St Thomas Becket Fairfield Church

St Thomas Becket Church

Today i visited the Church of St Thomas Becket, Fairfield, in Kent. This is a tiny church in a beautiful but slightly strange setting: down an unsignposted country lane, in the middle of a field in Romney Marsh, surrounded by sheep, and miles from anywhere. To gain access, I had to park on the lane, find the key hanging by the back door of a nearby farmhouse, and then cross the marsh by a footpath, past grazing sheep 

At the back of the church is a poem by Joan Warburg, published in Country Life in 1966. This captures the spirit of the place perfectly (and also refers to the floods in November 1960, when the church was, like Piglet, “Completely Surrounded by Water

St Thomas Becket, Fairfield

My parish is the lonely marsh,
My service at the water’s edge;
Wailing of sea-birds, sweet and harsh,

St Thomas Becket, Fairfield

The susurration of the sedge.
Bleating of a hundred sheep,
Where pilgrims and crusaders sleep.

I was too small a church to preach
The gospel to such mighty men;
I’d little Latin and could teach
But simple shepherds; now as then
I loved the frailest and the least,
Scattering words for bird and beast.

The humble hands that built me
Of solid wood and stone
To last throughout Eternity,

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Eight hundred years are gone:
Buried beneath the Kentish sod,
And I must intercede with God.

One winter as I watched alone
The whole marsh lay in flood,
Salt waters lapped against my stone
Leaving great waves of mud.
Strange creatures swam for sanctuary,
As ark-like I withstood that sea.

So still I guard the coast and look
Beyond the sea, across the Downs.
I that was writ in Domesday book,

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Have watched tall ships and towns
Spring up as flowers, and pass away
Within the fading of a day.

No-one comes to worship, yet
The feathery fronds of water weeds
Wave ghostly hands through grey sea fret:
The sedges and the singing reeds
Seem, as they supplicate and sway,
Murmorous spirits come to pray.

I am nothing but Thy house,

Empty stands the sacred porch;

Yet I can shelter shrew and mouse,

Light a glow-worm for Thy torch.            

From a spider’s tapestry

Weave a splendour fit for Three

HAVE A GREAT DAY 

PAULA C

would recommened 

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Rye, East Sussex

Rye, East Sussex

having a drink in the mermaid inn Rye East Sussex

Those historic roots and its charm make it a tourist destination, and much of its economy is based on that: there are a number of hotels, guest houses, B&Bs, tea rooms and restaurants, as well as other attractions, catering for the visitor. There is a small fishing fleet, and Rye Harbour has facilities for yachts and other vessels.

Mermaid Street is peppered with ancient buildings, with unusual names such as ‘The House Opposite’ or ‘The House with the Seat’.

Even the sea is a little wayward at times
The River Rother originally took an easterly course to flow into the sea near what is now New Romney. However, the violent storms in the 13th century (particularly in 1250 and 1287) cut the town off from the sea, destroyed Old Winchelsea and changed the course of the Rother. Then the sea and the river combined in about 1375 to destroy the eastern part of the town and ships began use the current area (the Strand) to unload their cargoes. Two years later the town was sacked and burnt by the French, and it was ordered that the town walls be completed,] as a defence against foreign raiders. it retreated from the town centuries ago, leaving Rye a stranded seaside town.

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Rye harbour nature reserve
Discover the wildlife in a mosaic of coastal habitats - shingle, saltmarsh, saline lagoons, coastal grazing marsh, freshwater gravel pits and reedbeds. Explore its changing coastline and military history, or simply enjoy a walk beside the sea.

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If  you still got plenty of energy left , why not walk the trackbed of The Rye and Camber Tramway which  was an English railway in East Sussex. It was of 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge, relatively unusual amongst British narrow gauge railways. It operated from 1895 until 1939, connecting Rye to the coast.

St Thomas Becket Fairfield Church
 Why not visit the  Church of St Thomas Becket, Fairfield , in Kent. This is a tiny church in a beautiful but slightly strange setting: down an unsignposted country lane, in the middle of a field in Romney Marsh, surrounded by sheep,