CHURCHCRAWLING PHOTOGRAPHS
A Churchcrawler's Photograph Album from travels between 2020 and 2024.
Thank you for taking a look at this website; a churchcrawler's album of photographs of our ancient and beautiful parish churches, taken between 2020 and 2024. This will start with several forays north in to Derbyshire and a solitary trip in to Oxfordshire just before the first national covid lockdown. Several of the churches visited were seen between national lockdowns and mention will be made at times of how the churches were coping during challenging times, which I hope will make an interesting photographic record.
There were several trips in to Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Lincolnshire as the country re-opened from restrictions and I am completing this site with a trip in to Suffolk in the spring of 2024.
The churches are arranged in counties, with the columns in chronological order
This is by no means all of the places that I visited in this period but I have picked out some of the more interesting churches visited and I hope that you find the site of interest.
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Best wishes, Robin
Site Owner.
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Photographs on this page. Top line left to right, church open at Aunsby, Lincs; East stoke, Notts and sunset at Grimston, Norfolk. Below that on the right, monument at Burford, Oxfordshire. Immediately above, the exquisite church at Sutterby, Lincs and winter daylight fading fast at Swineshead, Bedfordshire. Below left, winter wonderland at Carsington, Derbyshire; below centre, gravestone symbolism at Newtown Linford, Leicestershire. Below right, the crucifixion at South Creake, Norfolk.
Below, a small selection of pandemicsigns seen during my travels. Left, wise words at Corby Glen, Lincolnshire. Centre, more wise words from Humby Chapel, Lincolnshire. Right, the politest sign ever at Swinsread, Lincolnshire.
MY OTHER SITE...
Please click on the photograp on the right, to be directed to my other church photography site; this one looking at the village churches around Peterborough. This new page will open in another window.
MY STORY...
Firstly, for those who are not familiar with the term; what is a churchcrawler? Well, this is someone who visits lots of churches, to photograph them, to enjoy the history of them, and for many to enjoy the peace and calm inside these lovely buildings.
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Some churchcrawler are also Christian, but many will just visit these churches as historic buildings rather than simply houses of God.
I first started off this hobby back in 2006, as an aid to help fight depression. I had been with my father through a very long fight with illness. After his death, I was struggling with life in general. A friend suggested that it might be an idea to take long walks just to give me something to do and somewhere to go. I did, and on one Friday afternoon in September 2006 I ended up at the church of St Kyneburgha, Castor, near to Peterborough. A few days previous to that, I had been with a friend in the Cotswolds, looking around a few churches after a football match; I needed peace in my life and these churches provided some!
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The church at Castor was open and I went inside; just sitting and enjoying the near silence; just a solitary bird singing away in the distance. I enjoyed the experience very much and decided to buy a cycle, and travel to churches within a ten miles circle of Peterborough. Well, the ten miles soon became twenty and the circle became a dodecahedron and suddenly things were out of control.​
This hobby has become an important part of my life. I came to faith during the course of my travels; and I now travel to enjoy the churches both architecturally and spiritually. Travelling also still helps me mentally; somewhere to go, something to see; which has been of particular benefit this year when life has been so challenging.​
I have set up a couple of websites over the years, detailing some of the churches that I have visited. The idea for this website, travelling where possible during the pandemic seems a logical thing for me to do. I hope that you find it of interest.
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Thanking you again for your interest.
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Very best wishes
Robin Peel,
Peterborough​