Gathering - Postcards from the North

This is an especially photo-heavy post so do open it in the app to see all.

Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants1,
Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home
Of bell and burial. Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5

This is St Stephens Church in Robin Hood’s Bay, the Old Church, built in 1821, and abandoned for the new church in 1870, in favour of a newer building nearer the town.

The graveyard is packed to the gunnels with teetering stones, many commemorating sailors lost at sea from the treacherous coastline and a small flock of sheep tend to the meadow that flourishes there. As you step inside this modest, unadorned building there is an uneasy sense of stillness. Its simplicity, the putty coloured paint and the tiered box pews somehow retains the presence of the parishioners - I felt as though I wanted to keep the door open, should it suddenly shut fast behind me.

But it is what the church contains that makes it particularly remarkable.