If I ever get stressed to any sort of extreme, I like to go and sit somewhere peaceful. Churches are often a good bet, but unlike when I was younger, most seem to be locked up.

Occasionally, there are exceptions and, tucked away in a little glade just off a main road in Pembrokeshire you can find one of the real gems: St Lawrence’s Church.

The altar in my favourite old church

Inside, the atmosphere can only be described as serene, but the building itself has seen better days for sure. There is damp and mould in places and there is ivy growing through from the outside. But despite this, I fell in  love with the place.

There are rapidly-fading remnants of medieval artworks on the walls underneath where some more ‘modern’ plaster has fallen off. I expect that back when it was new, the whole interior would have been brightly painted with murals of bible stories and saints, something that would undoubtedly have thrilled anyone who stepped inside.

Outside in the pocket-sized churchyard there is a ‘healing well’, constantly bubbling up from somewhere underground: a mystery to my unscientific mind, as it is on the side of a hill.

The ‘custodians’ of this gem tell me that a great deal of money is needed to save the place so it can be used as it still is now. With that in mind, I am donating at least 50% of any sales of my images of the church to their fund. I don’t know how much they need, but as they say… Every little helps.

You can see more of my Church Photographs here…