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Friendless Churches Profile picture
@friendschurches
Mar 15, 2022 • 10 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
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In a cobwebbed corner of St Decuman's in Rhoscrowther, Pembrokeshire you'll find a rusted safe made by Parnall & Sons of Bristol.

The story of this creative and ever-adapting company encompasses major historical events and trends of the 20th century …
Founded by William Parnall in 1820 on Narrow Wine Street, Bristol, Parnall & Sons sold weights and measures but soon expanded their range with shop fittings and other shopkeeping equipment. By the 1880s they were the largest shop-fitting company in the country with 10k employees.
Before long, they were producing entire shop-fronts, including glass and ironwork.

But they didn't stop there!

During WW1 this enterprising firm supported the war effort by designing and manufacturing sea planes & aeroplanes — like the Parnell Panther.
In the Roaring Twenties, they built fittings for Piccadilly tube station, the Savoy hotel, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon, and numerous ocean liners.

They also branched out into refrigeration, plastics (still a very new material), and office furniture.
WW2 brought them back to the manufacture of aircraft components such as wings for De Haviland Tiger Moths and fuselages for Shorts Stirling heavy bombers.
Their work made them a target for enemy bombers, and on 27 Feb 1941, eight bombs were dropped on the works, killing 52 workers.

But they continued in full production.
The post-war boom brought supermarkets to Britain, and Parnall & Sons were ready to supply that new industry too.

In the 1940s and '50s, they also manufactured innovative modern home appliances, such as the Parnall Wringlet and Spinwasher de Luxe.
In the Swinging Sixties they reached the pinnacle of luxury, with fitting contracts for 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament and the QE2 ocean liner.

They even helped to build Concorde.
Parnall & Sons finally shuttered in 1991 after 170 years of trading, though the Parnall Aircraft Company continues their legacy of legendary aircraft building, making replica Spitfire planes for display.
And the story of their humble beginnings also lives on in this simple and now rather shabby old iron safe at St Decuman's, Rhoscrowther.

/end

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Friendless Churches Profile picture
Oct 24, 2023
Red and yellow and pink and green ... most children can tell you that rainbows contain seven colours, and many of us use 'ROYGBIV' to remember them. But people haven't always seen rainbows this way. Photograph of St Mary's, Tal-y-Llyn, Anglesey by Wynne Jones, with a rainbow in a grey stormy sky. The simple church is lit up with yellow light.
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Sep 23, 2023
The church at Skeffling was built from glacial clutter and recycled masonry in the 1400s. It sits in Holderness. A landscape of mudflats and salt-marshes washed into existence by the North Sea.

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The next time you're lying in bed counting sheep, you might like to try out the counting system that was used by shepherds In medieval Lincolnshire.

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(info from 'Alex's Adventures in Numberland' by Alex Bellos)
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Mar 19, 2023
In about 1300, five massive oak legs were pushed into the soil at Boveney to raise a belltower out of the clay tile roof of the 12th-century church. Inside, in the 1800s fielded panelling was installed, hiding those hardworking legs.

#thread
Perfect as that panelling looked, it obscured the most important timbers. Noticing that the bellcote was somewhat slumped, our architect removed some panels, and we found the legs were rotten. Boveney church was *almost* without a leg to stand on.

2/
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3/
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Mar 18, 2023
Between 1666 and 1680, the English parliament sought to protect the wool trade, by requiring the dead to be buried in nothing but a shroud of English sheep's wool. Plague victims and the destitute were the only exceptions. A section of a 17th century affidavit shows a wood-cut print
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Mar 17, 2023
St Patrick was ripped from his home as a teenager. After six years as a slave in the west of Ireland, he trekked the breadth of the island to get home to Britain. He would become the patron saint of Ireland, yet at the end of his life, he felt he had failed.

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