Church in Churchill

Ursula is very involved with her local church which was built in 1180. It is a beautiful and old church with a sad history. The village of Churchill was a plague village during the fourteenth century, so most of the village probably died and they moved away from the church, so it is now located beside a field. We went to church with Ursula to a service celebrating harvest festival. The church was filled with autumn flowers and vegetables. During the service, members of the congregation took food to the front of the church and then lit a candle and placed it on a map of the world on the place the food had come from.

One of the most remarkable features of this church is the Latch Memorial dedicated to Thomas and Sarah Latch and dated 1644. Sarah died in childbirth with her twelfth child and this baby is depicted wrapped in a black shawl. Their other eleven sons and daughters are kneeling and four of them are carrying skulls, to indicate that they had died before their mother. Sarah is wrapped in a shroud and her face peeks through. It is detailed and filled with the emotion capturing the sorrow of her husband and children. I can't imagine having that many children - she must have spent most of her married life being pregnant or caring for a baby. The exhaustion she must have endured. It is a tribute though to a woman at a time when women were not often recognised in their role as mother, wife and nurturer. She was going to be sorely missed and not easily replaced.





There were other sad stories depicted on the walls. There was a memorial plaque dating from the 1840s. The minister of the church at this time, Rev Bellew-Archer and his wife Marian, lost their daughters Elissa, Ioanna, Ada and Mariana and son Basil within four years, the youngest being six months, the eldest nineteen. The verse is particularly poignant to this couple: "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." I can't imagine the tears this couple must have shed.

There were also two boys aged thirteen, who in 1944, towards the end of the war were up exploring on the hill that we had wandered over with Ursula the day before. A german bomber was returning to cross the channel after bombing Bristol who decided to drop his remaining bomb onto the hillside, hitting and killing these boys who were innocently doing the sort of thing that boys do at that age - exploring and enjoying the outdoors. A memorial has been erected in their memory.

Each of these events have happened during very different centuries, but the walls of this church contains all of these memories - many happy while others more happy - such as the marriages of both my cousins Elizabeth and Susannah.

Ursula and a few of the women in the congregation have been making kneelers for the church. They fill the church with colour, vibrancy and the opportunity to remember events in the lives of the members of the congregation. Ursula made the first two cushions for my cousin Lizzy's marriage to William. She used the picture of a lily from one of the stained glass windows as her motive. It took her two months to complete them both.





There is the cushion marking Ursula's marriage to my uncle John - which has a peacock and orange flowers. Ursula uses this cushion each week. There are also cushions made for Susannah and Alex and for each of her six grand daughters.





The service was very simple but a meaningful time of remembering to give thanks to God for the provision of food in the crops that are harvested, and the animals who are raised. It was wonderful to come out to a day filled with sunshine and vibrancy.

We returned to Dove Cottage for a delicious lunch of roast lamb and apple and blackberry pie which we ate sitting out in the garden. Keith and I take full credit for bringing this spate of wonderful weather. After a wet summer, they were relishing the opportunity to be outside and making the most of the sunshine.





It was a wonderful day spent with family who I have enjoyed meeting and getting to know a little. Susannah and her husband Alex are delightful - as are their girls. We had fun over lunch sharing jokes - Sophia at five has a wonderful sense of humour while Florence reminds me of myself - she doesn't always get the joke and needs to have it explained. My family often accuse me of being exceedingly dense. It was great to have so many conversations with Ursula and find out all sorts of things about my family and her life.