A new photo of the beautiful city of Canterbury in Kent and surrounding area every day.

Wednesday 18 June 2008

The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin in Elham

Today I went to Elham and while I was there I visited the Church of St Mary the Virgin.

My goodness! What a beautiful church. The building dated from between 1170 and 1200 is not much different from many others ragstone and flint churches around Canterbury and you could almost give it a miss.

Inside it is another business because unlikely so many poorly kept churches, St Mary is full of interesting features, furnishings and most probably, have excellent people running it.

It is very clean and extremely well kept with beautiful flower arrangements displayed in various places around the church. The parishioners of St Mary the Virgin in Elham should be proud of their work because it is a wonderful and obviously loved church.

My favourite thing in there was the organ loft. According to the booklet I bought in the church, "the organ itself is a Lewis instrument with gilded pipes and richly carved oak case and it came from Bexley Parish Church in 1937."

6 comments:

USelaine said...

Imagine the effort it took to get, and presumably assemble, that beautiful thing up there!

Ms M said...

If the rest of the church is like the organ loft, it must be amazing! It would be cool to hear organ music resonate throughout the sanctuary.

Parisian Heart said...

Oooh! Love this, Rose! I, too, adore visiting beautiful churches.

Diederick Wijmans said...

It must be a very beautiful church and thank you Rose, for bringing it to our attention! These are all handy tips for us who want to travel in that area.

Anonymous said...

Hi Rose, Another great photo, you have a good eye for beauty. Keep up the good work

Anonymous said...

This church is very beautiful. I love the arched window behind the organ.