridescence.

(that’s the simple version — I’m no physicist! - Clare)

3/3
Read 4 tweets
Jan 28
The church at Castlemartin is a riddle of arches.

From yawning arcades and stone arcs floating in a limewashed wall to sloping skew-passages and pointed scars of lost roofs, these shapes chart the 900-year architectural history of the church.

#thread
Cut into a steep sandstone bank just a couple of miles from the Pembrokeshire coast, the earliest parts are the south and western walls (and font) which date from the late 1100s. This includes, we believe, the four-bay arcade.

2/
The chancel was rebuilt and extended in the 1200s. At the same time the north aisle was reconstructed and the tower erected over the south transept. A north transept was also added at this time.

3/
Read 7 tweets

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