Yesterday’s post portrayed the author as a feckless flâneur with an addiction to alliteration and alcohol. Guilty as gharged.
Yesterday morning I forsook Mammon (FTWeekend) to read newsletters from Friends of Friendless Churches and National Churches Trust. Between them they prop up ancient chapels, churches and cathedrals of architectural integrity but structural instability.
As you see, C of E members don’t go to church but it does have an exceptional, ecclesiastical, architectural inheritance. (I’m Church of Ireland). The Papists loyally support their team, although (the Reformation) they they have fewer clubhouses of merit.
As I also belong to the scholarly Church Monuments Society I’m reluctant to spread my small net further. However, I am tempted to go Champing with the Churches Conservation Trust. I am not a stranger to the vicissitudes of camping but a cold stone floor in a chilly church is far from glamping. The Champing, trade marked, misleadingly suggests fizz. No, it means sleeping on a church floor; character building and fun for children. Take flannel jim-jams, blow-up mattress, well togged up sleeping bag, torch, thermos full of what you will and choose a church adjacent to a good restaurant. Your children or grandchildren will have an unforgettable sleep-over.
I have two children in mind: Marie and Katy. They are doughty outdoorers living in Oregon who pitch camp on the Pacific coast. I hope they may cross a continent and an ocean and find it more fun to stay in Cooling (Kent), Swaffham Prior (Cambridgeshire), or Stansted Mountfitchet (Essex) than Claridge’s or the Savoy.
“This medieval church, with parts dating from the 1100s, stands next to the grounds of Stansted Hall. The setting is peaceful despite the convenience of the nearby motorway and airport. It contains two exceptional seventeenth-century tomb figures, those of wasp-waisted Hester Salusbury in her hunting clothes and her father Sir Thomas Middleton.” (champing.co.uk)
Dear Mr. Bellew,
We had never heard of camping in churches. It sounds like fun, especially the good restaurant. We have never been to England, but would like to go. We love dogs and horses and cut pictures of them out of Country Life. We would like to visit some there. We are excited for Christmas and then our birthday.
We hope you are excited for Christmas, too.