3 Churches Walk

May 02, 2007

Jon Ridinger, a return missionary from our days back in New Mexico (shh...that's a bad word in our house!) is visiting us from Ohio and I thought it would be just hunky-dory if we hiked the 3 Churches hike here in Suffolk County. Usually, the hike starts in Gazeley, but this time we started in Moulton (see the first church) We had fantastic weather-not too hot, not too cold. We were very fortunate to have the churches open and accessible to us (photo ops, you know!). The walk took us a number of minutes longer than usual, and you will see why once we travel to Gazeley. Oh, let me introduce you to the other members of the walking party-Jane Smith and her daughter Bethany and Jane's two sons, Samuel and Jacob.

Okay, on to Gazeley we go, walking through quaint little fields and shady bits of forest. AND we saw a black sheep (he didn't have any wool...three bags full were sold to some random guy, his wife and a little kid down the lane...)

Anyhoo, I'm checking out the impressive dates on the tombstones of the people buried in the church, and whilst ;) I am taking some nice pictures of said tombstones, Jane hails us to come over and look what she found. Lo and behold, she found a stack of books, some dating back to the 1600s, just sitting, literally being eaten alive by bookworms (and I thought a bookworm was someone who read books-I was WRONG) and simply rotting away before our very eyes. I KNOW-hard to believe!

Well, we handled them (with great care) and the Holy Bible was printed in 1612 and a book regarding the 39 articles of faith for the Church of England was printed in 1681 and presented to the Gazeley church in 1686. Right there. On a bench. Sitting. Rotting. I WAS TEMPTED. Can you guess by what? Tempted, maybe, to take one of the books home with me? Tempted I was! There was a register of marriages (and when the banns were cried) from 1823. I know, you are thinking what I'm thinking...genealogy. I could "borrow" the book and bring it back, right? Would the vicar or church members ever notice one of those books was missing? During Jon's trip, we have seen a number of old books - all enjoying a life without worms in a glass box. For a country that is anal about their history, this church has history falling apart right in front of their face.

After I was tempted 4 billion times more, Bethany suggested we write the vicar and ask him if we can borrow the marriage register. (if you want to go on a walk to 3 churches ... I'll go with you and bring my BIG backpack! muah ha ha ha!)

The rest of the walk was spent talking about the awesome opportunity we had to look and touch history and along the way, we spotted some picturesque cottages and not-so-friendly sheep (RUDE).

This is my third time walking the 'circular', and definitely my most exciting! ;)