Old news

I used to have a friend who lived in an obscure little place in Hampshire called Monkwood, described on Wikipedia as 'a loose scattering of houses' to which I would add 'in the woods' just along the road from the village of Ropley (I'm not sure where the 'monk' part of the name comes from but I would be interested to know). Anyway I mention this because Ropley was in the news this week as its grade II listed Norman church, St Peter's, went up in flames on Thursday and so I thought I'd go along to have a look. The fire, which is thought to have been electrical in origin, was a very big one, completely taking out the roof and wrecking the bell tower.

Even several days later there was still a steady stream of people paying it a visit to see the damage and take photos of the remains of the church which has been sealed off by emergency services tape (which unfortunately had the effect of preventing one couple who turned up from visiting a family grave). I had a chat with an elderly woman who lives in one of the pretty little cottages opposite and had had a ringside seat for all the excitement when it happened. I asked her if she thought the church could be fixed and she was quite certain it would be. 'Oh yes', she said, 'they've already started an appeal in the shop', pointing round the corner from her place. I imagine it will be a pretty hefty bill but some other onlookers, who also scaled the bank and were peering over the churchyard wall alongside me shortly afterwards, reported that there have been many offers of free help from local tradespeople and, of course, it does have friends in high places so maybe there will be happy ending for St Peter's.