Quiet reflections on traditional country churches

[Ozexpatriate]

The church in Bruton, Somerset is separated from the old GWR mainline (Westbury/Castle Cary cutoff) by what appears to be a cricket pitch. I remember it made quite an impression on me seeing it down the embankment from the window of an HST.

[mudmagnet]

For my penny worth - I have attached a photo of a small church close to the Exeter to Barnstaple line at Eggesford. Although the tower is largely obscured by the tree in this photo, I thought that this would make a great model one day.

 

I agree with the comments re the usual wedding or funeral scene - generally churches are quiet places.

[DavidBelcher]

Here's a church that is next to two railway lines - St Walburge RC sits between the WCML and the Blackpool line in Preston (86.243 is doing the honours)

 

 

 

Can't believe I forgot that one! It appears in many a railway photo and stands out a mile off with that landmark spire!

 

David

[DavidBelcher]

I agree with the comments re the usual wedding or funeral scene - generally churches are quiet places.

 

If you must have a "busy" church scene, I guess modern layouts could always go for the option of an edition of Songs of Praise being filmed, complete with BBC vans parked up and miles of cables!

 

David

[Welchester]

My post here contains a link to a railside church.

[Oldddudders]

Cornwall remains a most popular setting for models - and surely Cornwall is as rich in churches as it is in saints! In youthful holidays, on the bus from Port Isaac to Wadebridge, one was taught to look out for the towers and spires - St Endellion, St Minver and not forgetting obscure St Enedoc, burial place of John Betjeman and his father. Is there any church in that lovely county that doesn't have a Norman font? All this despite my parents not being exactly churchgoers.

 

More recently, and for the worst of reasons, Colwich Church, adjoining the junction of the Manchester and Crewe lines on WCML, has become the scene of an annual memorial service for people who lost their lives in a collision there some years back. I have a dear friend who plays and worships there.

[spamcan61]

If one's spire construction turns out a bit wonky one can always claim inspiration from St. Enedoc:-

[Oldddudders]

If one's spire construction turns out a bit wonky one can always claim inspiration from St. Enedoc:-

Well done! I believe Chesterfield does the same trick but in wood?

[mikemeg]

 

Anyway, the above ramblings is really just an excuse to post a few images from this afternoon (some of them could have been better, they were taken on my phone!). But if this is not your thing, just ignore the thread.

 

 

What a great thread and so beautifully introduced. As some contributors have said, many layouts do not have the 'spread' to actually feature a model of a church but perhaps a middle distance impression could be featured on the backscene.

 

The various photographs are just stunning and, if nothing else, serve to show just what a glorious heritage these buildings constitute even if, like me, one has no real pretensions to religious participation.

 

A great joy.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[spamcan61]

Well done! I believe Chesterfield does the same trick but in wood?

 

Certainly does - see:-

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g186248-Derbyshire_England.html#18200275

 

Mind you it's a bit bigger than St. Enedoc for modelling purposes!

[CullingworthGNR]

Great thread. My minister would point out that a church is actually the people and not the building - but he's a ridiculous pedant!

 

I've been looking for some inspiration for the painting and weathering on my Dapol kit. One of my favourite little churches is at Linton near Grassington - link to a photo here

[DonB]

As threatened promised, here are shots of Sutton on the Hill's Chapel, taken this morning, showing just how tiny it is. Counting the bricks, I made it about 23ft across the frontage, and the same across the gable end.

Apologies for not getting these shots "Square", my excuse is that it was raining and I was in a hurry to get home, (that's my bicycle leaning against the hedge...I got very wet!)

 

A side view shows the little out-house, I've no idea of it's purpose, there's no access from the inside of the Chapel.

 

A view of 'tother end, showing that it appears to be in the corner of the field, not sure if the Chapel owned the field.

 

Taken through the cleanest window pane that I could find! shows the different shaped windows facing the field. there are two such windows in line with those on the front. The walls are actually white(ish).

It was recently up for sale but the board has now gone and the hedge has been recently trimmed. Looking through the window, it is empty but clean, with the low Minister's dais still in situ across the end.

It is of course nowhere near a railway, but it's tiny size renders it eminently modellable.

[Worsdell forever]

For such a small village (about 200 people) we are well represented for churches.

 

St Annes is the catholic one and less than 100 yards away is Christ church C of E, neither of which are near a railway by the way...

[Shamouti Ben Yafo]

Very tempted to build a Ratio/Wills Tin Tabernacle myself - lacking room for something monumental like the chapels that schismatic Valleys congregations sometimes used to build to blow architectural raspberries at their home chapel - like the pair which stand opposite each other in Bethania St, Maesteg. IIRC, one of them was actually Bethania.

[Tim V]

Churches are big structures, my own model is very much reduced in size.

 

For those interested, this site has plans.

 

http://www.churchplansonline.org/

[Gwiwer]

Even "Ready to plonk" churches can be made to look good enough given a little thought and - perhaps - some weathering. Mine is a Skaledale item which apart from a little natural weathering because it is outside has had touches of fine green scatter added to represent moss growth on the darker niches. The tombstones are also Skaledale and have been inscribed with a 0.1mm mapping pen to include names of those dear to me and now departed which brings a personal touch. One middle-aged lady strides purposefully up the stone path perhaps to attend to the flower arrangements while a funeral party gathers at the lych gate.

 

The first picture also shows the placing of a Peco station seat at the back of the church while the "moss" is seen to best effect in the third view on the angled buttress tops.

 

I do have a lot more space than most modellers but this scene fits into an area not much more than 18 inches by 12. Still too big for some but it shows how space on a corner can be filled and also give a sense of reality to the fiddle yard tracks disappearing into the tunnel.

 

 

 

 

For those wishing to model something a little less common try the chapel at Newmill, near Penzance in Cornwall, where this stone graces the road frontage.

 

[PhilJ W]

I can't help noticing on several layouts that I have seen featuring churches that the church is placed directly over a tunnel! Apart from the fact that a tunnel would not be dug beneath almost any building least of all a church there is the need to pay the gravediggers danger money and the dear departed going on a journey but not the one they expected.

[Penlan]

....featuring churches ..... placed directly over a tunnel! Apart from the fact that a tunnel would not be dug beneath almost any building least of all a church .....

Ah, your getting into my grumpy territory now...... Cattle docks placed right on the edge of a platform so that neither the cattle wagon doors or the pen gates can be opened, is one of them........ certainly tunnels - and structures that seem hardly able to bear their own weight let alone whatever it is they are suppose to be supporting, - and model boats with masts and jibs so thick they, well they look silly (but then I do live near Newlyn!) ...........

 

Churches tend to be quite large, Chapels can be small, as shown by the Newmill one, pass it often (well I wouldn't stop, it being teetotal).

 

There is an article by Geoff Taylor in MRJ 121 (Autumn 2000) on a large Weslyan Chapel.

 

There's also the Tin Mission by Gerry Hall in MRJ 51 (Late 1991).

 

And I'm sure Ian Rice did an article on Tin Missions, based on the Wills (or is it Airfix?) kit, but I can't find that reference at present.

[Penlan]

Great thread. My minister would point out that a church is actually the people and not the building -

You mean like this :- (The leaflet was on a bar I stopped off at last weekend !! )

[Peter Bedding]

I can't help noticing on several layouts that I have seen featuring churches that the church is placed directly over a tunnel! Apart from the fact that a tunnel would not be dug beneath almost any building least of all a church there is the need to pay the gravediggers danger money and the dear departed going on a journey but not the one they expected.

 

In past times, journals used to feature a "prototype for everything" theme; I guess all sorts of no-no's cropped up. The GWR Plymouth - Launceston branch tunnels beneath a corner of RAF Yelverton wartime airfield. (Obviously the railway came first). Bentley MRG's "Wartime" repeats this, and the idea works.

 

Also, one of the London Underground routes was extended (1970s?) under Islington, a heavily built-up area, and the route of the tunnel was then marked at ground level by a line of houses that were subsiding gently into their cellars. So there's a valid modelling theme.....

 

PB

[shortliner]

No railway within miles, but can I offer you this "Small and Bijou, Mostyn, Small and Bijou!" one on Orkney, built by Italian POWs

http://www.orkneypic...ge/page045.html

http://www.philippar...ian_chapel.html

http://www.undiscove.../italianchapel/

http://www.flickr.co...ith/4876653461/

[Bernard Lamb]

No railway within miles,

 

Not now, but there was when the hut was errected.

Bernard

[Bernard Lamb]

Typical Essex timber vernacular.

Stock, one of a group with timber belfries.

Bernard

 

[The Stationmaster]

As most of my church pics are from bell ringing tours the churches tend to be a bit on the 'slightly larger' size but I'm happy to set to getting some reduced if there's any interest.

 

The wooden structure incidentally is the tower (or possibly bell tower) and the belfry is only one part of it being the part of the tower, effectively a high ceilinged room, in which the bells themselves are hung. Its position can easily be identified on any church from the louvres in the side of the tower - they're there to let the sound out (and, unless suitable wired, the birds and the bats in).

[Gwiwer]

My minister would point out that a church is actually the people and not the building

 

Which reminds me of a couple of great posters seen outside churches over the years. One, at Broadwater church, West Sussex, read "This is a ch__ch. What's missing?" The other, at Holy Trinity on High Street Hounslow, proclaimed "HOSANNA in the HIGH ST" with the "missing" letter E from the word "highest" as a faint outline.

 

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