© PE Blanche 2000 The beginning of the road to Church Hougham A notice left on the gate of the Church at Boxley

The picture above is very typical of the side roads that I have to travel regularly to get to the country churches that appear on this site. On the left is a picture taken at the start of the same road which gives some idea of the amount of available space on many of these country lanes. I thought I would add this pages as visitors from overseas and particularly from North America might have little idea of the problems involved in getting to what might appear to be very ordinary places and quaint country churches. I know from living in Canada myself for many years that even the rural routes over there, despite the fact that they might not be made up, do have enough room for two cars to easily pass each other in opposite directions. On these English lanes where there are many tight corners and steep inclines, there are many places where it would be impossible to see another car coming even if it no more than a few feet from you which can add to the stress factor! The other unfortunate thing is that more and more of these churches are kept locked because of the problems with vandals and thieves which is a terrible reflection on our society. In addition to this and in line with many other professions or occupations, many country vicars now represent two, three or four parish churches which means that Sunday services are often held on a rotating basis. This causes me additional problems because I cannot tell which church will be open on which Sunday. As a consequence, it is getting more and more difficult to get into the churches and can take several visits to the same church to be able to photograph the interiors. Therefore, I am going to start including pages on many churches that will not include interior views because it is just costing too much to keep revisiting churches to try and see inside which is a real shame for both visitors to this site and also for myself. It also means that the commentary on these churches will be relatively brief in most cases. There have been several churchwardens that have very kindly contacted me and arranged for me to visit some of the churches that do appear on the site. If any other churchwardens happen to visit the site and would care to contact me so that I can visit their churches at a prearranged time, I would be extremely grateful for their assistance. I can be contacted through this e-mail link.