East Lydford

[smallhobbit]

We managed to go away for a couple of nights this week, which was very nice.  We stayed in a village called East Lydford, which is a few miles south of Shepton Mallett in Somerset.

The village has a church which is no longer in use and falling into disrepair.  It was built in 1866 and was only in use for 120 years.

 

 

And there were chickens where we were staying!


 

Comments

[kingstoken]

I understand, its just that church buildings are so lovely and can't really be converted into anything else very easily. Although, I did read about one Anglican church here in a small town in southern Ontario that was closing down, because it had a tiny congregation and it cost the church too much to maintain it, but the community used the sunday school a lot for community activities, like scouts, etc and becasue it was such a tiny town it was one of the few pubic places for groups to meet. So, after complaints and press coverage, the archdiocese sold the church to the town for a dollar, and the town changed it into a community centre.

[smallhobbit]

That's really good that the church building could continue to serve the community.

For us it's a case of every village having had a church, and with falling numbers in villages, plus greater ability to travel, there is really no use for many of them. And a church built in the 1860s isn't that old (one of the two I attend dates from before 1315).