I don't have anything biblical to share for this week's Sepia Saturday, but I have stayed on the theological theme with some vintage postcards of churches. Rather than go for the more well known churches in big towns and cities, I have instead opted for a few smaller, almost certainly less familiar ones. Admittedly I did not do a huge amount of research for this posting, but something I did discover on my travels through hyperspace, was that John Betjeman had a love of churches as well as trains. I have several of his books on the latter but none on the former - perhaps it's time to put this right.
Vintage postcard of Clayton Church, Sussex, c.1907
.jpg "Vintage postcard of Culbone Church, Minehead, Somerset")
Vintage postcard of Culbone Church, Minehead, Somerset
Vintage postcard of Hollington, the Church in the Wood, Sussex
Vintage postcard of Sompting Church, Sussex, c.1917
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Read this online and it made me laugh. I think I'll ask that my funeral be said there - you could have "standing room only" with 31 people.
ReplyDeleteCulbone church is reported to be the smallest in England, the chancel is 13'6" x 10', the nave 21'6" x 12'4". Total length 35ft. It seats about 30 in great discomfort. It nestles in a beautiful little valley about 2miles from Ashley Combe, Porlock Weir, Exmoor.
It's often the smaller churches that are the most interesting, I find. There's one at Dale Abbey in central Derbyshire, where one branch of my family hails from, that is supposedly one of the smallest in the country, is attached to a farmhouse, and was once used as a pub.
ReplyDeleteWe pass many small churches in Yorkshire. I'm ashamed to say I have never stopped to admire them.
ReplyDeleteA great collection of photographs of old and unusual churches.
ReplyDeleteI love the look of old churches.
ReplyDeleteGood sacred sepia post
ReplyDeleteThey're all stone (or brick), right? Very nice -- I'm used to white clapboard churches here in New England!
ReplyDeleteThese are some of my favorite sights along the countryside! Stunning!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of Sompting before...curious name.
ReplyDeleteChurches great and small, but the small ones are the interesting ones, with stories to tell nobody has heard before.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure those small churches were the center of local life and well loved.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful little churches. So much character and history. Thanks for posting them.
ReplyDeleteReally liked the photos of the churches, as they gave me another reminder of all the churches that my daughter and I saw as we traveled from Oregon to Wisconsin and back -- country churches, Swedish churches, large, substantial churches in dying towns, but my favorites were the towns where the church was the center. Not many of those left, methinks.
ReplyDeleteWhen we travel on the B-roads of Britain, the village churches are always a source of history and quiet beauty. However Betjeman's "Best British Churches" has a title that's a bit overdone. Are they scored for quality of pew cushions, brass rubbings, and baptismal fonts?
ReplyDeleteI love the look of the old quaint churches and would much rather worship in the smallest of those than in the large modern stadium seating things they're building today with multiple screens & all manner of sound equipment. But if the newer buildings attract the young people, that's good I suppose. Still, I love the old stone churches & such. Good of you to share such pictures!
ReplyDeleteI really like the Culbone church which hugs the hillside. Very picturesque.
ReplyDeleteNancy