The History:
As usual there's already better rundowns online with more detail, but long story short this chapel was constructed by a man who first came to England as a refugee from Nazi Germany in the onset of WW2. He was born in 1918 in Czechoslovakia, moving through Poland, Romania, France, and eventually winding up in England as the Nazis pushed through Europe. He married an English woman in 1945 as war ended, and later stayed in Norfolk where he bought a patch of woodland to mirror his love for the forests back home in Czechoslovakia, and in later life decided to construct a small Catholic shrine as a gesture of thanks to England for his refuge. Whilst sources suggest the chapel was consecrated in 1974, the date 1982 is actually above the doorway so this suggests it was finished in the early 1980s - not quite sure how that one works out. When the man sadly died, his chapel was left to mother nature with nobody to care for it. Despite this, this gem with a personal tale still survives as somewhat of an abandoned sanctuary amongst the wilds of Norfolk.
The Explore:
Bit of a toughie to find - this one just takes pure grind of searching the vast expanse of woods in the area. After it not being in the location I thought it was (due to seemingly being named by the wrong wood online), I had to do something I rarely ever do and call on some friends for help. Given that I had a time restriction and was far from home, I didn't want to waste the journey, so thanks for the help guys! However, I still couldn't bring myself to explicitly ask for the pin
. The detour wasn't a bad thing though as it led us to an area of abandoned cars as a nice bonus. Very much a bit of a time capsule, and rather dark and dusty inside. I used exposure bracketing to bring out the full range of detail in the place and lighten it up, very pleased with the results!
As usual there's already better rundowns online with more detail, but long story short this chapel was constructed by a man who first came to England as a refugee from Nazi Germany in the onset of WW2. He was born in 1918 in Czechoslovakia, moving through Poland, Romania, France, and eventually winding up in England as the Nazis pushed through Europe. He married an English woman in 1945 as war ended, and later stayed in Norfolk where he bought a patch of woodland to mirror his love for the forests back home in Czechoslovakia, and in later life decided to construct a small Catholic shrine as a gesture of thanks to England for his refuge. Whilst sources suggest the chapel was consecrated in 1974, the date 1982 is actually above the doorway so this suggests it was finished in the early 1980s - not quite sure how that one works out. When the man sadly died, his chapel was left to mother nature with nobody to care for it. Despite this, this gem with a personal tale still survives as somewhat of an abandoned sanctuary amongst the wilds of Norfolk.
The Explore:
Bit of a toughie to find - this one just takes pure grind of searching the vast expanse of woods in the area. After it not being in the location I thought it was (due to seemingly being named by the wrong wood online), I had to do something I rarely ever do and call on some friends for help. Given that I had a time restriction and was far from home, I didn't want to waste the journey, so thanks for the help guys! However, I still couldn't bring myself to explicitly ask for the pin
. The detour wasn't a bad thing though as it led us to an area of abandoned cars as a nice bonus. Very much a bit of a time capsule, and rather dark and dusty inside. I used exposure bracketing to bring out the full range of detail in the place and lighten it up, very pleased with the results!
