WAYSIDE CHAPEL

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 119, 22 May 1930, Page 19

WAYSIDE CHAPEL

.RUIN AMID TUB FIKS

A strange, and 'beautiful ruin lias appeared iv the view from tlie lovely road along the valley of the Cliess, between Chenies and •Clicshani, in .Buckinghamshire, .England, writes H. G. Stokes, in the "Daily Telegraph." I'or many years a fir plantation has been prominent in tlu1 prospect, near Latiiner, but; the gales have blown down many of the trees-and revealed to the road traveller the remnants of an unsuspected little church., Th existence of this , building has long been a cherished secret of pedestrians who know: well .the lovely riverside walk between Chenies Mill and Latinier, but . it: finds no mention In many' of the best-known books on the distract, and but for gales it would have slumbered' on. undisturbed in the cool seclusion 'of the , /firs. Less than a century age a village stood where now the fallen iirs show their roots to the sky, but' between 1830 and 1840 the- inhabitants,of Flaunden betook themselves, cottages and ■all, to higher ground to-tho north-cast. Almost all they left behind was their little church, and: this they robbed of its altar, its bell, and. the tiles from the floor. Ivy obtained a hold, and frost, wind, and. rain helped also to bring down the roof and walls, aided, no doubt, by an occasional tripper. Situated on. a favourite watt of tho Londoner, it might well be restored and made into a little wayside chapel, possibly with, regular services for pedestrians, and other visitors. So far as one is awarej; no provision of this kind is made anywhere for those who love the countryside. '; . The church is of architectural interest because of its unusual ground plan, an' almost equilateral cross. But it is the diminutive size that will appeal to most people. The top of the west doorway; is now hardly five feet above the ground, and a moderately tall man must stoop ~to enter. The distance from west door to east end is hardly more than thirty feet.' With arms outstretched one can almost reach from wall to wall, of the south transept. -