Friday 13 December 2013

St. Mary's, Tintern





A cobbled path winds its way up a hill from the village of Tintern. It is covered in leaves and mud and the path seems to have been seldom used. As I walked up it a high stone wall appeared on my left, vegetation sprouting from the gaps between the stones.  At the end of the wall two old gates, rusted and left open led into an over grown graveyard.  I entered and spent a while looking up at the ruins of the Grade II listed Church of St Mary. The church is of medieval origin but was virtually re-built in 1886.  The life of the church as we see today would span less than a hundred years before it was made redundant and then  set on fire in 1977. History is sketchy to  how the church’s fate was sealed, was it accident or arson?  Indeed the history of this building is hard to discover at all! It is a romantic site, the graveyard,  largely left to nature  has a few paths cutting through it, which made  finding the best view-points easier, however, the morning dew that  lay on the ground soon soaked  through my shoes and penetrated to my socks. The location is beautiful ; perched on  a hill, the views look out down the valley, where just visible in the distance are the ruins of Tintern Abbey.

Walking up to the church door I took a closer look at the tower, which somehow had survived the fire of 1977. The roof remains although holes are visible. The walls of the tower have been resilient against the last 35 years of weather, Inside a different picture is painted. The walls are now largely covered in ivy and stones have fallen and now lie scattered on the ground. There are some signs of an attempt being made to cap off the walls many years previously.  The delicate stone window to the east of the building is chipped and looks weak. Saplings grow from between the tiles and nature is trying to reclaim the site.  An old cellar lies beneath part of the church, the floor long gone I trod carefully around the edge, not wanting to end up falling in. The church still boasts some  beautiful stone carvings.

I had made my visit at a good time of year as winter had stripped the lush green vegetation from the walls  making it easier to inspect its condition.  St Marys is a romantic ruin, one that I think should remain a ruin. But for it to remain at all, work must be done to stop it from being enveloped by nature.

-Tim James

Monday 9 December 2013

Organised Kaos Youth Circus- Cwmamman Church Hall

The Cwmamman Church Hall was in operation during the 19th century and fell out of operation, into a dire state of disrepair. Luckily it was remembered by Nicola Hemsley, the Director of Organised Kaos, a local circus company. Nicola has fond memories of the Church Hall as it was the first stage that she performed on, it was because of this that she decided to take on this building as her company's permanent venue. Bringing the circus to an area which has a lack of resources and saving the building for the community, good for her!

She found the place lacking foundations and discovered that the heat had caused the floor to collapse! Following their agreement on a long lease of 25 years in August 2011, work began to secure the funding needed and plan a hectic restoration project. It has been a labour of love and at present, phases 1-3 are complete; this is including the porch, the kitchen and toilets and she is ideally looking at a Summer completion, lets hope it all goes to plan!


Click here to see more information on Organised Kaos and the project: www.organisedkaos.org.uk