{"id":2166422,"date":"2026-09-27T07:04:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T04:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2166422"},"modified":"2026-09-27T07:04:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T04:04:06","slug":"burnham-on-sea-church-marks-200-years-of-historic-angel-statues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2166422","title":{"rendered":"Burnham-on-Sea church marks 200 years of historic angel statues"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/6155\/live\/a0924960-b81d-11f1-b19f-05e2dfdadad2.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"StSt Andrew’s Church<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The angels originally formed part of an altar piece in Whitehall Palace<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A Somerset church is celebrating 200 years since a group of angel statues with links to kings, queens, Sir Christopher Wren and Westminster Abbey, arrived in the county.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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St Andrew’s Church in Burnham-on-Sea, has been marking the anniversary with a series of community events, culminating with a rededication and blessing service later.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The 17th Century sculptures once formed part of King James II’s altarpiece at Whitehall palace and survived a palace fire and political upheaval, before being brought to St Andrew’s in 1826.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Reverend Cheryl Hawkins, Vicar of Burnham-on-Sea Benefice, said the anniversary has given the church an opportunity to bring the community together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"StSt Andrew’s Church<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The 17th Century angel statues were brought to St Andrew’s Church in 1826 by Walter King, the Bishop of Rochester and Vicar of Burnham.<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The angels originally formed part of an altarpiece commissioned by King James II for a chapel at Whitehall Palace.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Acclaimed English architect, Sir Christopher Wren, designed both the chapel and the altarpiece.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The carvings are thought to have been been completed around Christmas 1686, just two years before King James II was deposed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Due to the association with the Catholic king, the altarpiece was dismantled and taken into storage, which proved fortunate as a few years later, most of Whitehall Palace was destroyed by fire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The altarpiece spent around a century at Westminster Abbey before being removed again and the surviving pieces eventually being brought to Burnham-on-Sea.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"StSt Andrew’s Church<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The carvings were created by Grinling Gibbons and Arnold Quellin<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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To celebrate the anniversary, the church has held a series of events, including an angel-themed trail for families, children’s events, a prayer installation and a project which has seen parishioners create scores of knitted angels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Community groups and local schools are invited to take part in the main celebrations through angel-inspired artwork and music.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Hawkins said: “We hope it will encourage people to step inside our lovely church, perhaps for the first time, and discover all that the church has to offer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Its history and beautiful surroundings, our spaces for prayer and reflection, and to experience the warm welcome from the people who are part of St Andrew’s Church community today.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Follow BBC Somerset on <\/i>Facebook<\/i> and <\/i>X<\/i>. Send your story ideas to us on email or via <\/i>WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cxddvlln52vro”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/6155\/live\/a0924960-b81d-11f1-b19f-05e2dfdadad2.jpg”] St Andrew’s Church The angels originally formed part of an altar piece in Whitehall Palace A Somerset church is celebrating 200 years since a group of angel statues with links to kings, queens, Sir Christopher Wren and Westminster Abbey, arrived in the county. St Andrew’s Church in Burnham-on-Sea, has been marking the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2166422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2166422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2166422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2166422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2166422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}