On the edge
Last weekend I pulled up and photographed a building I’d been meaning to post for a while, the Mission Room on the edge of the common at Coombe Green in Worcestershire. It seemed to me as I looked at it that I’d better share it with you soon. Many of these “tin churches” are disappearing, and when I see one that’s not in pristine condition, I wonder whether it, too, will be pulled down to make way for something else.
According to a notice in the window, this corrugated-iron church was licensed for worship in 1904. As I looked at it, I wondered whether the original builders thought that it would last more than a hundred years. It’s actually quite a complex building for a tin church – many consist simply of four sides and a roof, perhaps with the addition of a small porch. This one has what looks like a separate chancel, just visible to the left, plus a transept-like extension also on the left, the little store room on the right, and the long porch, its roof held up with a row of rugged tree trunks, that runs along the front. There’s a even a bell turret with a tiny spire-like roof.
These churches were often bought as prefabricated buildings from big suppliers, but this one, with its tree-trunk supports, might be custom-made. That porch gives the building an individual, frontier-town character, something that’s in keeping with this part of Worcestershire – not far away is a house made partly from an old railway carriage and a common with a number of scattered houses, probably put up by their original owners to take advantage of the old law that said that if you could build a house in a single night on a piece of unoccupied land, you gained the right to stay there. Rugged individualism indeed.
I love this chapel, my sister lives near here in Hollybush. Do you know the cottage down Birt Street? It's made from 2 railway carriages. A lovely area. There is a tree at Whiteleaved Oak that is very popular It's covered in little trinkets. My sister's inlaws have been farming there since the 40's. It all belongs to the Eastnor Estate.
ReplyDeleteI have an image of the same chapel on my flickr stream under pinkrust.
Jane: Thank you for your comment. Yes, I know the cottage you mean in Birts Street; and I often drive through Hollybush. It's an area I like a lot. I don't know the tree – must look out for that.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to look at the tree and I'm sure you'd love the little village called White leaved Oak. It's just off the main road by another tin village hall in Hollybush. Check out the notice board, it used to be full of humour. There are some wonderful cottages. Then you need to ask someone in the village to walk through the right gate to the tree through fields. There used to be a very old unmodernised cottage in the village, alas it was recently sold and I imagine with a big drive or some such. Chase End is along within walking distance. A track to the hills. Have fun! I have an image on my FLICKR under pink.rust 8 and then under pink heading.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jane. Next time I'm around that way, I'll check the place out. It looks lovely from the images I found on the web.
ReplyDeleteThis looks it could be here in Northern Cali, perhaps amongst the dairies up Petaluma way. Did not know about scattered houses, thanks.
ReplyDeleteVinogirl: I know what you mean. That porch gives it a rather North American look.
ReplyDeleteNot only in the US, we have many buildings like this in Australia and New Zealand as well - as you might expect for countries that were practically built from corrugated iron.
ReplyDeleteMichael: Yes. In the old empire days some of these buildings were even sent from Britain in prefabricated form to countries under British rule.
ReplyDeleteOoh, you knew I'd like this. The fabric of it and your photograph has a slightly surreal aspect to it. I keep thinking it's well-weathered construction for a model railway.
ReplyDeletePeter: Indeed, there is something surreal about it. I wonder whether it has been gradually extended over the years with the addition of the various sticking-out bits, or whether it has always been like this.
ReplyDeleteThis suddenly brought back memories, circa 1959, of house-hunting with my parents near Kinver, and finding some delightful wooden, etc, houses with verandas and long gardens going down to a stream. Apparently they were built in an unofficial way n somebody else's land by squatters - which is why we didn't buy one - and there used to be quite a few on Severn-side and places in Worcestershire. This tin chapel could have been their parish church!
ReplyDeleteJames: Yes, I know some of the Severnside wooden and corrugated iron houses – although there are not so many now as there used to be. I did a post about some of them a couple of years ago:
ReplyDeletehttp://englishbuildings.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/bewdley-worcestershire.html