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Century.
* The lines on the bottom of the church bells change the
sounds of them.
* Services in Church were all in Latin until 1549.
* Graves are dug to a depth of about 2.5 metres (8 or 9
feet).
* Halloween is the eve of Hallowmas or All Saints Day.
* Grazing of animals is forbidden in graveyards.
* 'Beating the Bounds' was a phrase used when the
congregation walked around the parish boundaries to
check that no-one had encroached on their land.
* The Bells in a Church are tolled to mark a death as
well as a wedding. They are tolled once to mark the
death of a man twice for a lady and three times for a
child.
* Alfred Howe 1898-1991 joined the choir at the age of
8 and sung for 80 years - that's a record!
* Gargoyles were originally used on the top of churches to throw water away from the roofs The word originates from the French "gargouille" meaning "pipe or throat". Although it was believed that they frightened away any evil spirits.
* The maximum number of bodies to be buried in a
grave in a churchyard is 3.
* It was written that Robert Raikes first started
Sunday school in 1780 but it is also said that Hannah
Moore started it in 1769.
* A law was passed in 1880 that stopped any burying on
a Sunday.
* The Bible, the special book of the Christian faith, is
not one book but 66 altogether. There are 39 in the
Old Testament telling of the time before Jesus and 27
in the New Testament telling the story of Jesus and
the early church.
* Bibles written in English used to be rare, when Henry
VIII in 1536 ordered that a Bible be placed in all
churches they were either chained to the lectern or
locked in a Bible box.
* At St Mary's there is a bequest board hanging in the chancel, they tell of gifts to the church.
* Pulpits from which the sermon is given came about
following an order in 1603 that all church must have a
pulpit.
* Some churches have a sounding board and canopy
over the top to help the vicars' voice travel.
Nowadays we use microphones.
