Tin Church, Brokerswood

The Tin Church of All Saints', Brokerswood, Wiltshire, is a rare survivor: one of the old Tin Tabs, Tin Tabernacles or Iron Chapels. It continues to be used, albeit as a music venue, with communion celebrated twice yearly. From the 1850s until the outbreak of the Great War, communities could order ready-to-build churches or chapels via mail order catalogues, which included delivery to the nearest railway station. The first service held at Brokerswood was on 30 November, 1904. Although hard to keep warm (though stone is little better), they were relatively cheap to buy, assemble and furnish. They were also easy to disassemble and scrap, which is why so few remain.

Perhaps British Christians have traditionally invested too much into bricks and mortar, tying ourselves to heavy buildings with high costs of maintenance. It is said that Bishop Ryle rejected a cathedral in Liverpool so he might better concentrate upon small, local mission halls – and Liverpool has a higher-than-average Christian community to this day. The old tin tab was a compromise- a building, but less than permanent; a construction, but not so heavy a burden. Church is not a gathering of blocks but of people; it is not an assemblage of materials, but a grouping of hopeful and redeemed human beings. 

The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

John 4: 19-21, NKJV