A rather ordinary-looking privet bush which grows at the chapel was briefly remarkable the other week. Its plain white flowers, which would not normally attract attention, were alive with bees and butterflies. Whatever they lack to our eye they compensate in nectar if the flying insect community is anything to go by.
Perhaps it was the grey skies and the autumnal detritus from the trees which were littering the lawns. Or was it the grim shutters over the windows and the peeling paint? Or the rather functional seventies or eighties architecture? The church building just did not match the incongruous name: Fountain of Hope Church.
I called at the Louwman Museum in South Holland last week. It was not cheap at 20 Euros, and I had only an hour or so to spare, but I am pleased that I went. The rather stylish building houses hundreds of vintage and unusual cars; its strapline is ‘Fine Art on Wheels’. I was keen to see its Rolls Royce Silver Ghost which was officially designated the 1913 Best Car in the World, below:
The ‘new’ church of Holy Trinity, Barnoldswick, was consecrated in 1960 by Dr Donald Coggan, Bishop of Bradford, and future Archbishop of Canterbury. It had previously enjoyed a tower, but was replaced on account of structural problems, getting instead a small but distinctive copper spire.
Oude Kerk at Scheveningen, translated Old Church, is a well-appointed, fifteenth-century construction in one of The Hague’s northern districts close to the sea. Its belltower gives the pleasantly light, melodic ring for which the Low Countries’ churches are famous. At the year’s start, a new bell was hung in the tower by the Royal Eijsbouts bell foundry. Upon it is written, in Dutch:
01282 540 562
pastor @ martintop. org .uk
Salem Chapel, Martin Top
near Rimington, Clitheroe BB7 4EG
Salem Congregational Chapel is a registered charity No. 252401 (England & Wales)
Sunday Worship 10.45am & 6.00pm