A new book focusing on tin tabernacles throughout Britain has just been published by Camrose Organisation.
The book, titled 'Tin Tabernacles', by Ian Smith, looks at the story of corrugated iron churches, chapels, mission halls and related buildings, and features archive and contemporary material illustrating this almost forgotten part of our architectural and industrial heritage.
In attempting to explain how these buildings were produced, who they were for, and why we should consider them to be important, the book shows how these buildings reflected the society in which they were created and flourished.
A photographic survey gathers together just some of the surprising number of these buildings which still survive, including St. Anne's in New Hedges, which was erected in 1928.
Quite a modern tin church, it holds a congregation of just 50 'at a push'.
"Fully restored in 2001 and painted a beautiful blue, the church features a bell and some very exotic cast ironwork along the roof ridges," said Ian, a graphic design consultant.
"This book began as the germ of an idea about 10 years ago," he explained.
"Having stumbled across a few of these corrugated iron buildings, some of which retained an obvious grandeur belied by their current outward appearance, I was struck by their charm and aesthetic beauty - not to everyone's taste, but beauty, after all, is in the eye of the beholder," he continued.
"I thought at the time that the examples I had seen were certainly photogenic in a gritty industrial way that most church buildings were not and I imagined that a series of such pictures might make an interesting photographic exhibition," added Ian, whose notion remained just an idea until recently when he began to research the subject in more detail.
"The further into the subject I went, the larger it became. Fortunately, it also became even more interesting and I began to realise that I would not only have to explain some of my personal fascination with these buildings, but would also have to provide some social, economic and religious history about the buildings and the reasons which drive people to build them.
"This book is far from exhaustive, but I hope that amongst the jumble of facts and pictures brought together in it, there will be enough of interest to stimulate further research into the subject and also perhaps to aid the preservation of a few more of these marvellous little buildings."
Also featured in the book is an imposing corrugated hall with slate roof north of Clynderwen, which was built in 1928; Pembroke Apostolic Church in Pembroke; the Church Hall, Pembroke Dock, which was probably bought from one of the many military establishments around the town and relocated in its present position; and St. Clement's Church Hall in Neyland.
Priced £24.95, further information on the book is available at the website http://www.tintabernacles.com">www.tintabernacles.com