Market Stainton is a typical small medieval Lincolnshire village, with a crescent shaped village green and a few houses spaced around it, the dwellings varying in type and size. The village has a superb Hall as well as farm cottages and a few new build properties too. It really is a delightful little hamlet, although it has no amenities at all for its residents.
Even the church is a goner. This is an isolated Lincolnshire Wolds community and it seems that there is little support for this once beautiful medieval church. The building dates back to the 13th century and the Anglican parish register dates from 1689 for baptisms and burials, 1690 for marriages. It has been much repaired and altered over the centuries, and is now in a state of considerable disrepair; it’s a good number of years since it was last used for worship. St Michael’s church is officially redundant and up for sale, with only limited possible uses owing to its Grade II listed status and the type of planning permission likely to be granted. It cannot be made into a home.
The door was unlocked on Sunday so I crept in with my camera. I did actually tiptoe, as the roof is quite literally coming down. The early nineteenth century ceiling in the nave has been breached in numerous places, plaster is coming off the walls and the delicate plaster vault in the chancel is collapsing. There are chunks of debris covering the floor and the pews and I did consider that any undue noise may well result in further falling of masonry. The whole place is wet through and crumbling from the weather.
As fascinated as I was by the obvious original simplicity of the interior and the history of this once lovely country church, I felt a haunting sense of sadness too. It will only be a short matter of time before it is lost forever as unfortunately, in 2016, there is no official money for its upkeep and the local villagers have no way of raising the funds necessary to save it. This is it –
Suzy Barker 
OH my. How lovely, and hearbreaking. I want to swoop in and make it worthy of worship again. What a beautiful old relic.
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Hello Wendy. Yes, it’s heartbreaking. If you could swoop in with half a million or so, we could fix it. We’re losing rural churches here in the UK at an alarming rate I’m afraid. Very sad.
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Oh…I’m a bit short on the million.. I will have to work on that.
You did such a great job with the pictures. They are so inspiring.
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Thanks Wendy
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It must have been beautiful in its day. So sad to see how it’s become. We had a derelict church demolished not far from where I live, suddenly it was gone, I drove past and couldn’t believe it. All gone.
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A chunk of history disappeared – yes, sad indeed.
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Very engaging. A testament to the past, a memorial to their dedication , a warning perhaps to present decay
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All of these. The building and the village have a long and fascinating history, requiring more words than one short blog post to be sure. Thank you for commenting.
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This is so sad, probably once a beautiful historic church. Is this a sign of our crumbling world and of loss of faith? just a thought… Wonderful pictures.
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A sign of both I think unfortunately. Glad you enjoyed the images – thank you for the kind comment.
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That’s sad to see it in such decay. Great photos that capture the sadness and decay.
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Great images, but a very sad situation.
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But perhaps you can take more of your stunning photos and research and write an e-book about it’s history and create something that will allow it live on.
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Funny you should say that Cate … will let you know when it’s ready!
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