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Pews start at around pounds 180 and go up to more than pounds 1000 for an intricately hand carved example

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Pews start at around pounds 180, and go up to more than pounds 1,000 for an intricately hand carved example. Part of the business is cutting and altering the items to fit. A nice bit of Gothic organ panelling makes a lovely bedhead, says Groes. But it's a myth that the success of architectural salvage firms is in direct proportion of the decline in religion. The vast majority of churches we see are not redundant, they are refurbishing. They need flexibility, and pews are not flexible."Pew Corner's six-acre site at Artington Manor Farm also stocks hand-carved eagles (very big with Victorians), pulpits, screens and lecterns.

Fresh carrot or apple juice or a banana shake is pounds 1.20 or divine melon juice just pounds 1.50. Nutty, honeyed sweets are two or three for a pound.After a Taza shawarma, the words "I could kill for a kebab" will take on a whole new meaning.Taza Take Away 35a Queensway W2 (0171-727 7420). When Gothic turns up as a style statement in Marks & Spencer, you realise a niche market has swiftly expanded to meet the masses Rosalind Russell checks out this latest style fad. Formerly the preserve of keen renovators of decrepit old houses, intent on keeping true to the period, Gothic bits and pieces tended to be original, salvaged from Victorian churches and pubs. Now you can buy a new "Gothic" bed from the M&S home catalogue with ecclesiastically arched head and base boards - just the job if you're kitting out a smart church conversion.

Made of heavy-gauge steel with pewter-effect finish, the single bedstead costs pounds 635, up to pounds 899 for a six-footer (mattress extra).While lying in it, you could contemplate a Gothic-style five-armed ceiling light (pounds 130) or a hand-painted, bronze-effect, two-armed wall light with fleur de lis motif at pounds 60 (both from M&S).On the table might rest a Gothic style crown fruit bowl with sconces for seven candles, pounds 30 from Bombay Duck. And on the floor, a tall black Gothic candle-holder, pounds 25 from Debenhams. Appropriately, Past Times is offering a Gothic tracery wrought-iron flower-pot planter at pounds 39.50 and a hand-carved Gothic mirror with quatrefoil motifs, at pounds 24.99.For some, of course, there's nothing like the real thing. There is a home owner in north London whose garden path is composed entirely of old gravestones, and in her hall stands an impressive brass eagle lectern."We didn't sell the gravestones to her," says Mark Groes, of Pew Corner, the Surrey architectural salvage firm, "but I'd certainly buy some if I were offered them."Groes launched his business after going out to buy a pew one day and ending up buying a churchful. The demolition contractor was going to burn the lot."We sell hundreds every year, buying directly from churches to avoid any problems with theft.

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