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Tower and Town, February 2022

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Relief Of Minal

Reprinted here by kind permission of Marlborough News and the author

In Tudor times the boy King Edward VI used to take refuge from his courtiers and petitioners (accompanied by the Groom of the King’s Close Stool) in the Royal Privy. In the 18th Century a Somerset parson slipped on the icy path leading to his ‘Necessarium’, and in Norfolk a Rector’s ‘House of Easement’ was destroyed by a fallen tree – the Rector was not in it at the time.

None of this was much in the minds of Minal villagers on Tuesday afternoon when the Bishop of Ramsbury, the Rt Rev Dr Andrew Rumsey formally opened and blessed the result of their fund-raising efforts in the form of a handsome oak clapboard refuge built by GG Gough of Marlborough for the convenience of the church goers and others. 

The Bishop congratulated the parishioners for their perseverance over the years of negotiation - the building is on Parish Council land – and their sheer hard work in fund-raising during that time. 

The Bishop is one of two leads on a commission examining the future of ancient rural churches and he ventured an opinion that such facilities are essential for their future if such churches are to survive. To a universal cheery groan he noted they had ‘spent many pennies’ and were now ‘flushed with success.’

Minal Church is over 1000 years old and has always pointed a way to salvation. A newly-laid path also now leads to a more corporeal relief.


Mark and Beth Mutch outside the new MInal loo

David Sherratt

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