Posted: 17 Sep 2012 04:47 PM PDT

Been wanting to take some inside pics of a church since forever! and this one has always appealed to me for some reason...

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St Bartholomew's Church in Tong is Grade I Listed, but one of its most appealing features is a fake grave to the fictional character, Little Nell.

BBC - Verger in Tong faked grave of Dickens' Little Nell

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The village is remarkable mainly for its church, St Bartholomews, outside of which is the supposed grave of Little Nell, a fictional character in Charles Dickens book, The Old Curiosity Shop. It is thought that Charles Dickens visited Tong church when his grandmother worked at Tong Castle (demolished in 1954) that stood to the south. Its site is now occupied by the M54 motorway.

The 'grave' is thought to have come about because Charles Dickens' novel was serialised and shipped over to America, and as a result, Americans began coming over to England to visit scenes featured in the book. The tourists recognised the references to Tong church from the book and came to view the supposed 'grave', which of course was not there.

However, a verger and village postmaster, George H Bowden (16 August 1856 - May 1943) apparently asked local people to pay for a headstone, forged an entry in the church register of burials (apparently the giveaway was that he used post office ink to do this), and charged people to see the 'grave'. The headstone has been moved from time to time to make way for genuine graves.

A particularly notable feature of St. Bartholomew's is the collection of memorials to the Vernon family and other proprietors of the Tong estate inside the church. St. Bartholomew's was chosen by Simon Jenkins of The Times in 1999 as one of the best 1,000 churches (out of 15,000) in England. He awarded the church, which was mostly rebuilt in 1409, three stars out of a possible five. He refers to the collection of village tombs, the masterpiece of which being that of Richard Vernon, who died in 1451.

Tong, Shropshire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Church of St Bartholomew - Tong - Shropshire - England | British Listed Buildings

Tong Church and College (Part 2)

ROF Featherstone

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 01:14 PM PDT

Sept 2012

Thought I'd see how the old girl was doing....(sorry! bit pic heavy)

evidence of stuff collected together and put to one side for recycling purposes (or maybe in some cases other nefarious reasons...)

>>>>>>wibbly wobbly video alert

;)

Hawkestone park, Shropshire

Posted: 17 Sep 2012 11:39 AM PDT

Been meaning to return and take some pics of this for ages....

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Hawkstone Park Follies is an historic landscape park with pleasure grounds and gardens formerly belonging to Hawkstone Hall, near to Market Drayton, in Shropshire, England, UK, one mile (1.6 km) east of the A49 road.

Today the park consists of 100 acres (40 ha) of follies and landscaped parkland grounds and rocky outcrops, based around the authentic Norman castle of Red Castle.

The Hawkstone house was established by Richard Hill of Hawkstone (1655–1727), also known as 'The Great Hill', circa 1707, whilst the follies, estate and reputation were mainly established by his nephew and heir Sir Rowland Hill, 1st Baronet Hill of Hawkstone (1705–1783) and Sir Richard Hill, 2nd Baronet (1733–1808) in the 18th century.

The park then fell foul of a century of neglect and decay until an ongoing programme of restoration was started in 1990, enabling it to be re-opened in 1993. It is now scheduled as Grade-1 listed on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. It takes a 2.5 hour hiking tour to completely see each folly and their landscapes (a reasonable level of physical fitness and mobility is required and there are many steps, ascents and descents). At some times of the year, not all site trails are accessible.

Attractions include a red brick tower, once lime washed and still called the White Tower, the Monument standing over 100 ft high commemorating Sir Rowland Hill who was the first Protestant Mayor of London, the Cleft which is spanned by the Swiss Bridge, the Grotto which may have originated as a 5th century copper mine and the Arch atop of Grotto Hill, plus various caves, tunnels through the rock, walkways, viewpoints and trails winding through Rhododendron plantations.

The Park was used to represent parts of Narnia in the BBC's TV adaptation of C. S. Lewis's books for the battlegrounds in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 1988 and Prince Caspian a year later.

Hawkstone Park - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia