Just down the road from the prefabs was Saint Michael (Is No Angel) church. Michael was the 'top dog' archangel whose most important job was to stand up for the people of Israel. Given what happened to the people of Israel in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s you start to have doubts as to whether this 'top dog' archangel was all he was cracked up to be.
Church of England Sunday School meetings in Twiverton never went on for too long and always ended with a treat. A hallowed tradition in the 1950s was the vicar assistant's solemn and much appreciated closing ceremony of handing out cigarette cards of tanks and fighter planes and various other gruesome instruments of war. "Any means necessary to win over young Christian soldiers!" would be the peace loving vicar's assistant's cheery words.
Bert Downhill was coaxed out of his marathon Sunday morning kips in prefab number nineteen by the rumours of cigarette card largesse. Reg went on to be confirmed in Saint Michael's and at one point there was even talk of his being granted a place on the coveted front row pew! The coveted front row pew had a pedigree which went back into tims immemorial. It was a place on the coveted front road pew which assured the gentry that the established social order remained secure. Although Bert would one day go (there is no other way of putting it) downhill - the Englishcombe Village cider house has a lot to answer for - no one would ever forget the time he came within a hair's breadth of taking his place on the coveted front row pew.
Take a stroll through the tranquil grounds of Saint Michael (part Saxon/part Norman/and part D-I-Y) and you will almost feel touched by the balm of Gilead. While many of the inscriptions on the gravestones have been eroded by the biting west wind, there is one which refuses to be bowed by the passage of time. For one time residents of Twiverton's prefab estates it has come to act as a lodestar which guides them through the travails of life.

"Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents and innocent as doves." (Matthew 10:16).

Poets inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke (especially his 'Ever Again' verse about resting "Among flowers. Facing the sky") wander towards this churchyard at dusk. This is where intimations of the future can be heard being whispered through the trees.