#Lockdown Pilgrimage - Sunday before Lent



The pavements are a skating rink this morning. If we were walking to church, it had to be St. Peter's, Belaugh across the frozen meadows and into the face of a bitter wind. Not the snow here that there was in 1947!  Noel Chambers, organist, late of this parish,  was apt to tell all and sundry of snow drifts up to his armpits as he struggled through to play at St. Peter's in that hard winter. 


With  population of 134 in 2011 Census, Belaugh was never a large parish. None-the-less, it is rich agricultural land as the large Rectory, with lawns running down to the river, suggests.

Belaugh, Old Rectory is the cream building below the church

In 1947 it still had its own rector! Now it belongs in a group with 5 others. The church architecture gives some further  clues about the history. Those are a 15th Century tower and windows, but the ghost of something older can be seen a the blocked up 12th century lancet window.

Time moves on. No regular services nor congregation here now,  not even outside lockdown! One wonders what the future of places like this will be. That's something to ponder as we look back and look towards the future.



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