An encounter with church hoppers – Journey with Space and Time

I was anxious to finish this Little Thurlow project off so I drove over there in the hope it would be open and empty. A car was parked and a woman was in the churchyard, though. She was heading back to get something out of the boot of her car. I guessed she was a local who was decorating the church so I wandered up the paths nearby to see if I could get a photo of the church in its landscape, which I couldn’t. The trees and big hedges blocked the view from all angles.

When I got back to the car, I found the woman was still there with the boot open. She was with a man and there were having a drink from a flask. I thought this was a bit odd if they were locals but decided to move on to Great Bradley until they had gone. I assumed they were doing something in the church.

Great Bradley was quiet so I took some photos from the outside. I’d taken my 550D with it’s 10-18mm lens, which allowed me to get a full view of the church even when space was restricted, in this case by a barn wall. Then I went inside and had just got my tripod set up when there was a rattling at the door nearest the road. Someone was trying to get in, and would be round the porch side in a minute. I hurried put my stuff back and in came the couple I’d just seen in Thurlow.

The church at Great Bradley — The prettier side of Great Bradley church (the south side, away from the road). The picture is a bit cramped because I didn’t want a branch in it, so had to move closer and use a super wide-angle lens. That didn’t quite leave enough room around the church.

They’d come from an Essex coastal town (I forget which) and said they like coming to Suffolk because the churches are open. “In Essex they’re always closed,” the woman said. “It’s the insurance.”

They’re members of the Church Conservation Trust and their hobby is “church hopping”. They told me that’s the correct term, though they also take in garden centres along the way. We talked for quite a while about old churches, garden centres and schools (they have grandchildren), and the man showed me his Google Map with all the churches on they haven’t visited. As they visit a church, they take it off the map. These people are professionals.

I felt I should leave them to it, so I headed back to Little Thurlow and took some extra pictures there.

I edited them when I got back home, and sent them to the Church Roof Repair Fund. It was interesting to compare the pictures taken by the 6D and the 550D. The 550D is a lower-end and older camera. The difference in image is subtle but noticeable.

The Soame memorial, a marble monument — This is the EOS 550D.

The Soame memorial, a marble monument, taken with another camera — This is the EOS 6D. There are fewer colours overall in the 550D. Look at the escutcheon in the bottom left, for example. In the 550D it’s just a single lurid red, whilst the 6D is more realistic and shows more variation in tone. The sculpture of Sir John Soames also shows much more colour information in the 6D version. This was the theme throughout the pictures: irrespective of the exposure, the 6D seems to capture more colours. I guess it helps that it has a full-frame sensor.

I won’t dump all the pictures here, but here are a couple:

The sculpture of the three daughters of Stephen Soame — I liked this view of the daughters that I got today. I’ve never seen them from this angle.

A relief sculpture of a duck on the church wall — I included pictures of some details of the church as well. I’ve been using a Canon EF100-200mm lens for these zoom shots. I bought it in a charity shop for £20, and had no expectations. It’s great, though!