West Lindsey Churches Festival (Part 1)

Every year West Lindsey has a Churches Festival when lots of churches (many of which have to be kept locked with key notices most of the time) are open for people to look round. Many of the congregations put on a special effort with displays of local history, arts and crafts, flowers etc. This weekend it was the turn of the western half of the district so, after we had been to chuch this morning, Joe and I went off to explore a few more churches.

We started by driving almost to Lincoln to see Barlings St. Edward, a small Norman church which has just completed an exstensive restoration programme. The church was approached through an immaculate churchyard along a very well kept gravel path. Inside there was a display of photographs of the restoration. On the north wall of the nave there is a newly restored commandments board - only one as the other was destroyed during earlier 'improvements'. I wonder, does the lack of the final five commandments give the good people of Barlings carte blanche to murder, lie, steal, covet and commit adultery?

By the time we left the drizzle had become rain so we didn't go the extra mile to view the monastic remains just down the road, which we had in any case seen before accompanied by the herd of cows who share the field with the ruins.

Our next stop was Cherry Willingham St. Peter and St. Paul - 700 or so years younger than Barlings and very different from the other churches we visited today except for the care taken of it by the community it serves. Here all the village organisations except the Indoor Bowls and Cricket Clubs had contributed to the display with contributions from Brownies, Guides, Cubs, Scouts, WI, Drama Group, Playgroup, Football Club, Outdoor Bowls Club and several other I have forgotten.

Our next stop was in another big village: Nettleham All Saints. I used to know the road through this village very well, but realise I haven't been through in years since it was by-passed. I think I have visited this church many years ago (King's England: Lincolnshire no doubt in hand), but today we were shown round by a true enthusiast. I won't go into detail, but this church is Saxon in origin although not mentioned in the Doomsday Book since it was by then in the possession of an abbey in France and thus, being exempt, it didn't need to be listed for valuation and taxes. It was then transferred to the Bishops of Lincoln and remained in their possesion until a change in the law in the nineteenth century made such arrangments illegal and the parish became a rectory. At about the same time the mediaeval wall paintings were uncovered and restored.

There was a major fire in the chancel area in 1969 since when there has been some very good restoration including the modern stained glass east window and brightly painted roof.

By this time the rain was coming down hard, so we forewent the pleasure of walking round the outside of the church and headed off to Owmby-by-Spital St. Peter and St. Paul. Here they had a very professional looking display about the young men of the village who went off to fight in the Great War. All those commemorated on the war memorial had been carefully researched, as had several of those who had returned to live to a ripe old age, but there was an appeal for information about many others.
The light was really terrible by now.

Our last port of call was Normanby by Spital St. Peter where they had an art exhibition. The delightful thing here was that, though the pictures were arranged in themes, there were no value judgements made; it was simply a celebration of a shared interest with pictures by primary school children next to those by professional artists, with the full range of amateur ability and compentence between. To my mind the loveliest pictures were those by an amateur watercolourist who, I am told, has only recently returned to painting after a gap of about a dozen years, but it was the over all impression of enjoyment which made it such a lovely end to a really enjoyable day.

By this time it was raining harder than in the last scene of Four Weddings and a Funeral, and we headed home to the boiled beef and carrots I had left in the slow-cooker, and the brownies and fairy cakes I had bought from the stall at Cherry Willingham for pudding.