The Pink Church

After a morning of Rugby (nothing to do with me!), we decided to go in search of another of the Medieval Romney Marsh Churches. It has become quite addictive - searching them out and ticking them off - and it is taking us along some interesting byroads across Romney Marsh. 

Our first stop was the village of Newchurch and the Church of St Peter and St Paul. As we approached the doorway, we were startled to hear what sounded like a chicken coming from a box on the wall . . . very strange. Then we entered the church and our 'chicken', which turned out to be frogs, were everywhere. Well, not actually frogs, but the sound of frogs coming from speakers dotted around the place. It turned out that we had arrived during a special art installation day. The church itself, although still used as a church, was really just an open space, a large part of which had been given over to a teashop (only open Saturday mornings). There was an old plough in one corner, a rather good, if neglected, history exhibition in another and a few more installations on tables, which neither of us could make much sense of. We left the frogs to it. 

We decided to take in another church a little further on - St Clement at Old Romney. And what a chance it was that we made this decision, as this was also part of the Art Trail but in a completely different way. No frogs this time, just music and voices and a guy at the front offering us headphones in order to listen to an audio compilation of writings about the Marsh and about this church in particular. Excellent.

BUT . . . what about the PINK. My photo shows the furnishings painted pink. Not a very bright pink now, but definitely pink. Why? Apparently the painting took place in 1963 when the church was chosen as the setting for a Walt Disney film about smuggling, based on a book by Russell Thorndike. And that's not the only film link. Film director Derek Jarman was buried in the graveyard and we found his gravestone - a simple stone with his signature engraved on it.