Aldham

SS Margaret and Catherine was, unfortunately, locked with no hint of a keyholder advertised so all I could do was an external but it's a gem of a building and well worth a visit. After trying to visit many churches which turned out to be locked with no keyholder advertised (I should say at this point that I've visited many more locked churches which list several keyholders than those that don't) I fired off the following to Lambeth Palace:

Dear Bish

I'm currently trying to record your/our churches in Uttlesford both inside and out but am confounded by many which are locked without keyholders - why are we not allowed to view our heritage?

What p***** me off is the illogical pattern through the district - Hempstead open, Radwinter locked with no keyholder, Wimbish open at weekends, Steeple Bumpstead locked no keyholder, Helions Bumpstead open! I can list more throughout the county, and Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, which are locked without keyholders listed - can you explain why a national resource is locked away - other than for fear of theft (which threat applies equally to open churches).

In almost every Church Visitor Book I've signed and seen there's been a comment along the lines of "Thank you for being open", I've seen an entry that decided a young girl against an abortion, I've seen people returning to celebrate their marriages but being unable to return to another Church for a Christening.

I know,in this day and age, its hard but I expect to be able to contact a keyholder for all our churches.

David

Re-reading it I cringe a bit but at the time I'd just completed a large circuit and come across many bolted churches and was tired and angry. Despite my intemperate tone I got a thoroughly tempered reply:

Dear Mr ******* - Thank you for your message. It highlights a serious dilemma facing churches today. There is a natural wish on the part of clergy for their churches to be open and available at all times. Sadly however, as you realise, to leave them open exposes them to vandalism and theft. The freehold of the church is vested in the incumbent of the parish, who is the custodian of the keys. The only people who have a legal right of free access to the building are the churchwardens for the performance of their duties.

We have to remember that we today are merely custodians of the thousands of churches up and down the country. They were built, decorated and endowed by our forebears for the glory of God. They are not ours absolutely. Rather we have a residual responsibility to those who bequeathed them to our trust. Furthermore our churches are part of the heritage that belongs to the whole nation, churchgoer and non-churchgoer alike. We should be failing in our duty to our forebears and our nation if the buildings in our care were they knowingly exposed to damage and theft. Many people would be outraged at the church permitting such sacrilege and destruction of their heritage (even though of course, if a church is locked the heritage is as good as stolen, being denied to those who wish to enjoy it!).

In many parishes the problem is overcome by arranging a rota of people willing to sit for an hour or so at a time in a church. The presence of someone in the building is the best deterrent to vandals. Though it has to be remembered that an elderly unaccompanied person could be at risk from assault and some thieves are not easily deterred. Other solutions require expensive electronic surveillance equipment that can only be afforded by a small number of parishes – and this of course does not prevent theft or vandalism; it simply makes detection easier.

In most other places where a church is locked, a notice is displayed explaining where the key may be had by those wishing to get inside. This arrangement of course depends on the co-operation of a neighbour who may or may not be in when a visitor calls. It is not therefore a fail-safe solution. Where all these solutions are impractical then, very sadly, a church must sometimes remain locked. That is a matter of deep regret. Almost certainly however, a priest will ensure a building is open by prior arrangement for a visitor. That does require however a bit of forward planning.

My response was:

Dear Andrew

This is a very irritating reply due to the fact that it's utterly reasonable and totally irrefutable and leaves me high and dry - but I'll try!

The keynote to me is: if a church is locked the heritage is as good as stolen, being denied to those who wish to enjoy it!

I realise that not all parish churches can be open all the time, particularly in the remote ones, but when one comes across padlocked churches (Earles Colne for example) in the middle of a busy town or village one has to wonder what message the Church is sending to it's presumed congregation and, on the other hand, when Albury, lost in the depths of Hertfordshire, is open - where I could have nicked anything including the roof lead and the Spire - to me, it's a no brainer you open the Church.

As to Vandalism and Theft - locking them, as a quick Google search seems to show, makes little or no difference.

My main point was about your incumbents who don't even offer keyholders, why can I walk into Thaxted, Much Hadham, Thorley, Lindsell, Standon, Tilty but other Churches are locked without a hint of a keeper?

I replied at the end of March and haven't heard back as yet and assume that I won't hear anything more from Lambeth Palace on the subject. But as a practising Catholic who has lost his churches once, albeit a while ago, it still irks me when I come across one of our churches to which we have no access except when Mass is celebrated.

Actually having re-read the last para what really irks me is that a church like Chickney which is seriously isolated and therefore, one assumes, more vulnerable to vandalism and theft is always (when I've visited) open but a large, and interesting, church in the middle of Earls Colne - which I would describe as a town - is not only locked but padlocked with no indication as to how to gain access.

Perhaps, with reflection, this says more about society and town living than it does about the CoE; however given the obvious spiritual relief that churches give to even the most disbelieving (or so I believe - the architecture alone uplifts you let alone the dedication that went in to the creation of most of the buildings) it seems shameful to allow no access to some churches or for that matter to charge to enter others but that's another issue which will lead me onto an entirely different rant - so I wont go there.

ST MARGARET. 1855 by Hakewill, with the materials of the old church, but very Victorian in the picturesque grouping, specially from the outside, and the wild overdoing of flint as the surfacing material. Even the walls of the porch look all cobbled. The porch otherwise, that is in its timber-work, is the only medieval piece. It is of the C!4 with ogee-traceried side panels and a heavily bargeboarded gable. The bargeboarding also ends in an ogee arch. - DOOR to the tower with symmetrically arranged C13 iron scrolls.

Having been advised that keyholders are now listed I revisited last Saturday (29/03/14) and borrowed the key - the keyholder expressed genuine astonishment that I'd previously not found a keyholder notice since keys had been available for ages (perhaps post 2010 or perhaps, to be more generous, the notice was lost when I first visited). Anyway it's now accessible but to be honest, and as to be expected for a new build, it's really rather dull inside with little of interest. BUT it is accessible which, as usual, earns it a bonus point.

Arthur Mee says:

Aldham. Its houses and its church have parted company. The 16th century houses are still by the road but the church was moved about a hundred years ago, stone by stone, to a quieter spot near a thatched barn. They gave it a new graceful spire in moving it, but most of the church was 600 years old when taken to its new address. It has a beautifully carved timber porch of the 14th century. Time has been kind to the lovely ironwork on the door of the tower, for it has come down from 13th century days, when the famous Thomas of Leighton was shaping his wonderful iron grille over Queen Eleanor's tomb in Westminster Abbey.

On the site of the old church is the tomb of Philip Morant, rector from 1745 to 1770, to whom all who love Essex owe much. By the influence of his son-in-law, Keeper of the Tower Records, he was made editor of the first records of Parliament, covering the period from 1278 to 1413, but his chief title to fame is the History of Essex.

Simon K.