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| Stone Formation Archive 1984 |
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 Stone Formations news, views, gallery and archive brought to you by Weird Wiltshire Introduction Latest News News Archive Stonehenge Stonehenge Project Stonehenge 360 Avebury Saviours Stones Village Solstice Wayland Smithy Long Barrow Woodhenge Gallery Summer Solstice Gallery 2002 Summer Solstice Gallery 2004 Postcards Wallpaper Links  |
First published on August 9, 1984 ANYONE visiting Avebury or merely passing through will be aware of the chapel for it is five minutes walk from the church and tythe barn and is the only house of religion within the stone circle. Established in 1670 it was a "five mile chapel," brought into being by the Five Mile Act of 1665 which prohibited ejected ministers from preaching within five miles of the churches in which they had officiated. Thus it served Marlborough, Devizes and Calne and one of the fascinations of a new little booklet on Avebury Chapel is the map of the tracks used by the early dissenters from the three towns, along paths, rough, rutted and deep in mud Ð a round trip of at least 12 miles. Since becoming Pastor of the Chapel in 1972 the Rev Bert Jones has collected much information about its 300 years. This has been woven together by Hilary Dunscombe in a yellow booklet with a front cover picture of the chapel. The gate to the chapel is always open and you are invited to wander round or sit in the tiny graveyard. It would assist your meditation to acquire this modest 16-page booklet. It carries a number of photographs including one of the 300th anniversary walk from Marlborough to Avebury across the Downs. There is a moving tribute to one remarkable 20th century chapel worker, Miss Nellie Kersley, in a letter to the pastor from her niece Miss Grace Kersley, after her aunt's funeral in 1979. Nellie had scrubbed and polished the chapel for over 75 years. Under the Rev Herbert Jones of Wroughton, who combines full-time employment in British Telecom with his duties at Avebury, ecumenical horizons have widened. Eighty representatives of seven Church of England churches met outside the chapel gates on Good Friday 1983 to give thanks for the witness of both churches in the village over the previous centuries. The booklet is available in bookshops at Avebury, Marlborough and Swindon and is selling in Swindon at 80p a copy. Back to 1984 index |
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