Marown

Part 2 - Marown Old Church

 

Monday 5th November 2012

 

As we approached the gates to the churchyard we came across this notice:

 

The grass around the church had just been mowed and it all looked a lot tidier than it was last time we visited - a few years ago.  Then it was high summer and only the path from the gate to the church door had been mowed.  The rest of the churchyard was knee high grass.  Tim took this photo which shows the view of the church from the gate.  This old St Runius church was replaced in about 1860 by a new parish church down by the main Douglas to Peel Road.   After that the old church was used as a  a mortuary chapel.  Part of the east end was demolished around that time and a door constructed in the east side.  You can see the position of the door in this end of the building. The east door was probably filled in when the church was restored by volunteer labour a hundred years later.  It reopened on August 9th 1959.

I did a bit of internet research on the history of the church and found this sketch which dates from 1834.

When this sketch was drawn, the church had already been enlarged.  "The church was extended westwards by about 5m in 1750-55; a record of 1798 states that the much earlier, moulded jamb-stones were removed from St. Trinian's (a ruined church down in the valley).   "About the same time a western gallery was added (the stone steps are still visible) to house musicians (violins and flutes). Like the doorway below the entrance to the gallery is flanked by massive masonry derived from an earlier site." http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/parishes/mn/marown.htm#old

The sketch shows six windows on the south side and the existing church has four windows.  So it seems as though about one third of the church was demolished in the 1860's.  There is an account of the history of the church, written in the 1924 at this site http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/wma/v1p131.htm

 

This photo shows the "new" part of the church on the west side.  The steps up to the original gallery are on either side of the doors below the bell tower.

 

There was a notice taped to the doors which read:  PLEASE CLOSE THE DOORS TO STOP THE PIGEONS ENTERING THE CHURCH   Made me think how lucky we are to live in a place where doors can be left unlocked and the only vandals around are the feathered variety.

 

The interior of the church is plain but with a peaceful, uncluttered atmosphere.

Near the altar table were some old Celtic crosses.

This photo of the windows gives an idea of the thickness of the walls.

 

And in the north west corner we saw these quaint old fonts.  They must be the ones described in this account of an excursion to the church in 1892.   "Outside the porch lay an old Font, of sandstone; it measured 2ft. 8in. across, and 1ft. 4in. high-the basin, which hard no outlet, being 2ft. across and 8½in deep. The outside was shaped into fourteen panels, formed by as many plain, perpendicular, narrow mouldings. Alongside the Font was a curious granite block, roughly triangular, the side measuring about 18in., hollowed out in a rough basin 9in. deep, this also was supposed to have been an ancient Font."  ( http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/iomnhas/lm2p002.htm ) They must have been brought into the church when it was restored.

As usual, I only read up about the church after the visit.  This makes the research more interesting but always leaves me wanting to return to take more photos and look at the things which I missed on the first visit.