North Willingham

Tuis Mayıs 23, 2022

Old vicars never retire, they merely pray away.

St Thomas's Church, North Willingham

This morning I went to North Willingham, a village (population 180) about eleven miles from Caistor, to take a service. It's a fourteenth century building with lots of later additions and alterations and really it feels like a Georgian church. One thing which has never been added is a heating system but everyone is offered a hot water bottle as they come in! It's wonderful!

Looking east

The congregation is usually 12-15 people and the atmosphere is very relaxed. They have no organist but the churchwarden's husband has created a system that plays the hymns through the organ pipes, creating a sound which feels as though it belongs to that particular church.

Sadly some parts of the church are no longer useable as they are unsafe but despite cold, a deteriorating building, a lack of an organist and small numbers, God was praised as Christians came together in this small Lincolnshire village. Long may it continue.