St Michael's Church, Houghton-Le-Spring

The snow just wouldn't stop!

I don't ever recall seeing so much snow falling in my home town of Houghton-Le-Spring. The roads were awful, with many cars abandoned at the roadside in such terrible driving conditions. Radio reports confirmed that some of the major in-roads were closed and the very steep Houghton Cut was one of the casualties. I'd just returned by car from Pennywell, a journey which would normally take twenty minutes but actually took seventy! For the most part I was in first gear. Quite unbelievable really, but the roads were so bad that every car was at snails pace. No hurry though, as it was very much a case of safety first.

On my return to Houghton I headed up the road from Longacre to the nearby town centre and St Michael & All Angels Church. Another picturesque Christmas scened awaited and there I was with my kit bag and tripod, in search of those elusive Christmas card shots. On arrival at the church I noticed one or two people standing at a nearby bus stop. Surely they weren't waiting for a bus in these conditions! Long wait, mate! There were no snowball throwing 'Chavs' kicking about so I was quite relieved, now expecting an uninterrupted photo session. Mind you, I was quite in the mood to 'Scrub' a few of the local scruffs so in a small way I was a bit disappointed...he he. Ah well...

The snow was at least six inches thick as I trudged through the church grounds. It was still falling as I took my first shots of the church and my flashgun picked up a few flakes as they fell into the shot.

I was quite pleased with the results. I'll be definately offering them to the vicar in postcard form next Christmas. It's always nice to help out free of charge. I was only inside St Michael's Church a couple of days ago to see my son in his school nativity play and we will probably return in 2010. Who knows, my postcards may well be sitting in the rack alongside the others.

Thanks for reading. Ash