Manea Colony and Vandervell's/Colony Lake

The floating church of St. Withburga
at:



a painting of the Ark


"The Fenland Ark"

In 1905 the parish priest at Manea, the Rev. F.G. Guy, acquired a barge that had been converted some years earlier as a 'floating church'. It had served farmsteads and small isolated communities in newly-drained parts of the parish of Holme, near Peterborough, that had no roads and were accessible only by rivers or 'drains'. The Rev. Guy had a similar problem with some communities along the Old Bedford River at Welches Dam, Purls Bridge and The Colony at Manea. Worshippers who could not easily get to the parish church had services brought to them instead.


other pages
Home & introduction
Slide show
George Holyoake's unflattering views
 
academic papers
Manea Society, by Enid Porter
Hodsonian Community, Dennis Hardy
Hodsonian Community, Evelyn Lord
the ark with flags hoisted
 The idea of a floating church was the brainwave of the Rev G Broke B.A., Rector of Holme. It was sanctioned by the Bishop of Ely and built in 1897 in just two months by William Starling at Stanground for £70. It was a flat-bottomed lighter approx 30 feet long and 10 feet wide with a seven foot high superstructure, and towed by a horse, as were most fen craft. It was dedicated by the Archdeacon in April 1897 to St. Withburga (variously said to be sister of St. Etheldreda of Ely and St Wendreda of March). It didn't have a bell but it was customary to display two flags, those of St George and St Andrew, the later hoisted shortly before services commenced, which could be seen at good distances across the flat Fens.
This page and those linked above are not accessible from any website or search engine listing - they are only available via a private link given to the main contributors. The pages are very much "work in progress" and will grow and change when new information is received - and time permits.
interior view of the Ark Inside it had an altar, a font, a lectern that served as the pulpit, a small American organ, a small vestry, and 34 chairs (some reports say it could accommodate up to 50 worshippers). Several large windows could be folded upwards to allow people on the bank to hear and take part in services. At Holme, a choir was made up from three families and bible classes and needlework classes for girls were held onboard. Special baptism cards were issued and people were very proud of the fact that they had been baptised on The Fenland Ark.

In 1897 this fascinating church featured in an article in the Strand magazine which stated "the Floating Church of the Fens is unique, being the only one in the world." That may have been true, but it wasn't the first. More than half-a-century early, in 1843, the parishioners of Strontian in the Scottish highlands were refused permission by the land-owner to build a Free Presbyterian Church. So, the congregation clubbed together, bought a suitable vessel on Clydeside, had it converted into a church, and towed up the west coast of Scotland to a mooring nearby on Loch Sunart, where it became known as the Floating Church. This served the community until the 1870s. (From: Undiscovered Scotland: The Ultimate Online Guide). A drawing made by the shipbuilder John Reid and Co of Port Glasgow held in the collections of the Highland Folk Museum in Kingussie, near Aviemore, gives the church's dimensions: 78ft long, 23ft wide and 17ft high, built on two floors, but without a spire, it was constructed to hold about 400 people.
related pages on other websites
The Colony
Back to our more humble Fenland Ark. Between April 1897 and October 1904 seventy-four baptisms took place around Holme. After that, the barge was moved through the fen rivers to the Old Bedford River, where for people who couldn't get to the church, the Rev. Guy brought the church to the people. The Register of Manea Parish records three more baptisms, two at Welches Dam in 1905 and one, the very last, in 1906 at The Colony - that of Hazel Susie Feary. The houses at the Colony seem to have been vacated and demolished shortly afterwards.

I don't know what happened to it after that, apart from one report that it deteriorated and was converted into a houseboat in 1907 and given the name The Saints' Rest. In about 1912 it apparently sank.
Acknowledgement:
The full story of this vessel was told by John Bennett in 1997 in

ISBN 0950888400
back to contents if you can add to or correct this text, please contact me: peter.cox@whitehallfarmhouse.fsnet.co.uk last updated: 04 October 2011