"It’s so hard to see from the road"

Sunday afternoon I went to look round another of the county’s villages. This one was on top of the internal cliff, close to the county town. The settlement grew up in the mid-nineteenth century around a massive Paupers’ Lunatic Asylum.



Above: the internal cliff, which runs for miles through the centre of the county. In places it is almost sheer, but here the ascent, although very steep, is not impassable. You can see to the left of the photo the path that led up from the “old” village to the “new” one that formed around the asylum (if you click to enlarge the picture you can follow the path up to the top). The path was especially difficult in winter. Eventually the people on the top of the cliff got tired of going up and down this path to school, church, shops etc and petitioned for a new parish to be formed. This is a late example of the “internal colonisation” which is such a marked feature of the county’s history (new villages being formed from old ones).



Above: the Paupers’ Lunatic Asylum closed in 1990 and is now being converted into flats (houses have already been built in the grounds). As you can see, the building was in a Palladian style, described by Pevsner as “grim”. I took this photograph from my car, in a torrential downpour of rain, so possibly the building looks grimmer than it usually does.



Above: the new village consisted of rows of small terraces to house the people who worked at the asylum. Semis were added in the inter-war period. A church was built in 1908 (described by Pevsner as “cheap red-brick with a spiky bell turret”).



Above: it was the church’s centenary, and a weekend “festival” was being held.



Above: inside there was an exhibition about the history of the church, the Church of England School, and the village. It had been organised by a retired school librarian, who showed me round. She had also written an impressive booklet to go with the exhibition.



Above: the interior of the church, with the organist on the left. The sacraments of the Church of England (Communion, Baptism, Wedding etc) had been illustrated in flower displays. “That’s my wedding dress” the retired librarian told me, pointing to the display in the corner (it looked almost new, although it must have been at least forty years old – how long do people keep their wedding dresses?).



Above: this display illustrates Holy Communion (the bread and wine).



Above: an interesting feature was this ornate cupboard, almost certainly an aumbry where the Blessed Sacrament would be kept (aumbrys are rare in Church of England establishments).



Above: after the tour I had a cup of tea in the annex and talked to everyone about the village:

“There is not a church round here to compare for fellowship – whenever someone is ill they are visited and looked after…”

“We are middle-of-the-road to low, although some of us would like it to be higher…”

“You wouldn’t think the church was here, it’s so hard to see from the road – someone had to ask me where it was…”

“We really need a new hall, the existing one isn’t suitable to prepare food in…” (this was the Scout’s Hall at the back).

“Over a thousand people were in the asylum. It had it’s own chapel, but it’s completely derelict now. There’s talk of turning it into a kindergarten.”

“Do you think it’s a bit rude to get the vacuum out?” (everything was kept absolutely clean and tidy).