All Saints, Ballidon

Standing alone in a farmer's field the old church of All Saints is accessed by a narrow path from a road that buzzes with lorries going back and forth to a nearby quarry.

We parked in a small layby and walked just a few yards up the road to the entry.  Ballidon is a small village in Derbyshire amongst the group of villages of Parwich, Brassington and Bradborne.  The church is now cared for by the charitable group known as 'Friends of Friendless Churches.'  They care for more churches in Wales than England at the moment and this is one of only two churches in their care in Derbyshire.  The other church, at Matlock Bath I blogged about  - here.

The building, constructed of local limestone and gritstone,  dates from around c.1100, although, according to the information leaflet,  the village of Ballidon was mentioned in the Domesday Book but there was no mention of a church building.  From archaeological evidence of the land surrounding the church, house platforms show there may have been a sizeable mediaeval settlement there.  I couldn't stand any further back to take a photo of the whole church from the east side as it was surrounded by a brick wall to keep out the cows on the other side.

In the early 13th century (c.1205) the church at nearby Bradborne and its chapel at Ballidon were given to Dunstable Priory in Bedfordshire.  The church building was altered in 1822 and 1882.  The font is the most interesting and important object in the church and dates from the 14th century.  Lots of the carvings around the top half of the font are upside down and although of the same age is not the same as the plinth it sits on.

On the West wall above the font is a fireplace which shows that at some point there was a gallery across this side of the church offering, according to local legend, accommodation for visiting clergy.

The chancel arch, nave roof, herringbone brick floor, panelling and seating also date from the 1882 refurbishment.

The sun was very bright and dust motes were floating in its beams.

There was a warning on the door that the church wasn't cleaned every day. So the layer of dust and cobwebs in the windows were to be expected.

The information leaflet recommended that visitors open the cupboard door above the altar to find the aumbry cupboard to see the garish paintwork inside.  So we did.

Again I've taken information from the leaflet provided which states that from the 1851 Census of Religious Worship,  at Ballidon church there were seats for seventy two people all but eight of which were rented.  A service was held once a fortnight and the average attendance at that time was between twenty and thirty five people.

The stained glass window, which was installed in 1894, is by Charles Eamer Kempe.

 

According to my ancient copy of Arthur Mee's The King's England for Derbyshire  the village of Ballidon.....

 'has a few cottages and farms under White Edge and a lonely chapel away in the fields'

No mention here of either the quarry or of the nearby remains of Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows or the mediaeval village.

It was time to brave the cows and the hurtling cement trucks again and head towards nearby Carsington Water.

 

Recently.......

Recently.....

 We've made Wild Garlic and Cashew Nut Pesto with wild garlic from the garden.  The aroma in the kitchen was wonderful.

It was very tasty on tagliatelle for an evening meal with a glass of red grape juice.

Spotted a family of Greylag Geese by the lake at Trentham - there were in fact two families with eight goslings each, I hope they all survive.  Greylags are my favourite geese.

Also at Trentham the wisteria on the old sculpture gallery is in bloom.  It looks wonderful against the flaking paint on the old building. 

Yesterday we met with friends, one of whom was celebrating a birthday, at the Blubell Dairy Ice Cream Farm at Spondon near Derby. The drive over to Spondon was wonderful.  The road sides and verges were full of Joie de Vivre with Cow Parsley and Hawthorn both in frothy, white bloom whilst lilacs blossomed over garden fences and Wisteria dangled lazily over gates and door fronts swaying gently in the breeze.  Even though chilly first thing the light and colour en route was glorious.

We had a lovely lunch - mine was Cheese and Onion Quiche and Salad.  After a walk around the farm and a look at the animals we returned to the cafe for an ice cream. Two scoops each and I chose Pear and Elderflower sorbet and Rhubarb Ripple ice cream - both delicious. The rhubarb ripple was creamy and fruity and the sorbet had a delicate flavour which would be so refreshing on a red hot summer's day.

We then made our way to the nearby village of Dale Abbey where we discovered more joys in a meadow of buttercups.

 We all agreed it was idyllic

 Below are what remains of St Mary's Abbey - the imposing arch of the East window.

 A priory was originally founded here c 1150 by the Augustinian Canons from Calke Abbey. Around 1200 Premonstratensian cannons from an order founded by St Norbert in Premontre in  France took over and the Abbey flourished until the Dissolution c1538.  Stone from the Abbey ruins can be found in many buildings in and around the village.

 A view of the arch from the nearby churchyard.

 The church of All Saints is accessed through private land and is only the part of the building seen to the left in the photo above,  the gabled part on the right is now a private house.  As we arrived the owner was leaving in her car and informed us that the key to the church was held in the next village so unfortunately we didn't see the interior.  Inside the church is tiny around 25ft by 26ft.

 Parts of the church date from c 1150.  According to the village information board pre 1754 couples could be married quickly here without banns.  Apparently the Abbey infirmary was built onto the church and people on stretchers were able to see the altar from the upstairs gallery.  This infirmary later became the Bluebell Inn and the connecting door was said to lead from 'salvation to damnation'  it is now the private house next to the little church.

All too soon it was time to go our separate ways and make our way home.  We had a lovely afternoon with dear friends and thoughts of friendship, ice cream and buttercups are still fresh in my mind.

A new use for an old building

St John's Church on Town Road in Hanley, the city centre of Stoke-on-Trent, has been empty and unused for as long as we have lived in the Potteries which is twenty years this year.

This interesting church is now wedged between the two halves of the Intu Potteries Shopping Centre and was crying out for someone to care for it.  It was bought a few years ago and the idea was to turn it into a restaurant but that fell through and it has recently been bought and refurbished.  A  few weeks ago it opened as the 6 Towns Antique and Vintage Emporium and Elsie's Tea Room.

Having never seen inside the church we decided to pay a visit last Friday. After spending half the morning at doctors, vets and opticians - the vet's bill was far more than that of the optician - we were in need of coffee and cake.

 The tea room is placed near the side entrance to the church, the staff are very friendly and helpful and the coffee and bananna and chocolate cake was delicious.

 There was a general buzz about the place, a few people had come in for coffee, some just to look at the antiques and a few more like me to look at the interior and specifically the windows and monuments.

The piano is there for anyone who can play and apparently someone played for a couple of hours one afternoon when there was a party in for afternoon tea.  He'd only popped in to have a look and ended up spending most of the afternoon there.  I can see why.

According to the notes on the menu for Elsie's Tea Room the church was built in 1792 and replaced another church which had been on the same site from 1738.  Apparently a stone was found from the earlier church during excavations. 

The windows were fascinating.

As were some of the monuments on the walls.  The one above is to commemorate the life of Samuel Alcock of Cobridge who 'for a period of twenty years joined with the congregation of this church in the sacred offices of public worship'  He died 10th November 1848 aged 49 years and 'was singularly kind and charitable in disposition' and 'upright and liberal in all his dealings'  The members of the church paid for the memorial.

Apparently the window above is quite unique in that it is the only known stained glass window dedicated to a solider who was killed during the Anglo Zulu wars of 1879.  The solider was Pte William Henry Hickin of the 24th foot who fell at Isandhlwana in South Africa on 22 January 1879 aged 25.  He was born in Hanley in 1854, the son of Henry and Hannah Hickin.  On the 1871 census the family lived on High Street,  William's occupation then was a writing clerk.  His father Henry's occupation was locksmith and bell hanger.

Above is a memorial to the memory of Ephraim Chatterley of Shelton who 'in humble reliance on the mediation of his redeemer exhchanged this life for a better' on 7th day of May 1811 aged 66.  According to the inscription he had a 'zealous and stedfast (sic) attachment to his native place.'

The East Window of painted, rather than stained, glass c. 1830

The upper galleries where the vintage sales areas are to be placed later on.
  

In one of the articles I read about the church it was described as having been built when 'ecclesiastical architecture was at its lowest ebb' and was 'a brick built edifice of a debased style of Gothic'.  The church is also noteworthy because of its early use and cast iron in both structural and decorative work including the gallery columns.

The window above is dedicated to the memory of Abraham Dutton who was the parish clerk of the church for fifty five years.  He died on 10th October 1883 aged 80 years.  On the 1881 Census Abraham Dutton was living at 28 High Street and was recorded as a widower and his occupation as watch and clock maker.

Above is part of a stained glass window which is a memorial to some of those from the area who lost their lives during the First World War.

The Parish Church of St James, Bonsall, Derbyshire

As promised in my last but one post I'm returning to the lovely, historic village of Bonsall to take you inside the parish church.  I've saved this post until now especially for Church Tourism Week.  This is organised by The Churches Conservation Trust, although this isn't one of the churches in its care, I thought it was an apt time to record my visit.

After our lunch at The Fountain Tea shop (see my post on Bonsall Village)  we walked up to the church.  I hadn't expected it to be open but it was.  Unfortunately I'd left my bridge camera in the back of the car but I had my little Cannon Power Shot camera in my bag so I was able to take a few photos.

There wasn't a guide book or leaflet inside the church so I took photos of the things I'd noticed realising that I'd probably miss something important along the way.  I've since been 'googling' to find out more about the church and the various things I'd recorded.

The most obvious and fascinating aspect of the church was the difference of the floor height  between  the nave and chancel.  A few steps up from Nave to Chancel are expected but in this church there are seven.  The bottom and top ones are thinner than the others.

From reading various blogs and reports it seems that the level of the  nave floor was dropped in the 14th century and this may explain the extra steps up into the Chancel and the rather large column bases in the nave.  This has given the church the honour of being known to have what is possibly the highest Chancel in the country.
 

On the base of one of the columns is a strange carving which some sources say might have been underground until the floor level was dropped.  It is known locally as the Bonsall Imp or the Little Devil although it has also been described as a cross between a frog and a unicorn.  .

I can see from the one horn on the head and the webbed looking feet where this idea of the image came from.

 At the top of the North aisle a modern glass mobile hangs in front of the window reflecting the colours of the stained glass.

There were some interesting wall monuments to the great and good of the village.  The large one oval one on the wall is a memorial to a man called Henry Ferne who died in 1723 having served as Receiver General of the Customs during the reigns King William III, Queen Anne and King George I.

The font is probably from the late 12th or early 13th century.

The unusual stone above is in the South aisle and is a bull baiting stone.  It was brought into the church by a former Rector who was so upset by the idea of bull baiting that he had the stone removed from the market place into the church.  Animal baiting was finally made unlawful twenty years later in 1835.

Above is one of the two Medieval stone grave  slabs that stand either side of the alter in the South aisle, not far from the bull baiting stone.  The other was behind a banner and couldn't be photographed easily although it was thicker and slightly more elaborate than this one.  They were moved out of the church during the restoration of 1863 and ended up in a churchwarden's garden.

The churchyard was full of both wild and garden flowers which look lovely against the grey weather worn stones.

I'm experiencing great difficulty with internet speed at the moment and we are not sure what the problem is.  I can count to twenty or sometimes even thirty before getting on line then the time to move between sites is about the same, reading and commenting on blogs takes ages as pages keep jumping about and scrolling up and down takes ages as the screen seems to freeze.  It has taken me two or three days to complete this post so I may have to take a break for a while until the problem is solved.

St Giles Church, Hartington

As promised in my Five on Friday post last week a bit more about the church in the village of Hartington in Derbyshire.

The foundations of the present church were laid in the early 13th century and the building was completed c. 1250.  It is thought that there was an earlier Anglo Saxon church on the same site.  The tower dates from the 14th century and the walls of the church were made higher sometime in the 15th century.

There were a few gargoyles on the outside of the church some of them were restored in the 19th century and have been adapted from waterspouts to downspouts.

Inside the church was warm and light with the morning sun streaming through the windows.

One of the most interesting things for me were the fragments of wall paintings in quite a few places.  Above and below are two of the larger sections remaining high up on the walls of the nave. 

These remnants were restored in 1985, the restorer, Anna Hulbert, managed to identify some of the texts.  Also identified were at least two royal coats of arms, those of James I and Charles II.

The 14th century font stands in the south transept where it was moved in 2007 from the base of the tower.  It was apparently 'garishly coloured'  but has been cleaned and returned to its original stone.  The south transept used to house the Biggin Chapel there are quite a few interesting items to be found here.

Below the south window is the tomb of a 13th century lady holding a heart in her hands.  This tomb was found and moved from beneath the nave in 1858.  Her identity is a mystery.

On the wall opposite the window is a base drum  which originally belonged to The Hartington Volunteers, a militia company founded in 1875.  The volunteers were later incorporated into The Sherwood Forresters regiment.

In the south window itself  is a roundel depicting the Star of David.  The glass is older than the fabric of the present church and it is thought to have come from the earlier church which stood on the same site.

I hope you have enjoyed having a little look around both inside and out.

With thanks to the unknown writer of the little church guide book we purchsed for the information I have used in this post.