Hidden Henley

For a change this week I’m taking you from the rainy streets and swollen river of our town out to the nearby countryside hamlet on higher ground of Warren Row, which is where you will see this curioustiny church.

Although there were many buildings made with corrugated iron from the mid-19^th century onwards, there are few of them left. The slang for this is a tin tabernacle, although these factory-produced panels were shaped with a mangle-like press and then electrically coated with a layer of zinc and not tin as its name implies, and this was after 1837 when hot dip galvanising was developed for rust resistance. The mass production gave the opportunity for quick, cheap and practical buildings and led to vast quantities of these kit-like structures being installed all over this country and elsewhere in the world too. In the mid 19th century Australia is reported to have taken delivery of 30,000 such buildings in one year alone! The building in my photo, St Paul’s Mission Church, is reported to have been bought as such a kit for around £100 in 1894 to serve the community in and around the woods of Bowsey Hill and Ashley Hill. I understand that for many years the services were taken by a Church Army Captain who was financially supported by a local family. In the front is a marker plate in memory of another benefactor, or perhaps from the same family, named as Violet Dora Norris 1910-1996.

This tin tabernacle has a character and mystique all of its own and I thoroughly recommend you take a look for yourself.