Marian Bovill laughingly calls herself one of the ancient monuments of Crowland Abbey.
She was christened there in 1933 and is a regular worshipper today.
Ask her what the abbey means to her – as artist Steven Hatton did when he was working on a project about the beautiful building – and she will say: “When I open the door the first and foremost thing for me is the peace and the quiet of Crowland Abbey.
“My week and my life isn’t complete unless I can get to Crowland Abbey.”
Marian has lived all over the world, but always wanted to return to the town she calls home, something she finally did in 1988 when her husband Alan died.
The abbey is an important part of life for Edna Holland too, especially since her husband died ten years ago.
Edna says: “I go most Sundays when I am able. It gives me peace and uplift for the rest of the week.”
The very stones of the abbey make up the story of her life, because she was married within them, as were her mother and grandmother.
Her late husband Ivan was in the choir at the abbey as a young lad, as was his father, and his parents also married at the abbey.
The usually unspoken words about the significance of a place of worship were revealed to Steve Hatton, who works under the name Electric Egg.
He listened as the people of Crowland revealed their thoughts about the abbey for his project, carried out as part of Transported, a community focused programme aimed at getting more local people involved in arts activities.
Steven has made a digital stained glass window and has used the recorded voices of the people of Crowland as the audio soundtrack to the work.
He says he was originally inspired to creativity by his first sighting about seven years ago of the window aperture in the ruined part of the abbey, in what was the nave .
Originally, the stained glass window would have explained a part of the religious story.
However, Steven wanted to create a “window” for the 21st century, and to tell the story of Crowland and the way people interact with the abbey.
People spoke to him about the abbey being a focal point to their lives, in terms of a quiet space as well as being the location for special family times.
What Steven found more surprising though, was people’s understanding of the changing role of the abbey. Steven said: “I think it surprised me how progressive people were in terms of understanding that the role of the church changes and continues to change over the centuries.
“As the vicar, the Rev Charles Brown, says, it’s somewhere for the community, you don’t have to be religious.”