Kelbrook Church

The village of Kelbrook has always struck me as a pretty but dull little place, and its little parish church, St Mary’s, a neat reflection of this. I have since discovered that it was home to actor Edward Woodward as he prepared to play Sergeant Neil Howie in the 1973 The Wicker Man, and was also the base for Elisabeth Beresford of Wombles fame, who came here to write her second book, The Wandering Wombles, in 1970. These two iconic seventies cultural creations could not be further apart, yet they were both connected to this plain little village near Barnoldswick. Another tradition, which I have read about but never witnessed, is that children lock newly weds into the church grounds as they attempt to leave the church while demanding money for their freedom. I would have thought a ‘clip round the ear ‘ole’ a more appropriate payment, but one cannot but salute their entrepreneurial spirit.

What first seemed an uninteresting little place turned out to have charming traditions and even grander, cultural associations. Sometimes, boring-looking people are surprisingly interesting, if only we get to know them. Likewise, people who live in showy homes, with high-paid jobs and who talk the loudest are often bores; having conversed for twenty minutes, there is really nothing more to find out. Better to be perceived a dullard and not be one, than to be thought interesting yet bound to disappoint. Curiously, this is what happens with the gospel in our land. People think Christianity is boring and the churches irrelevant. The gospel is the most relevant, exciting and extraordinary story ever told, and the church is here to share it.

Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you. Habakkuk 1:5