Friday, 10 April 2020

Pictures from a backroom, on a moment of self-isolation ..... a church with no roof, and a hill that isn’t a hill

"Here's a drawing Bari did from our sitting room window looking at old St Nicholas Church on the hill. 



It has ancient roots, but the first archaeological finds are from just after the conquest - it was supposedly built about 1080 on the site of a Saxon church, and before that there was a Roman temple. 

It's roof kept falling in so eventually it was taken off altogether and services were held at a new church in the village, but this one remains consecrated. 

Uphill by the way is not because of the hill but because of the nearby pill or wharf, which was "owned" by a Saxon lord Oppa - so it was Oppa's pill! 

The hill is right at the end of the Mendips and overlooks the Bristol Channel!"*

Location; Uphill

Picture; old St Nicholas Church, 2020, Bari Sparshot

*Lois Elsden, https://loiselsden.com/

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