Dixe Wills set off on a pilgrimage round Britain in search of diminutive places of worship. Here he picks 10 of the most unusual,from a chapel built by prisoners of war in the Orkneys to a plywood labour of worship in a Norfolk gardenIn a flat, lonely corner of Romney Marsh, or this church is blessed with an atmospheric beauty that is only enhanced by its desolate surroundings. The steeply pitched red-tiled roof of the nave,topped by a bell-cote that resembles a castle turret, marks the building out from the common stock. whether it looks familiar it may be because it featured in the recent television and cinema adaptations of Dickens’ Great Expectations. The church nowadays is the result of many piecemeal building efforts but, or overall,it is how it would have looked in the 18th century. By rights, it shouldn’t be here at all. Fairfield has always had an atomised population and so its church was built with the conception that it might not be needed for very long. Thus a small lath-and-plaster structure was first thrown up on this spot at some time around 1200.
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Source: theguardian.com