Friends of Friendless Churches

Decuman isn’t a name you hear every day.
Unless you live in very specific parts of Wales, Ireland and England…

St Decuman is said to have been born in the 7th century to noble parents at Rhoscrowdder, Pembrokeshire – where the church is now dedicated to him. The nearby chapel at Pwllcrochan also has his name.

Wishing to escape from his friends and family, he packed a bag and crossed the Bristol Channel on a raft with his cow. As you do.

He landed at Dunster and travelled along the coast to Watchet, where he adopted a hermit’s life. There he lived in solitude, with the produce of his trusty cow as his only sustenance. In time, he became pastor and physician to the Watchet locals.

Decuman and his cow lived in blissful isolation until one day a pagan cut of Decuman’s head with a spade… The story goes that the holy man's head was cut off by "a certain man more venomous than an asp, more poisonous than the adder...."

Miraculously, Decuman picked up his head, washed it and replaced it. (talk about keeping your head in a stressful situation…)

After this unsavoury incident, Decuman and a few faithful locals built the church at Watchet, and Decuman’s Holy Well is just down the lane. We don’t know what happened to the pagan with the spade.

Decuman died in AD 706. As well as a cluster of churches dedicated to him in Somerset and Pembrokeshire, there are also three churches dedicated to him in Co. Wexford, Ireland – all now sadly in ruins.

See our church at Rhoscrowdder: https://bit.ly/2YmKMLM

#hermit #saints #holywell #church #churchtales #animalsinisolation

Images:
1. St Decuman's, Rhoscrowdder;
2. St Decuman, Watchet, by ChurchCrawler, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://bit.ly/2UG5YIJ
3. St Decuman's, Killag, Wexford, by Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://bit.ly/2wybPYL

We continue to look at stories from our churches about the people who kept apart from the world, and those that lived in close community.

Today is the turn of St John the Baptist's chapel, Matlock Bath, Derbyshire.

Much like the Friends, the chapel at Matlock Bath was born out of a difference of opinion. In 1897, following a spat with the parish church of St Giles down the hill, Louisa Harris decided to concoct her own private treasure house…

You see, Louisa abhorred the low churchmanship of St Giles', so she commissioned Guy Dawber, founder of CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England), to design her a private chapel on a steep hillside overlooking the Derwent Valley. A picturesque pathway wound its way from Louisa’s grand residence, The Rocks, to the door of the chapel...

In line with Dawber's ideals, the chapel appears as an extension of the natural rocky cliff face.To preserve privacy and secrecy, the chapel is nestled amongst trees and shrubs, and the cliff-face is draped in ivy.

Louisa furnished her chapel with opulent fittings that would not have been tolerated in the parish church. Clearly, Louisa intended this church to be used for Anglo-Catholic worship. Central to the rood beam is a large crucifix, while Stations of the Cross lined the walls of the nave.

However, it wasn’t just the low church ways of St Giles’ that put Louisa off… in fact, perhaps the real reason this chapel was built is because the vicar at St Giles’ refused Louisa permission to mount a plaque to her beloved dog, Vida.

So, right at the back of the chapel at Matlock Bath is a small brass memorial engraved ‘In most loving memory of Vida. L.S.H. Till the last and brightest Easter Day be born’.

Passionate in her care for animals, in her will Louisa left £1,000 each to the RSPCA and Battersea Dogs Home.

It's quite something to think that without Vida the dog, we may never have had this jewel of a chapel.

⛪: https://bit.ly/2PUkl7T

#stayhome #socialdistancing #animallover #matlockbath

The medieval church at Saltfleetby, Lincolnshire was built on salt marsh and was sinking... so, in the 1800s, the church was dismantled and moved to more solid ground, but the tower was left behind... And now we look after it!

Martin has captured its charming (and not at all alarming...!!) lean wonderfully!

As we all get used to our new ways of working and living, we thought we’d share some stories from our churches.

Over the coming week, we’ll travel across centuries to share short stories about the people to kept apart from the world, and those that stuck together in close community.

First up, we venture deep into the Black Mountains.
To St Ellyw’s church, Llanelieu.
But who was St Ellyw, we hear you ask!
Ellyw lived in the fifth century. She was the grand-daughter of Brychan, Prince of Brycheiniog.

She made a vow of chastity and dedicated her life to Jesus. But her family did not accept this and forced her into an arranged marriage. Ellyw fled the kingdom – and her family. She wandered across the hills… villagers lived in fear of her grand-father and refused to offer her help or refuge.

Eventually, Ellyw found a small hut in Brecon, where she lived in isolation as a hermit.

But Ellyw was hunted down by the Prince, who demanded that she returned at once and obey his orders to be married. Ellyw remained steadfast and dedicated to her vow of chastity. In a fit of rage, her rejected suitor cut her head off.

Legend tells us that a spring burst through the earth at the point where her head stopped. And that the villages that turned her away suffered a series of disasters.

The church dedicated to St Ellyw sits in Cwm Rhyd-Ellywe within an oval, walled churchyard indicative of pre-or early Christian origins, whilst the core of the church has been dated to the 13th century. In the churchyard, are two pillar stones inscribed with crude Celtic-type crosses. It’s difficult to date these crosses, and a range from 5th-9th century has been proposed…

Could these pillar stones have been here when St Ellyw lived?

⛪: https://bit.ly/2QMTc7j

#stayathome #selfisolation #hermit #legend

These are trying times for all of us. They are strange, challenging, frightening times.
Over the past couple of weeks, we've heard many times how we all have a part to play, how we all must do what we can...

This reminded us of a window in St Decuman's, Rhoscrowther. St Decuman's is a big, ancient church in an evacuated village in Pembrokeshire. The south window is the work of Henry Hughes (1880). This window carries the inscription, "She hath done what she could".

In this window Jesus sits in the house of Simon the leper, a woman - Mary - kneels before him with an alabaster box of expensive spikenard ointment. She pours the ointment over his feet and dries them with her hair.

She hath done what she could.

⛪: https://bit.ly/2YmKMLM

#kindness #playyourpart #dowhatyoucan