The Stump in miniature.

Almost all Bostonians must have visited our beautiful church in their lives along with thousands of visitors and tourists over the years. One of the interesting things to see there is a large model of the church built from nothing more than matchsticks.

It was built by Mr. John Johnson in 1963 when he was off work with a broken leg as he wanted something to occupy the nine months that he was expected to be unable to work. It took him about six months and 37,000 matches to complete the model. Certainly an ambitious project, this was only Mr. Johnson's second attempt at model making, his first being of Laceby Church.
Using a brochure of the Stump, Mr. Johnson set about building the 40 inch high and 36 inch long model. Whenever the brochure didn't show the precise detail that he wanted, he "hobbled across to the Stump to have a look" from his home in Mitre Lane, Boston. He would often spend up to 12 hours a day working on the model but when it was finished he had nowhere to store it so he took it to the Noel Craft garage on Frithbank where he was working at the time and left it there.
When Coupland's bought the garage the model was still there and they offered to return it to Mr. Johnson, however, Mr. Johnson still didn't have space for it, so it stayed at the garage.
Over the years Mr. Coupland forgot that it was Mr. Johnson who had made the model and in 1980 he gave the model to the church and it was put into the custody of the warden, Mr. Fox, who intended to make minor repairs to it. Luckily for us he did, and it is now in full view inside the church.