Churches Of Britain and Ireland

Find even more churches on the new website http://www.churches-uk-ireland.org/.
This page is no longer being maintained.

Steve Bulman

The following pictures are of churches in unknown locations, or possibly of a named location, but there may be several places of that name. Can you identify the churches involved?

A photograph of a church, perhaps taken in Victoria's reign, possibly either in Flintshire (maybe near Mold or Buckley), or Cumberland (perhaps in the Maryport/Dovenby/Little Broughton area). © David Knowles.

Another un-posted card, this one provides no clues at all.

This Victorian silver box belonging to Peter Cameron has a church on the lid. Note the tower design. Can you name it?

A postcard view of a church and graveyard.

Another postcard view - a church with a distinctive spire, and possibly of flint - maybe East Anglia?

Church, West Midlands??. From an old postcard, Bulman Collection. A church with an unusual spire - and the sender has written this - "I daresay you recognize the old church, although they have omitted to print the name....". The addressee was in Birmingham, so possibly the church is in the Midlands. Although originally identified by Mel Shaw as St. Augustine in Dudley, the identification of this church is uncertain again, since John B. Davies believes that this church isn't St. Augustine, but perhaps is one of the non-conformist ones nearby. Does anyone have further thoughts?

Solved

Ashburton, Devon, St. Andrew. Identified by the indefatigable Janet Gimber from an old postcard with no identification clues.

Astley Church - postmarked Manchester. From an old postcard, Bulman Collection. Thanks to Alan Nixon for his probable identification of this as St. Stephen, Astley, Greater Manchester. It was burnt down 18th June 1961, and replaced by another nearby.

Barnham Church. No postmark. A close-up of the church. From an old postcard, Bulman Collection. Thanks to Noel Walley for identifying this as St. Mary the Virgin at Barnham in West Sussex.

Belvoir: An old postcard with the unhelpful title "Distant View Of Church". A close-up. The card has "Belvoir" hand-written in pencil on the back, but no other inscriptions or postmarks. Aidan Thomson has identified this as All Saints, Knipton. This photo confirms the identification.

Unknown church, probably in south Cumbria or North Yorkshire. © Peter Amsden. Thanks to Peter Marshall for identifying this as Crosby Garret in Cumbria, St. Andrew.

Leigh, Wesleyan Church. This old postcard is unused, so there is no indication of which of the several Leighs this might be. From an old postcard, Bulman Collection.  Thanks to Alan Nixon again for identifying this as the now demolished King Street Methodist Church in Leigh, Greater Manchester. The site was re-used for the Kingsleigh Methodist Church.

Lutton, St. Peter. Thanks to Nigel Brooks for identifying this as the Northamptonshire Lutton.

Maesteg, St. David. Thanks to Janet Gimber for positively identifying this church as being in Maesteg, on Talbot St. She is less than 100% certain of the dedication however. Can you confirm this is St, David's?. Heavily processed to produce a reasonable image, this postcard was posted in 1905. From the Bulman Collection.

Pennington Church - but which one of the several candidates? From an old postcard, Bulman Collection.
Although previously identified as the Pennington near Leigh in Greater Manchester, Andrew Ross has subsequently pointed out the similarity of construction to St. Mark's at Pennington near Lymington in Hampshire. Although taken from a different angle, I'm convinced that this identification is correct.

Ringstead(?) Church. The text on the postcard isn't clear, but Ringstead is probably right. As above, of the several candidates, which one is it? The postmark offers no help as it is unreadable. Many thanks to James Fielding for confirming that this is the Ringstead in Norfolk. The church is therefore St. Andrew. From an old postcard, Bulman Collection. Link.

Shirley Church. From the postmark (Birmingham), this is probably the Shirley neat Solihull, but can you identify it?
This has been identified (thanks to John Clements) as St. James the Great. There are some small differences between the postcard and the photo on the church website (see the tower pinnacles, for example), but there are enough similarities to make the identification certain. From an old postcard, Bulman Collection.

St. Margaret's Church. This has now been identified by Martha Appleberry as St. Margaret in Altrincham, Greater Manchester (Cheshire as was). From an old postcard, Bulman Collection. Link1. Link2.

Robin O'Neill was looking for help in identifying the location of the graveyard in this old photo. He knows a relative is buried there, but doesn't know the exact location. It might be somewhere near Kirkby Stephen or Brough in Cumbria, but might be in the larger area of Lancashire, Cumbria or Durham. This graveyard has been identified as the Methodist Cemetery at Hawes.

Where is St. German's church? The only clue is that the postcard was posted, possibly from Horsham, to an address in Petersfield. This distinctive church shouldn't be too difficult to place. Janet Gimber has pointed out that it's St. Germanus' church in St. Germans in Cornwall. From an old postcard (franked 1907), Bulman Collection.

This distinctive Irish Church shouldn't be too hard to place. The postcard title is "St. Patrick's Church, Donegal", but is this Donegal town? The postcard is unused. Thanks to Janet Gimber for confirming that it is indeed in Donegal town. From an old postcard, Bulman Collection.

Mike Dodd has an old family photograph of a church which he thinks may be in Cheshire, possibly near Winsford. Can you identify it? Aidan Thomson thinks that this is probably St. Chad at Over, near Winsford. This photo is indeed very similar, and I think this identification is almost certainly correct. Nigel Brooks has confirmed that it is indeed St. Chad, and provided this link.

This unused postcard is titled "Forest Church, Horsham" and hand-written on the back is "Sussex". There is a Horsham in the current county of West Sussex, but also ones in Worcestershire and in Norfolk. Can you identify this church, and give it a Saint? Janet Gimber has confirmed that this is indeed the one in West Sussex, but hadn't been able to find a dedication. Thanks to Janet, and to Dan Gregory for identifying it as St. John at Doomsday Green.

This old postcard is of Whitchurch, but which one? Janet Gimber has located this church at Little Stanmore, Greater London - the church is St. Lawrence Whitchurch.

Brian Curtis (thanks Brian) has identified the building on this old postcard, which had to be rather heavily processed to obtain a reasonable image. It's not a church, but the tower of Magdalen College in Oxford, from St. John's quad.

An old postcard of Blackamoor Church. Janet Gimber has located a Blackamoor being part of Blackburn. Such limited information we've been able to find suggests that this is St. James, Lower Darwen, which was demolished in 1969. Definitive confirmation would be welcome!!

From an original drawing once belonging to an ancestor of Ken Edwards, this church may be in the Maghull area (Lancs.), and was probably drawn before 1860. A possible solution has been suggested by Aidan Thomson, who says the church drawing itself, and the situation on the ground with the river, bears a great similarity to Fotheringhay in Northamptonshire. If this identification is correct, the mound to the right in the drawing is the site of Fotheringhay Castle. Further work by Janet Gimber means that this identification is now a certainty.

A church with a handsome spire, but no identification clues. The indefatigable Janet Gimber has identified this church as St. Peter & St. Paul, Kettering.

This grade II listed building was (understandably) suspected of being a church. It stands in Bexley (Greater London) and is close to the A2 at 177 TQ 472 742. © Dave Westrap. I'm grateful to Charles Amis and Janet Gimber for advising that despite it being known locally as Chapel House, it has never been a church. The spire was added to a cottage to make the view from the then new Danson House more interesting - this was in the 1770's. The view was obstructed in the 1960's when the A2 was made a dual carriageway. There's even a large stone in the garden which can be mistaken for a tombstone, but is in fact a cover for a well.

Thanks to Michael Royalton-Kisch has identifying this church as St. Margaret at Leigh Delamere in Wiltshire. Original entry read as follows - "This old church postcard had nothing to indicate the name of the church, but someone has written on the back "This is our church St. Margaret". Unfortunately it was never posted. Can you place St. Margaret?"

Mytton Church. Janet Gimber has identified this church as All Hallows, Mitton, Lancashire. Thank you Janet! From an old postcard, Bulman Collection. Link.

Stoke Church. There are dozens of places either called Stoke, or Stoke something. Which is this one? Janet Gimber has placed this church at Stoke in Devon, St. Nectan. From an old postcard, Bulman Collection. Link1. Link2.

St. Margaret, with a squat tower. The postcard was written from Cragg End in 1907, and perhaps posted from Oakworth (the frank is unclear). There is an Oakworth in West Yorkshire. In fact this church is St. Margaret of Antioch at St. Margaret's at Cliffe, in Kent. Thanks to Michael Bourne for identifying it. From an old postcard, Bulman Collection. Link.

22 October 2006

© Steve Bulman

steve@stevebulman.f9.co.uk