July 2011:
WALESBY Saint Mary's, and WALESBY All Saints.
For our July meeting we visited the two
churches in Walesby. St Mary’s is in the village and the
original parish church of All Saints stands high on Walesby Hill
overerlooking the village which is surrounded by the beautiful
rolling wolds. Not surprisingly this is an area of Lincolnshire
much visited by walkers
We visited St Mary’s first and it was immediately apparent that this is a very active church. It is an ‘arts and crafts’ church designed by the Irish architect, Temple Moore. When the Revd Percival Laurence became incumbent of Walesby almost immediately he started fund raising to build a new church and the old church was virtually abandoned with services being held in a corrugated iron building ‘downhill’. Work on building a new church began on 6 June 1913.
Originally the tower was crowned by a small ‘candle-snuffer’ spire but this became unsafe and was removed many years ago, A local custom here is to close the church gates and tie them with twine whilst a couple are being married and untie them after the groom has lifted the bride over the gates thus symbolising the beginning of a happy life together.
After refreshments at the local tea room most of the group climbed the hill to All Saints church which stands on the Viking Way at one of the highest spots in Lincolnshire. This church was abandoned until Canon Harding in the 1930s decided at his own expense to restore it. Since then the church has become a place of pilgrimage for walkers and is known as The Ramblers Church. A Candlelight Service is held on the second Sunday in December and other occasional services with a walking theme. John Betjeman described All Saints as “an exceptionally attractive church worth bicycling twelve miles against the wind to see”.
We visited St Mary’s first and it was immediately apparent that this is a very active church. It is an ‘arts and crafts’ church designed by the Irish architect, Temple Moore. When the Revd Percival Laurence became incumbent of Walesby almost immediately he started fund raising to build a new church and the old church was virtually abandoned with services being held in a corrugated iron building ‘downhill’. Work on building a new church began on 6 June 1913.
Originally the tower was crowned by a small ‘candle-snuffer’ spire but this became unsafe and was removed many years ago, A local custom here is to close the church gates and tie them with twine whilst a couple are being married and untie them after the groom has lifted the bride over the gates thus symbolising the beginning of a happy life together.
After refreshments at the local tea room most of the group climbed the hill to All Saints church which stands on the Viking Way at one of the highest spots in Lincolnshire. This church was abandoned until Canon Harding in the 1930s decided at his own expense to restore it. Since then the church has become a place of pilgrimage for walkers and is known as The Ramblers Church. A Candlelight Service is held on the second Sunday in December and other occasional services with a walking theme. John Betjeman described All Saints as “an exceptionally attractive church worth bicycling twelve miles against the wind to see”.
The Ramblers Window
Back to Past Visits Main Page.