Exploring the stories and oddities of our churches

Sally Rieder is in print with a book she never expected to write.

The Charms of Kirks and Quirks (New Generation Publishing, ISBN 978-1-83563-944-3, £13.50) is available from the Chichester branch of Waterstones; The Crow Road, Arundel; and One Tree Books in Petersfield. It can be ordered from any bookshop.

“I never planned to write a book at all, let alone one about churches,” says Sally, who lives in Chichester.

“Kirks and Quirks, initially an accumulation of notes jotted down, grew like Topsy over more than twenty years. My starting point was the curiosity to explore the country where I was born yet was unfamiliar to me after living overseas for many years.

“Possibly because I had once told him the essay competition I won as a schoolgirl was On Graveyards – no idea why that subject – my son gave me a copy of England’s Thousand Best Churches by Simon Jenkins.

“This languished on my bookshelf for a couple of years until I took it with me on a walking week in Somerset. The intention was to first visit churches Jenkins rated with five stars.

“Instead, I found myself drawn to those with one or no stars at all. One thing led to another: seeking small, rural, mostly medieval churches and chapels was the start of church crawling all over England, Wales and Scotland, along lanes and through gorgeous countryside I would not have come across otherwise.

“Some are on the periphery of a village but many are isolated, alone in a field or tucked away down a narrow track, all that is left of the communities they once served.

“I loved all the stories and oddities I came across. Every now and then something else of interest caught my attention, had to be investigated: from rock cottages to columbarium, a medieval white rabbit to wild cattle, paper bonnets to sin-eaters, hermit’s castle to dwarfie stane, it’s a book asking to be read so not to miss the extraneous information.

“For the legion of church crawlers, this is an informative and fun read.

“Living in Sussex you don’t have to go far to visit the enchanting Downland Churches: nearby the Test valley in Hampshire and Romney marshes of Kent abound with small churches. Local to Chichester is St Michael’s, Up Marden and on the way to Petworth; St Mary the Virgin, Upwaltham overlooks the road; travel a little further east you’ll find the enchanting Church of the Good Shepherd, Lullington perched high above Alfriston.

“Hampshire offers many small churches in the Test valley. Norman Thelwell’s amusing headstone is by the entrance to St Andrew’s, Timsbury. Further afield the stunning Anzac memorial at St Nicholas, Brockenhurst; in Selborne stained glass windows commemorate Gilbert White.

“The reader will be introduced to the only lectern supported by a plump turkey; the only two ossuaries in the country; to hunky-punks in Somerset, huge upside-down church bells housed under cover next to a church in Suffolk; and so on.”

Sally admits: “Kirks and Quirks is not what I would call an organised book: there is no specific theme, nor are churches tidied alphabetically into counties. It also wanders off track so the curious reader will come across and learn about much else of interest. Chatting to a landlady or someone in a pub would often produce recommendations to visit somewhere interesting locally, not necessarily a church, which I usually followed up.

“Several chapters, including Sussex, Hampshire, Kent and Surrey, are county specific; the others cover crawls through several counties. The section on Wales is divided into five chapters whereas Scotland is covered in one.

“I do not see myself as an author. That said I have always written up my mostly solo travels to and around various countries from Patagonia to Madagascar, Easter Island to Mongolia and recently submitted my proposal to collate nineteen chapters as Where to Next, Grandma – Have Backpack, Will Travel. There are already so many travel books it’s unlikely such a book will see the light of day. No matter. I have a fun record of travel memories for myself and will eventually find someone to print a few copies for my grandchildren.”