Holiday-makers compete to build churches on the beach
Building churches on foundations of sand is not generally to be recommended. Yet each year hundreds of people transform one of Wales’ best loved beaches into an ecclesiastical building site.
From country parishes to cathedrals, Noah’s Ark to Mont-Saint-Michel, there were more than 50 entries in this year’s Sand Church competition at Whitesands Beach, St Davids, in Pembrokeshire. The competition, which has been running for 30 years, attracts holiday-makers from across the UK and has three categories – children, families and adults.
Clergy from St Davids Cathedral traditionally help out with the judging and this year it was the turn of Canon Sheridan James, the recently appointed Canon Pastor for Parish and Pilgrims.
The weather was warm and dry and competitors had all morning to dig out and craft their designs before judging began at low tide. There was an anxious wait while all the entries were carefully examined.
“The standard was very high and it was difficult to choose the winners,” said Canon Sheridan. “People have been so creative and artistic in their designs and have clearly put a lot of thought into what churches mean to them. It’s been wonderful to see friends and families coming together to take part and enjoy a fantastic free event.”
The competition is organized by St Davids Peninsula Tourism and Trade Association. One of the original founders is artist Rod Williams. Now in his 90s, Rod is still part of the judging team.
“The event began more than 30 years ago, when we were celebrating an 800th anniversary of Gerald of Wales," he said. "As a child, Gerald built sand churches on Manorbier beach and we thought it would be a good idea to recreate that on Whitesands beach, which has excellent sand for building with. It proved so popular that we have held the competition almost every year since and people seem to love it. This year we had a lot of family groups taking part so had a few extra prizes for that category.”
The winners of each category received the grand sum of £25 but sadly only had a few more hours to revel in their success before the tide came in and washed the entire building site away for another year.
