Without A Friend, St Mary's Would Have Been Knocked Down

Volunteer Christine McDonald takes care of a once neglected and forgotten church, ensuring its quiet charm is preserved for generations to come

- Sophie Gale

I first encountered the church when I’d sneak out of my bedroom as a teenager.

I lived in a Victorian house near a farm in Maldon, Essex. My bedroom looked out at the Scout hut and, having got to know some of the Scouts, I had a pact with them. I would flash my bedroom light three times and, if they returned the signal, we would tumble out into the summer evening air and make our way through woods to St Mary’s, a dilapidated church in nearby Mundon. It was, and still is, a remarkable place – a patchwork of links to the past, Anglo Saxon and medieval in parts, with a Tudor bell tower, and a chancel that was refashioned in the Georgian period.