These are from a recent visit to St Batholomew's Church in Tong, it's from the 15th century.

Described as "the Westminster Abbey of the Midlands", it has links to the Crusades, and Charles Dickens as the purported grave of Little Nell from The Old Curiosity Shop is there.

It was occupied by Parliamentarian troops during the Civil War in 1643 and besieged by Royalist troops.

#photo #photography #history
#explore #england #english #albion
#shropshire #historic #historylovers
#church

I've been baking soul cakes for the living and for the dead today. Mine are simple, rustic-looking things but made with love. I wrote about their importance in Shropshire over on the blog -

https://nearlyknowledgeablehistory.blogspot.com/2023/10/hallowmas-traditions-in-shropshire.html

#folklore #folkcustoms #Shropshire #Halloween #history

Council’s idea to place bus stop in middle of road so ‘daft’ locals thought it was AI

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://metro.co.uk/2025/10/19/councils-idea-whack-a-bus-stop-middle-road-bad-locals-thought-ai-generated-24467412/

I done a podcast

I had a very happy hour or so chatting to Shropshire podcaster Jim Hawkins. We covered some ground: politics, the church, photography, being “woke”. But mostly it was about Rwanda.

I’m always glad to talk about Rwanda. Have a listen.

#Rwanda #Methodist #podcast #shropshire

#Methodist #podcast #Rwanda #shropshire

These photos are from a recent visit to Lilleshall Abbey in Shopshire.

The site is the ruin of an Augustinian abbey from the 12th and 13th century. It lasted for almost 400 years, until it was dissolved by King Henry VIII in 1538.

#photo #photography #history #explore #ruin #england #english #albion #shropshire #historic #historylovers #ruins