St Peter’s Church, Filkins
St Peter’s Church in Filkins is only 150 years old this year, a mere stripling compared with its venerable namesake in Broughton Poggs. The occasion is to be celebrated in a number of special events throughout the year. Watch this space.
Although many people, residents and visitors alike, drive or stroll by regularly without stopping or coming in, they all instinctively feel that the church belongs. We notice it. It is perhaps one of those things which we take for granted. Its presence is not specially remarked upon every time we pass, but its absence certainly would be. It is almost impossible to imagine an English village without a parish church at its heart.
This new section of the Filkins and Broughton Poggs village website has been created as a forum dedicated to church and community affairs – news, views and ideas, as the strapline has it – with a focus just on this small, local part of Broadshire and Shill Valley. It is different from the more widely circulated parish magazine but we hope it will complement it.
Please send us your contributions, thoughts and comments on church- and chapel-related subjects, either direct to the webmaster or via the churchwardens of members of the PCC. This is not a “blog” but it is another channel of communication between us all in a busy world where we seem to have less and less time to stop and talk to each other.
Although, of course, we do not propose to make a habit of encouraging controversy without good reason, from time to time issues on which a lively debate within the community as a whole might be regarded as healthy and helpful will crop up.
One of these could be the question of the old wrought-iron spike-topped railings along the south side of St Peter’s Churchyard in Filkins. They are currently in a sad state of repair, and the church and civil authorities have been discussing amongst themselves the pros and cons of trying to mend them, restore them or replace them.
Below are some recently taken photographs to illustrate the point that the matter might possibly be of interest to everyone, not just the ecclesiastical and secular (planners, conservationists, etc) organisations most immediately concerned..
But please don’t rely only on a few snapshots to inform your opinion. Stroll down to the church and have a look for yourselves. Take a view on what should be done, and let us know about it !
