St John the Evangelist's Church, Crawshawbooth - December 2015

Opening in 1892 this rather large church closed in 2012 following a fall in the congregation and a series of lead thefts which left an estimated repair bill of £500,000. The church sits covered in a thick yellow/orange dust with roof damage slowly eating away at this Grade II listed building.

The building was listed on The Victorian Society Top 10 Endangered List  in 2013 and is also listed by English Heritage as At Risk with a condition of Very Bad.



Visited with ZerO81 and Judderman, Tbolt having wandered in the day before. This wonderful church had been on our radar for a while and it would seem to be now firmly placed on the tourist trail.





















Its a very long and very narrow walk up the to the bell tower, one your not going to forget in a hurry as when do finally get up to the top there is very little to see other than a roof in a shocking state of repair, lots of pigeon shit and then you have to come down again.





So if an extremely dusty, darkened church is your thing then its a 9/10 otherwise your looking at a 5 or possibly a 4.

Merry Christmas folks, see you all in the New Year.





Follow @fragglehunter

St Mary's Chapel, Lead, Yorkshire - November 2015

On my ongoing search for wonderful village churches we stumble into Yorkshire for a most excellent bit of roadside spotting, well I say roadside - this one is in the middle of a field.

St Mary's Chapel is Grade II listed and dates back to the 14th century, thought to be a chapel for a long gone medieval manor house, the chapel that remains is only 18 feet in length.

Restored between 1931 and 1934, the chapel is now maintained by the Churches Conservation Trust.














Follow @fragglehunter

Loxley Methodist Church, Sheffield - July 2015

Visited with ZerO81 on route from Sheffield .

Another church, Grade II listed, sitting rotting away. Built in 1787 and finally closing in 1993, the graveyard holds the graves of 240 victims of the 1864 Great Sheffield Flood - but the graves are mostly enveloped in brambles, nettles and giant hogweed.

I got very bored, very, very quickly here - I didn't take much delight at photographing a small rural church that was being left to be wrecked by the vandals.

Anyway a few pictures

Bit sad really and given its location I'm a bit surprised at some of the vandalism.

Any down to the scores on the doors, hmmmm....... a 2/10 me thinks.

Follow @fragglehunter

St Helens Church, Biscathorpe - April 2015

More churches I can hear you shout, so down to Lincolnshire we go for an abandoned church.

I was in the area and this little gem is just round the corner from RAF Stenigot, you just have to find it, tucked away in the trees of a farmers field out of eyes sight.

This Grade II Gothic style church was built in 1847 and seems to have closed its doors to worship around 1970.







The grass looks trimmed, but sadly the church itself has fallen into disrepair and does show signs of minor vandalism and general slow decay.

Sadly locked these days, a view from a broken window.

 



 











A cracking little gem of a church Gromit !



Follow @fragglehunter

St Mary's Church, Staveley, Cumbria - April 2015

I might just post some church stuff more often, I'm not the bible bashing kind of chap, but you can't beat a good little church every now and again.

Either the spooky Scooby Doo type or that quiet church yard with the only noise being the birds chattering.

Churchs, hmmmm, I know what, back road Churches - the ones you don't know you have driven past or perhaps the forgotten churches no body goes to.

So lets start with this little gem, I was passing the other week and sits hiding just off the A590 at Newby Bridge in a very quiet spot.

A church was present on the site from around 1618, and was repaired in 1678. The south and the tower date from 1793.

 



I won't bore you with fancy terms, that and I don't know my gargoyle from my grotesque, but I rather liked this beautiful little church.

A Closed Synagogue - March 2014

Visited with Judderman and ZerO81 - a planned day out for weeks, should add that this was a very, very late Plan B.

So Plan B, Plan A having suffered a fire the day before - fire and pillage (and the Daily Mail) are currently pissing me off.

I'm not a fan of religion, but the buildings are always worth a look.

So we popped down the motorway, as you do, to this lovely little tourist resort of a disused synagogue which closed a good few years back and now sits fighting the elements.

 

 

The place had been leaking left right and centre, wooden floors lifting.

 

 

Time for some close up stuff, having remembered to bring my overly expensive macro lens that I never use.











Given the number of photographers visiting this place, things move around - such as the wheelchair, which moved at least 4 times during my brief visit.

 








Into the main hall

 







 



And finally a bit of Nigella in the caretaker's room.



Something a little special this one, a bit of tourist spot but a gem of a place.