There is not a lot by way of services taking place these days at a quaint little church tucked away in the heart of rural East Yorkshire, but it is nevertheless of great importance to the local community and one woman in particular.
Diann Atkin is the tenant farmer at Church Farm, Cowlam, north-west of Driffield, appropriately named as it has a church on its land. St Mary’s is listed by Historic England as “a small church, incorporating medieval fabric, but restored and rebuilt in 1853, apparently by Miss Sykes of Sledmere House.
“It has an outstanding Norman font. The church is unusually located in a farmyard.
“The roofs are in poor condition and the stonework is deteriorating.” With a grade two listing and an overall condition noted as “poor”, St Mary’s has been assessed as being in “slow decay” with “no solution agreed”.
If the Parochial Church Council had had its way, with the blessing of the Diocese of York, St Mary’s would have closed in 2016, Diann said. But she was not having any of that.
(Image: Campaign to Save Cowlam Church from Closure)
“I said no. I was married here, had a child christened here, I’ve lived here for 65 years and have worked on this farm, with its church in the farmyard, for 50 years.
“The Diocese said, ‘but you have no money, you can’t afford to do anything, you have no insurance’. I said ‘how much?’ and it was £800 for the insurance then.”
Diann is married to Andrew, who runs a local garage six days a week, so she single-handedly looks after the 480-acre arable farm until harvest time when she needs to get contractors in. “I do all the drilling, all the ploughing and see in all the wheat for harvest.”
At the same time as being clerk to Cottam Parish Council, under which Cowlam falls, Diann champions St Mary’s. Diann ended up being able to cover that first insurance bill by appealing to the 27 or so local households of the parish, who all agreed to share the cost and pay extra on their Council Tax – and the arrangement continues today.
Diann and Andrew already helped to keep the church looking as shipshape as they could, cutting the grass around it, but it was going to take much more to stop the rot at St Mary’s, which currently holds a spoken service – “our organ doesn’t work” – once a month on the third Tuesday. “Covid came along and, bang, no money coming in to pay anything.
“I happened to see someone selling bric-a-brac on a wall top and I thought, we could do that at the church. I started a stall-on-the-wall in the church porch and we put out something on Facebook [Campaign to Save Cowlam Church from Closure].
“It started with a bookcase, people were looking for something to do where they could come out and feel safe. Then we started getting too big for the porch and we moved into one of the farm buildings, we had 300 to 400 books.
“It brought enough money in for what we needed to pay the Diocese, Covid packed up and someone said, do you want some bric-a-brac? It snowballed, we had a massive barn and we filled it.
“Now we have three full barns and buildings with bits and pieces. Myself and Alan (Grieveson – a volunteer) get together and do a restock – people think we are married, we work so well together – and we can do £700 or £800 on a Saturday.
“We’ve raised £42,000 so far and all the money we have collected is for the restoration of the church – we have the church services that pay what we owe to the Diocese – and we’re just one short of 900 followers on Facebook. We’ll get people coming in and spending £10 or so but I always said, from the beginning, the stall-on-the-wall was 50ps and every 50p counts, it all adds up.”
(Image: Campaign to Save Cowlam Church from Closure)
Diann, who is a church warden, is helped in her endeavours by volunteers Diane Malcolmson and fellow church warden Sandra Brown, who “helps with sales and keeps the church spotless”. The bric-a-brac emporium just has two more weekend openings to go, finishing with July 12 and 13, because Diann has to empty the barns for this year’s harvest.
“Then we’ll be back again around the end of October time,“ she said. “We get all sorts in. There’s Portmeirion and Royal Doulton, furniture from IKEA, vintage stuff, toys, a lot of it is new; the place is packed with items.
“We negotiate prices – you do get some tough customers but I am getting better at my job now! Last Saturday, a lady came with her daughter who was off to university and she got all her pots and pans, knives and forks, it set her up for not a lot of money.”
While the farm is too busy to have visitors just turning up over the harvest period, people who are interested in a specific item, such as a table and chairs, can possibly be accommodated, by arrangement, with Diann by messaging her on Facebook. She said: “The next big thing for the church is putting a roof on it, making it watertight.
(Image: Campaign to Save Cowlam Church from Closure)
“If we do that it will last another 150 years. The church is so important – we have this famous font – and I’d like to see it become some sort of heritage centre.
“There are so many beautiful little churches in East Yorkshire that are struggling. I don’t think many people realise how amazing they are and you don’t have to want to attend a church service to be able to appreciate a beautiful building.
“Parts of our church date back to the 12th and 13th centuries and why should we let it become a ruin? A church belongs to the people of a parish until they let it go.”
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