LOCAL WORKMANSHIP possibly something to do with the repugnance, hardly yet quite overcome, to a burial on that side of the churchyard.
An avenue of elms, planted by the Rev. T. H. Rawnsley about 1830, starting from the "Church Wongs,"[1] leads past the tower at the west to the Hollow-gate road, close to where a pit was dug by the roadside to get the sandstone for repairing the tower; and to-day, as we pass along to Spilsby, we shall see a wall of sandstone rock exposed on the right of the road, and a lot of blocks cut out and hardening in the air preparatory for use at Little Steeping, and we shall naturally be reminded of the words of Isaiah, "Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged."
We have said that the restoration of Halton Holgate church was carried out by the Rev. T. H. Rawnsley about 1845, and it is remarkable that it was done so extremely well; for at that particular time the art of architectural restoration was almost at its lowest. As far as they went there were no mistakes made by the restorers at Halton, and the carved work for the seats was copied from the best models to be seen in any Lincolnshire church, and executed under the eye of the rector and his son, Drummond Rawnsley, by a Halton carpenter. That is just as it should be, and just as it used to be, but it is not often possible of attainment now.
Jesus College chapel at Cambridge underwent a much needed restoration at the same bad period, i.e., in 1849, and here too, by the genius of the architect, excellent work was done, some good old carving being preserved and very cleverly matched with new work well executed, and by a very curious coincidence, the shape of some of the poppy-heads and the plan of the panel carving is almost identical with that which was executed at Halton, after the Winthorpe pattern.
- ↑ Wong = field. In Horncastle there is a street called "The Wong."
