CURIOUS PLACES OF WORSHIP.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 699, 29 August 1914, Page 3

CURIOUS PLACES OF WORSHIP.

A Chapel in a Coal Pit.

The miners' chapel in Mynnd Meniggd Colliery at Swansea, wher,e for a period extending over half a century the toilers of tho mine have each morning gathered together to worship, may fairly claim to be one of the most remarkable sacred edifices in the universe. Descending to the bottom of the shaft, one finds oneself almost at the door of this underground sanctuary. The all-per-vading gloom is broken by but one solitary light, which emanates from a Davy safety lamp suspended over ths pulpit by a cord fastened to the ceiling.

It generally falls to ths lot of the oldest miner in the rat to -conduct the service and address the hornyhanded congregation, and it is safe to say that the strangeness and uncouthness of the surroundings add to rather than detract from ths earnestness and impressiveness of the proceedings. Perhaps it is the hazardtious nature of his calling causes the coalminer's mind t« dwell rather more upon things spiritual than the majority of other toilers of similar mental calibre, for in other mines it is a recognised custom for the men to gather together at meal times for prayer meetings and services £f song. But Mynnd Mettiggd is unique among collieries in having a special apartment fitted up for use as a chapel. A FLOATING CHURCH.

Not long ago there was established in Germany a floating church, the first of its kind in that country. It is an ancient steamboat that has completed its span of useful lire in its original capacity, and has now been granted a naw lease of life as a river-borne place of worship. Attached to the church are a library and refreshment room for the use of the numerous bargemen who ply their trade on the Spree and the Havel. This novel church was opened by no less a personage than the Crown Prince of Germany.

In all probability the village church of East Bergholt, in Suffolk,, is the only one in England which possesses an entirely distinct building for its belfry. Many yards away from the church stands a shed in which ths bells are hung, and the bells themselves are rather out of the common, in that they are worked from above instead of from beneath. The church, of St. Cross, at Reigate Heath, was formerly a windmill. The exterior remains precisely as it was when it was engaged in fulfilling its original destiny, but the anterior has been fitted up as a church, and a service is held there on Sundays at 3.30 p.m. Possibly the main idea of those who transformed this windmill into a place of worship was to provide a service for the unregenerate heathen who play golf on the adjacent lin'cs on the Sabbath.

In days of old Frid-Stools, or scats of peace, were placed near the altars of the churches, and were the last and most sacred places of resort for those claiming sanctuary under the roof of the holy edifice, and dire was the punishment meted out for the violation of their sanctity. One of these curious stone chairs is to be at the present day in the village church of Sprotborough, near Doncaster, which in days gone by possessed the right of sanctuary. It Is massive and heavy, being carved out of the solid stone, and it is believed to date back to the 13th century. On the front is carved the outline of a human face with a long beard, resembling the tail of at bird or fish. On each side of the head is a human leg, anl on the left arm is a bear sitting on its haunches, with a collar round its neck and the fore paw clutching a staff attached to the collar.' The figures are supposed to represent Thor and Saturn. Away back in the misty ages of the past it was dug up in the churchyard, and has remain-' ed where it was placed in the church ever since. A PRINTERS* CHAPEL.

A church is probably one of the last places in which one would look iio find a printing press, yet there is one to be seen in a church in the heart of the City of London. It is situated in the vestry of St. Ethelburga, Bishopsgate, and far from being a relic of antiquity, or mere curiosity, it is in regular use, for on it the parish magazine is printed. In view of this combination of Church and Press, it will not be out of place to remark that printing in England really began in a place of warship ; to wit, the chapel of Westminster Abbey. Here Caxton set up his press and printed his first book, the " Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers," published in 1474. From this fact sprang the use of the term "chapel" to signify a gathering of printers. This designation is in vogue among members of ,the craft at the present day.