Who Lives in a House Like This?

 My daughter asked me for some photographs showing our vegetable garden, preferably those from back in the days when it was at its' most productive - that means when we were younger and I had a less troublesome back!  Old photographs from an old camera, in the days when I used a real camera.  

I began trawling through the old discs, thousands of memories captured and held within that tiny rectangle of metal and plastic.  I found what she wanted, but I also came across other forgotten treasures.

Like this one.  

Then I came across a small cache of others and so the theme for this post was born.  

Forgive me as I indulge myself yet again...which could lead on to a whole other discussion, but that is for another day.

Whenever I visit a stately home, castle, or similar, it is the kitchens and lesser rooms which hold my interest.  I can briefly admire the grand rooms, the marvellous furniture, paintings, silverware and china collections, but it is the workings of the place which fully engage my attention.

So it is with churches.  

I can admire the grand cathedrals, the soaring columns, the skill of the old stonemasons.  It is the small country churches which I most enjoy and Lincolnshire has a wonderfully varied and beautiful heritage of small rural churches.  

The history attached to each of them is simply fascinating and the buildings themselves, whether they are tiny, but richly decorated, or large and exquisitely austere, are wonderful.

Old Welby is doing his best to wreck it, not just Lincolnshire, the whole country.  My feelings run deep on this man, enough said!

Not all churches have one, quite a number of Lincolnshire churches are simply too small, but it is the vestries which I enjoy viewing.  

This is a door I know well, because I occasionally help out as a Mrs Mop, along with a couple of church wardens.  Mops, dusters, polish and vacuum cleaners at the ready.

What I hadn't noticed until recently, was this locked box outside the vestry.  It looks just like a pew, totally unremarkable, until you notice the keyhole.   It is not grand/strong enough to hold anything special, but I must try to find out what is inside (I know, curiosity killed the cat)  of course the key may have been lost long ago and it may simply be  home to some happy little church mice.

The vestry is really a little chamber where church robes are hung.  These days they are usually dumping grounds for all manner of useful things.  Vases, watering cans, ladders, candles, Christmas trees, trestles...some still hold massive safes, usually left open to show that there is nothing worth stealing from them!

Tombola prizes, flower arranging equipment, teapots and toasting forks...

There is usually a small mirror of some sort tucked in among the brooms and dusters, polish and fly spray.  All the little things which are occasionally needed and are then forgotten until next time.

This is the rather grander doorway to the vestry in what was once a much larger church - mostly destroyed during the English Civil War.  In 1643 it was caught between royalist and parliamentarian troops.  Only the original south aisle remains.