“Inspired” by saints and Shovells?...


Crayford, Cloudesley, and chalk dust…



Well, dear readers, what fun we had last weekend!...


Whizzing through Crayford on the trusty old 492 bus, purely by chance, I noted a sign saying that St Paulinus church was holding an ‘Open Day…with tower visits’ …

Now, I do enjoy pottering about an old medieval church, but I’m sorry to say that, despite knowing that St Paulinus was a fine old building set in a picturesque setting, I’d never ventured in there before…Well, being of a questing and adventurous bent, I’m not one to turn down the chance of a tower visit – so in I went, and – wowzers! – it was superb, if something of a tight squeeze and a dustily adventurous clamber to the top. And the view from the summit of the tower! Wonderful…

All Crayford lay below us, and you could physically sense the history of the town, and the church itself.

(Books can do this for you, too, remember, and don’t usually involve getting one’s trousers dusty…Similarly, a visit to Bexley’s splendid Local Studies and Archives Centre will furnish you with a wealth of local knowledge and historical background, without the dangers of bruised limbs and a chalky backside…)

The whole experience was - (WARNING - PUN ALERT AHEAD) - “inspiring” (See William Golding’s wonderful historical novel about a cathedral tower for a similar, if grander, experience…)

And the inside of the church, too, was quite splendid…well worth a visit. Particularly fine was the tomb of Elizabeth Shovell, the wife of the venerable naval hero and splendidly named, Sir Cloudesley Shovell, one of Crayford’s finest, but a chap who met a sticky end in the Scillies. (And, as I pondered the magnificent memorial, how many of Crayford’s newborns today, I wondered sadly, are given the nomenclature ‘Cloudesley’?..)

So, dear readers – to sum up: what have we learned from this week’s Blogbrary-broadcast?

• That the 492 bus timetable is available ‘online’

• That Saint Paulinus Church in Crayford is an architectural gem, well worth a visit.

• That chalk dust from medieval church towers clings very tenaciously to elderly librarian’s trousers.

• And that, despite a plethora of books on babies names, the name ‘Cloudesley’ obdurately refuses to find cult status – except in Crayford.



TTFN