Category: change

Let’s Celebrate Lincolnshire Churches Festival – Nettleham

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Every May in north Lincolnshire in the east of England there is the West Lindsey Churches Festival, ‘A Celebration of Open Churches in West Lindsey’.

The idea is to raise interest and money for the upkeep of these historic buildings, icons of English cultural and Christian heritage.

To be honest, I’m not sure if we’d ever heard of it. The link only came up last week from the web, so I thought it would be worth a visit. We were very glad we came.

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All Saints Church, Nettleham.

Our first stop was at the pretty village of Nettleham, at the Church of All Saints just a few miles north east of the magnificent city of Lincoln.

Nettleham is a large, seemingly thriving village of around three and half thousand souls with lots of local stores and some pubs, a heartening sight if there ever was. Inside the church we were greeted very courteously by the volunteers manning their stalls of old books, games, crafts, or selling food and drink. They were all very helpful, keen to tell us about the church and the village.

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The locals are friendly! We were greeted outside, even before we went in…

Sadly, in the 1960s there was a serious fire at All Saints, the result of arson. Since then the church has been restored very well, notable features being the new stained glass window at the east end and the roof.

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Medieval wall illustrations were revealed after the fire in the 1960s.

 

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Modern stained glass from the late 1960s.

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Of course, there are no benefits from fires, but one of the things revealed by the tragedy was a series of medieval wall pattern illustrations, of the type which used to bedeck all churches before the Reformation, after which nearly all were whitewashed over.

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Carrot cake and apple cake, what is there not to like?

Naturally, one of the benefits of going to these events is sampling the local cakes. We got a piece of carrot cake and apple cake, washed down by the proverbial cup of tea. The prices too, are very reasonable. We even took away a whole lemon drizzle cake!

Yes, it’s all very English and a jolly good thing to. I can’t speak highly enough of everyone inside, they made us very welcome.

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The village of Nettleham is also very pretty and worth exploring, with a running stream making lovely feature.

And a little history

Incidentally, Lindsey, in which Nettleham lies, is not merely a division or riding of historic Lincolnshire, along with Kesteven and Holland; Lindsey was once a kingdom in its own right, ruled from Lincoln around thirteen hundred years ago, before it was swallowed up by the much larger Mercia.

After that there was a manor house here, called the Bishop’s Manor House, as it eventually became a possession of the Bishops of Lincoln. Sadly this is now demolished.

But it’s not all about the past. There is very much to see and enjoy here today, not just at the Churches Festival – it’s well worth a visit at any time if you’re nearby.

copyright Leofwine Tanner 2019

Christian Confession! – Where Did All The Saints Go?

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Which saint, one wonders, once stood here in this empty space?

The empty church spaces now vacated, were once inhabited by colourful saints, or other such noble individuals. These days it makes me sad.

I am not a Catholic, yet, somehow our culture seemed to be somewhat lessened by their disappearance during the Reformation.

I think we lost more than just colour and ceremony in our lives at the time; these events seriously hastened in the modern materialistic world, which despite its obvious benefits, has stripped us of all our innocence now.

Just like the monasteries, creators and supporters of communities, were dissolved and stripped of all their wealth which was then reduced to its base monetary value, we too over time seem to have been stripped to the core, spiritually.

That’s how I feel. I’m not saying I wish to convert – there are reasons why I would not – but we need to reclaim something from our past, to move one step back, if you will, before we can go two forward.

Sure it was a long time ago, I’ve never known anything different from bare stone and whitewashed walls – but just think how colourful our English churches once were, how rich the lives of the faithful must have been.

copyright Leo F. Tanner 2019

The Matthew Flinders Connection: May Church Flower Festivals in South Lincolnshire, England

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There used to be an event, commencing in the late 1950s, famously called ‘The Spalding Tulip Parade’ in south Lincolnshire, England.

Every year much time and money was spent on creating a series of floats decorated with tulips to parade around the small Lincolnshire town, sponsored by local and national businesses. Tourists flocked there every year from many parts of the country and beyond.

Sadly those days have long gone now. However a ‘vestige’ of this former glory still remains in the numerous church flower festivals which still take place in early May.

I was particularly impressed this year by Donington’s flower festival. The explorer and cartographer who essentially mapped Australia, Matthew Flinders, was born in Donington in 1774. Recently his remains were discovered and there is a move to bring them back to Donington – you could almost feel the air of anticipation at this prospect.

Strong Links

Today many strong links remain with Australia; there are numerous visits from ‘down under’ too, both sides very keen to keep up and improve the cultural associations.

Let’s hope his remains return home soon and that a tasteful setting is created for the memory and legacy of the great Matthew Flinders of Donington, Lincolnshire.

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By Toussaint Antoine DE CHAZAL DE CHAMEREL (1770 – 1822) (Mauritius)Details of artist on Google Art Project – XQFjQ8PX1C_hwA at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23601763

Days of Innocence and Eternity

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Summer is not far away, fickle though it may be in England’s northerly reaches.

To us as children the good days were glorious; down at the beach the sun was our friend, the sea and sand our playmates through the days which would last forever. Eternity was within our reach – then.

In reality nothing much has changed, only our perception of reality.

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paintings by Francis Barker

Putin as President

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Photo by Julius Silver on Pexels.com

It’s interesting to note that it’s 19 years to the day since Vladimir Putin was first elected to the Russian presidency.

I don’t believe it’s been continuous, I think Medvedev spent four years as President too, but few western politicians have spent so long in high office, or achieved such levels of popularity, which he appears to retain to this day and Russia has certainly been transformed in those years, the Orthodox Church being reinvigorated, for example.

Naturally though, he remains a controversial figure in the West.