Holy Trinity Church, Ashford-in-the-Water

The rather delightfully named Ashford-in-the-Water is a pretty Derbyshire village, sitting by the River Wye. My associate and I were seeking sustenance and were disappointed to arrive too late at the Bull’s Head, repairing instead to the Ashford Arms, a pleasant, though expensive purveyor of good food. Inevitably, I insisted on inspecting the parish church enroute.

Much of the internals, not unusually, were Victorian lamb dressed as medieval mutton, but the tower appeared to be Norman, the font eighteenth-century, and the pulpit largely seventeenth. Curiously, one may just perceive a dragon’s tail disappearing into the font’s base, the head emerging from the other side. Sadly, the photograph of the head was too blurred to use, but it may be just glimpsed here. I suspect that this was a reference to the Great Dragon of Revelation, whose activities were thought to be hindered by the font’s sacramental waters. That, or an artistic reference to the great lizards which might have still haunted those remote Derbyshire hills and dales.

The vintage of the font and pulpit (representing joining the church and the preaching of God’s word thereafter) struck me as apt. No matter how modern, funky, upbeat, quirky or unusual a church, if it functions as Christ’s body and faithfully preaches God’s word, then the rest can be forgiven and tolerated. Whatever else a church gets up to, evangelism among the lost and building up the saints with instruction from God's word must be foremost.

For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2