Our Lady And St Anne's Church, Widemouth Bay

The Church of Our Lady and St Anne is a small Anglican church in the village of

Widemouth Bay Widemouth Bay ( kw, Porth an Men) is a bay, beach and small village on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, England, UK. It is about 3 miles (5 km) south of Bude. This stretch of coast is steeped in the smuggling history of times before, and ...

, Cornwall. The church was built in 1929 as a private oratory and was originally located at the opposite end of the village. Despite its relatively modest age, there are two conflicting theories regarding whom it was originally built for. One holds that it was created for three priests, Claude, Reginald and Frank Kingdom, whose family were the squires of

Whitstone Whitstone is a village and civil parish in east Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is roughly halfway between the towns of Bude and Launceston. The population at the 2011 census was 590. History The earliest mention of the village is in the Dome ...

Bridgerule Bridgerule ( kw, Ponsrowald) is a village and civil parish in Devon, England, a mile from the border with Cornwall. The parish is divided by the River Tamar, which no longer forms the border between Devon and Cornwall there. The river often floo ...

and Poundstock. The brothers used it as a retreat each summer for writing their sermons for the rest of the year. The other theory contends that it was built for two women, identified as Miss Kirby and Miss Topham, who allowed the three brothers to use it each year. In the 1930s, Widemouth Bay expanded after rising to popularity as a seaside resort, and in 1940, the lightweight church was moved to its present location, a site which had been acquired by the vicar of

Poundstock Poundstock ( kw, Tregorlann) is a civil parish and a hamlet on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The hamlet is situated four miles (6.5 km) south of Bude half-a-mile west of the A39 trunk road about one mile from the coa ...

. Our Lady and St Anne's became a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

for the growing population, who had previously had to travel to St Winwaloe's in Poundstock. The church has a garden, but this contains no headstones. It has a timber summerhouse, which its congregation built in 2006, and which is used as a community meeting-place. The church's modest dimensions earned it a place in

Dixe Wills Dixe Wills is an author and journalist, mostly writing green travel pieces for ''The Guardian''.Widemouth Bay Widemouth Bay ( kw, Porth an Men) is a bay, beach and small village on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, England, UK. It is about 3 miles (5 km) south of Bude. This stretch of coast is steeped in the smuggling history of times before, and ...