Friday 27 September 2013

The Puzzle of Messines Church Model

Messines Church with the distinctive tower dominates the landscape today, as it did before the Great War, having been rebuilt to almost the same design.



As an obvious land mark, it also formed the centre point of the Model of Messines here on Cannock Chase. However as we can see from the 1930's photographs of the model, the interpretation of the building appears very different.





This raises an important question, why did they depict what appears to be a square towered Norman style church as the centre piece for the model?

We are in possession of two images of the model which include the church, both show this configuration. Unfortunately for our investigations, the model of the church is missing, having been rescued from the decaying model many years ago, it was last seen in a garden in the village of Brocton, does anyone know where it is now? It would be helpful to our project to be able to view it, are there any photographs of it in the garden?




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