Qualla: Charles Church, Plymouth https://qualla.com/charles-church-plymouth en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/n/charles-church-plymouth-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Charles Church, Plymouth https://qualla.com/charles-church-plymouth Charles Church, Plymouth: Introduction https://qualla.com/charles-church-plymouth/ Photo credit N Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0. On the night of 20 March 1941, incendiary bombs fell on Plymouth. Charles Church burned. The fire took everything that could burn: every pew, every gallery, every bell rope, the wooden ceiling. The bells themselves fell through the burning tower and shattered, all except one, which cracked. When the dawn came, the font lay smashed into fragments that were later gathered into a small cairn. Plymouth lost 1,200 civilians to the bombing campaign that the Luftwaffe pressed against the naval city. After the war, the people of Plymouth made a decision: they would not rebuild Charles Church. They would leave it exactly as the fire left it. The ruin would be the memorial.

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Image: N Chadwick | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/n/charles-church-plymouth-wp/gbvn-charles-church-plymouth-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Charles Church, Plymouth: A Puritan Church for a Puritan Town https://qualla.com/charles-church-plymouth/ Photo credit Reading Tom from Reading, UK, CC BY 2.0. Charles Church should never have been called Charles Church. The Plymouth that petitioned King Charles I in 1634 for a second parish was a Puritan town, sympathetic to the Pilgrim Fathers who had sailed from its harbour fourteen years earlier. The High Anglican king had no love f...

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Image: Reading Tom from Reading, UK | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/n/charles-church-plymouth-wp/gbvn-charles-church-plymouth-a-puritan-church-for-a-puritan-town.mp3 0:06 2 full Charles Church, Plymouth: Built During a Siege https://qualla.com/charles-church-plymouth/ Photo credit Public domain. Construction began in 1641 and stopped almost immediately. Plymouth declared for Parliament and was besieged by Royalist forces from 1643 to 1646. The half-built church served as stabling for cavalry horses, and yet parts of it were still used for worship. A wedding is recorded o...

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Image: Public domain

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/n/charles-church-plymouth-wp/gbvn-charles-church-plymouth-built-during-a-siege.mp3 0:06 3 full Charles Church, Plymouth: The Star of the West https://qualla.com/charles-church-plymouth/ Photo credit Smalljim, CC BY-SA 3.0. Robert Hawker became minister in 1784 and stayed for forty-three years. He was called 'the Star of the West' for sermons that could hold thousands rapt for an hour at a time. He was a bold Evangelical, prolific author, advocate for the parish poor, and beloved by his congregation...

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Image: Smalljim | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/n/charles-church-plymouth-wp/gbvn-charles-church-plymouth-the-star-of-the-west.mp3 0:06 4 full Charles Church, Plymouth: The Memorial https://qualla.com/charles-church-plymouth/ Photo credit Tony Atkin, CC BY-SA 2.0. When the fires were out and the war was over, Plymouth had moved its population to the new suburbs. The city centre was rebuilt around the bones of the old. Charles Church stood at the heart of it: roofless, scorched, surrounded ten years later by the construction of a roundabout...

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Image: Tony Atkin | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/n/charles-church-plymouth-wp/gbvn-charles-church-plymouth-the-memorial.mp3 0:06 5 full