Impressions and Textures

You arrive in a village looking for the church.  You see the tower poking above trees in the distance.  You lose track of it as you get nearer but then there it is, framed by trees and surrounded by its graveyard.  Immediately you get an impression of the church and whether it is well cared for, still loved.  You get a rough idea of its age, its former glory, its history.  Churches come in all shapes, all sizes, large, small, some grand, others humble, some endearing, others forbidding.  They reflect the vicissitudes of changing times, or sometimes just the personal whims of rich patrons. 

Some churches in the region, maybe many, have a pre-Conquest origin, though as the first churches were often built of wood all traces will long since have vanished.  By the10th century stone was more often used and traces of some of these early buildings can still be found in churches across the East Midlands, not only in more substantial survivals such as at  Brixworth and Earls Barton in Northamptonshire, but in surviving remnants, such as the tower arch at Market Overton (Rutland) or reset windows at Westborough (Lincs).  But the division between Saxon and Norman is not always so clear and, for example, herring bone masonry which is still found in many East Midlands churches, as at Averham (Notts) and Marton (Lincs), could be characteristic of the crossover period immediately before and after the Conquest.  And this in a roundabout way leads me to note how the materials that churches are built of also add considerably to their character, a character that often reflects the local area and a character which over time changes as buildings become weathered and decayed, or are patched up or rebuilt.

Averham

Marton

I’ve touched on this before in my article about churches around Melton Mowbray where the ironstone not only brings a distinct colouring to churches but also the erosion of the softer stone that produces what I can only describe as a “knobbly” effect as at Kirby Bellars.  There are ironstone churches across a wide path through eastern Leicestershire, Rutland and parts of Lincolnshire, the stone varying in colour from almost orange around Melton (e.g. Kirby Bellars, Welby, and Wartnaby) to a much darker colour in other places, such as Lyddington or Stoke Dry (both Rutland).  But decayed as they might be now these churches must have been pristine when first built.  And that brings me to another point, today we see finely cut 19th century stonework in many churches and perhaps dismiss it as less valuable than original crumbling medieval stonework.  But when churches were built they were not as they are now and decay is a quality that is valued for itself in our time, as witness the continuing fascination for ruins and to quote Pevsner in his comments on Ab Kettleby church (Leics), “of ironstone in a nicely decayed state.”

Lyddington

Stoke Dry

Limestone is used widely in Lincolnshire, particularly Ancaster stone.  It weathers well and is almost invariably grey.  It comes in various forms, often as finely dressed ashlar, which in more prosperous churches often makes up the majority of the building.  Elsewhere it picks out the edges, such as the corners of towers where more strength is needed and it can form patterns, particularly in combination with contrasting materials such as ironstone or flint.  

Patterning at Caythorpe (Lincs)

Skerry at Sutton on Trent (Notts)

In Nottinghamshire sandstone is commonly used, varying between light brown and pinky brown, i.e. “red” sandstone.  But many Notts churches were also built of whatever stone was to hand so limestone is also used together with the widely used skerry stone, a form of mudstone, grey and hard.  In many descriptions of Notts churches the term “rubble” is used to denote the use of a mixture of materials and size of blocks.  This  produces an interesting effect, particularly with the unifying factor of the patina of age, which adds rather than detracts from the fascination and aesthetic quality of the building.

Egmanton (Notts)

Norwell (Notts)

Another distinctive stone is often employed in the lower Trent Valley where the river forms the border between Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.  This is blue lias, a grey rough cut stone that produces a rubbled and decayed texture, much loved in places by masonry bees that burrow into holes and crevasses in the stone, e.g. at South Collingham (Notts) and  Marton (Lincs).  

South Collingham

 Most churches were not, of course, built to any single design and the changes of centuries often make up a fascinating texture, incorporating whatever materials were to hand when building or repairs were done.  At Brixworth (Northants) substantial amounts of Roman tiles were re-used when the church was built in Saxon times.  Other churches, often in historically poorer villages, show the use of many kinds of stone, often recycled, or sometimes incorporating brick, slate, or whatever was to hand, reflecting the many times that repairs have needed to be done, e.g. at the fascinating little church at Brooke (Rutland) or at Stragglethorpe (Lincs).

Brixworth

Brooke

Stragglethorpe

Red brick also has its place and looks good in simple Georgian designs such as at Morton (Notts), Allington and Stapleford (both Lincs), but when used as the main building material in large Victorian Gothic churches such as at Tur Langton (Leics) and Winthorpe (Notts) the impression is, at least to me, rather unsympathetic to the rural landscape.  But hey, who am I to complain?  Some people like wind turbines….

Stapleford

Winthorpe

Another fascination is to see the tooling marks on stonework made by medieval masons, or indeed by modern masons where repairs have been made.  No doubt an expert can tell what tools were used or how old the work is from these marks.  For me the pattern and feeling of connection with the masons of long ago is enough.  

Tooling Marks: Frisby on the Wreake (Leics)

Graffiti: Westborough (Lincs)

 

Graffiti on stonework is something else to look out for, not so common on exteriors, quite common in porches and sometimes found inside particularly on columns.  I remember the thrill of discovering my grandfather's initials carved on a tree in his home village, done he told me some 60 years before.  Carved on stone graffiti lasts much longer and provided it doesn't destroy someting of great antiquity or quality (e.g. graffiti on alabaster tombs) to me it's just another fascination amongst many.

Manton

Evedon

Long Bennington

Finally just a mention of the wonderful colours and textures produced by lichens.  Here are two examples, on gravestones at Manton (Rutland) and at Evedon (Lincs).  And I must also make mention of boundary walls around churchyards, often overlooked but sometimes of high quality in their construction.  Here’s a fine example of a drystone wall at Long Bennington.

 

Trent Valley Firsts

On a dull 1 June our aim was to reach the Saxon/Norman minster at Stow in Lindsey. To get there we travelled for the first time down the Trent Valley north of Newark and visited a largely unremarkable set of small tower churches. The contrast with the richly decorated churches of Rutland and South Lincolnshire was startling. No exuberant spires here. The first church we visited, however, was something of an exception.

Holme is  a curiousity, with little architectural coherence, a tile roof and a stumpy little spire. In many ways, though, it was, with Stow, the highlight of the trip. It has a scarcely- touched interior, medieval stained glass, Perpendicular windows, a double monument with a skeleton underneath, a room over the porch and some delightful bench carvings.  It was a pleasure to have access to the key (and a bathroom) from friendly neighbours across the road and the signboard emphasised the welcome it gives to visitors.

Two-tiered monument to John Barton

John Barton's shields on the porch

Elegantly-hatted Isabella Barton

Bench-end angels

The window of medieval fragments has a panel with a fine inscription to the church's benefactor:

"Pray for the soul of John Barton, merchant of the Staple of Calais, d. 1491, who built this church."

John Barton was a Lancashire man and Simon Jenkins, in his book "England's Thousand Best Churches", surmises that he set up in Holme  when he was following his sheep to the east coast ports. In medieval times, Holme was on the western side of the Trent whereas now the river has shifted and has put the village on the eastern, Lincolnshire, side, although still inside the Nottinghamshire boundary.


For the first time we met some other church crawlers and we went round the interior with them. They were from Clacton in Essex and were knowledgable members of a U3A church visiting group . (Chris's photo).



On this trip it was difficult to ignore how close we were to the River Trent. Slightly worrying evidence at Collingham recorded flood levels on the churchyard wall.

Across the river from St George's, Clifton (North and South), High Marnham's power station towers were a looming presence and provided a bizarre resonance with the family name (Cooling) on two churchyard headstones.

It was in Clifton that Chris discovered that his new bridge camera allowed him to take a shot of a stained glass window in the north aisle from outside a clear window in the opposite wall of the nave. That's a facilty we will no doubt be making more use of in this part of the East Midlands, as many churches are locked as a matter of course. Today, however, we benefited from the courtesy of key holders at Langford and Marton, in addition to Holme, so thanks to all of them.

But more of those churches another time. What we really wanted to see was Stow. Visiting our first "minster" on these trips, we were greeted by a peal of bells (some bell ringers from Suffolk were visiting too). It is a  huge  parish church ("monumental", Pevsner calls it), originating from 1034-1050, with later additions and a sympathetic Victorian re-build of the chancel roof and east wall by J.L. Pearson. Known as "the mother of Lincoln cathedral", which it pre-dates, from the outside it looks like a cathedral in its own right. It is a "four star" church among Simon Jenkins' top one thousand, putting it in his top 100.

 Inside, the church has a decided "wow" factor. It is enormously high, with huge Saxon and later Gothic arches in the crossing, supporting the tower, which was replaced in the 15th Century. The "blind" canopied arcades around the chancel suggest that there were seats for a large number of priests, consistent with the function of a minster church in a system of church management before there were parishes. Stow was the base for pre-Norman bishops and was responsible for pastoral care and land management for a large area (explained in a free guide to the church).

There was so much to see that the photos below give only a taster. The font has pagan carvings all around it, supposedly symbolising the casting off of superstition at the sacrament of baptism. A Saxon doorway has been revealed underneath plaster and a brightly-coloured window high in the south wall gives St Hugh of Lincoln a proprietorial view of the whole magnificent church.

Crossing tower arches

Green man on font

Saxon doorway

St Hugh window

With much to absorb in these two feature churches, the remaining 10 or 11 we visited will be held over. In conclusion, however, another "first" cannot go unmentioned. That was the rare example in the tiny St Edith's church at Coates-by-Stow of a rood loft, the only one remaining in Lincolnshire. These were usually torn down during the Reformation so it is exceptional to see the wooden gallery, the faded paintings of the head of the Virgin and sprays of flowers on the tympanum and the rickety stone stairs in the wall which actually lead somewhere!

Click on any photo for an enlargement.

Ironstone and Angels

Kirby Bellars

Leicestershire this time and what a contrast to the grey limestone churches of Lincolnshire!  Around Melton Mowbray most churches are built of ironstone, smaller ones wholly of ironstone and others part ironstone and part limestone.  This makes the colours on a sunny day really quite vivid, ranging from dark rusty brown to orange, but many of the churches show considerable erosion which results in some cases in an odd knobbly effect, as at Kirby Bellars. There the erosion on the south and western sides is serious, especially when compared to the northern more sheltered side where some of the original surface survives.   

Elsewhere the stone appears to be trying to return to the beach where it must have originally been formed; indeed at times it is possible to see masses of compacted shells poking out from the stone.  But with the degree of erosion in places it is really possible to imagine some time in the future where it will become a serious issue and for small rural churches could that mean the end of their life as viable operational buildings?  But for now the ironstone produces a very picturesque quality to many churches in the area. 

Another feature of the area is that in many churchyards there are slate gravestones, some dating from the C17 and many from the C18.  These came from the Swithland slate pits, near Loughborough, and are characterised by beautiful lettering and touching doggerel and many have depictions of cartoon like angels, called locally Belvoir Angels, mostly at the top of the stones.  It is rare to see so many memorials from the C17 and C18 outside in graveyards but the endurance of the slate has ensured that now, 250 or even 300 years later, we can still celebrate the lives of long dead parishioners and still mourn their tragedies.  One poignant memorial to a toddler dated 1724 reads, 
 
   Short was his race
   Long his rest
   God takes them soon 
   Whom he loves best

For me such insights into life lived so long ago by our ancestors is one of the things that makes church visiting so rewarding.  We found these stones in abundance at Upper and Nether Broughton and at Long Clawson.

 
 St Mary’s church in Melton is justly celebrated, “the stateliest and most impressive of all churches in Leicestershire” (Pevsner).  But strangely it didn’t grab my heart strings as I thought it would.  Yes it’s grand, big and airy with its remarkable Perpendicular clerestory windows around its nave and transepts, and it’s everything the guide books say about it but even so what we especially liked this trip were the smaller churches around Melton, particularly Holwell and Wartnaby.   


Holwell hardly merits much of a mention in Pevsner, being only a simple rectangular building with a single bellcote, but its setting in the centre of the village on a small rise well above the main street is lovely.  Again, like at Dry Doddington and Brandon, the churchyard is now laid out as an open green space incorporating seating and the village pump.  And the church’s simple interior could easily lend itself to use for other communal activities in a village where few other facilities appear to be available.  We’ve seen such uses in other villages where the local church is again assuming a stronger relationship with its parish rather than in places where the church seems on the periphery of village life rather than being central to its community.

Wartnaby is another tiny church with no tower.  It was undergoing extensive repairs when we visited and was covered in scaffolding.  Inside though is an early round arched arcade which still bears its original painted ornamentation of flower and plant motifs and fleurs de lis.  Very unusual, we must revisit when the repairs are completed.  Again, it has a lovely setting in a tiny village.   We also visited two other miniature churches at Welby, where there is no village, and at Sysonby, right on the edge of Melton’s built up area.

Scalford

Asfordby

Elsewhere we were impressed by Scalford which has quite a grand church, and is well worth a visit, as is Asfordby, and happily we could see inside both but other churches we visited were locked with no indication of where we could find a key.   

One of these was at Frisby on the Wreake which has an interesting church with a beautiful Decorated south transept window featuring flamboyant flowing tracery, quite unusual in a village church.  As for the rest of the day the other churches we saw were strangely less memorable, or maybe we just tried to see too many churches in a day, but the weather was so good we had to make the most of it!

 




What else?  Well, we were intrigued when coming out of Holwell we encountered a gated road with dire warnings about the possibility of the ground collapsing under us if we ventured off the road, due presumably to former iron workings.  But what also amused us was the little sign added to the warning notice which advised us, “CAUTION LAMBS ON ROAD”.  I know it was to warn us to watch out for lambs who might not yet have learned the highway code but the thought also occurred that perhaps there might be some huge mutant lambs marauding along the lanes up ahead. That reminds me also of that other favourite sign that proclaims “DANGER HEAVY PLANT CROSSING”.  For years I’ve watched out for a giant oak or triffid like plant suddenly lurching across the road in front but I’ve never seen one yet… One day…

23 May 2012

Pagan Sites or Washed Away Villages?

 

Dawn came with a fiery redness in the eastern sky but happily the shepherds got it wrong this time and our April outing had spells of sunshine, white clouds and blue skies in equal measures.

This time we continued our search of villages in the Witham Valley. Martin had spotted on the map that many churches along the valley are located close to the river well away from the centre of their villages, such as at Westborough, Barnby in the Willows and Stapleford. Could it be that the churches were built on pre-Christian sites where there was a ritualistic connection between the river and the site or had early settlements near the churches been swept away by long ago floods and then rebuilt at a safer distance away from the river? Or is it just coincidence? Perhaps there’s a future PhD on this subject and we may well return to it in later blogs. Our day was coloured, however, by speculation about pagan sacrifices and votive offerings cast into the waters….

We started the day at Dry Doddington where the church sits proudly in a beautifully kept village green, fringed with colourful spring flower beds. Presumably there must have been a churchyard in earlier times but the effect is certainly neat and different, though at Brandon a few miles away there is the same feature. Another unusual feature is that the tower and spire has a pronounced lean, almost enough to rival the slightly more famous church at Pisa. Unfortunately the church was locked and so we then followed the local bus two miles to the next village, to the more celebrated Claypole church, accorded two stars in Simon Jenkins’ list.

Claypole is an impressive church with spire and ornamentation in abundance. Inside it has beautiful carvings of leaves on the capitals of pillars throughout and hiding amongst them some depictions of green men. Could there be any connection with Southwell Minster where similar carvings can also be found? Lots of interesting things to see inside, notably the ornate sedilia and aumbry in the chancel, the delicate rood screen and Perpendicular font. Outside the church is big, too big to photograph comfortably in a single shot and though it was possible using wide angle it could only be done with huge distortion of the verticals. Beautiful church though and well worth a visit.

The next four churches were in small villages and on a more domestic level, Stubton, Fenton, Brandon and Stragglethorpe. Of these Stragglethorpe is the most interesting having the rare distinction of not being rebuilt in the Victorian period, presumably because, unusually, it had been restored in the previous century. Inside there are Norman arches and a complete set of C18 furniture including pulpit and pews, and notably a huge box pew that was presumably for the lord of the manor, so big that it occupies a good proportion of the nave. Many thanks, incidentally, to the young lady who came running across to us with the key even before we’d worked out where we should go to fetch it from.

The day was going well but then we hit a few problems. Firstly it was getting near lunchtime so we thought we’d find something to eat in the next village but first we had to endure a nose to tail first gear stop start queue of traffic on the A17 due, we found out later, to road works nearer Newark. Having survived the queue, and associated argument in the car as to how we could and should have avoided it, we arrived at Beckingham, only to find the pub closed and the church covered in scaffolding as it was undergoing major work on its tower. So we had to hastily replan our route and the next pub wasn’t until Norton Disney, several villages down our list and several miles to the north. 

A pleasant lunch was followed by a brisk walk to the very engaging church, again near the river and on the edge of the village. The church possesses many gargoyles and other funny carved faces, both inside and out, some looking almost as if they could have been the original models of Disney characters! Several ancient stone effigies in the side chapel as well.

Then on toThurlby, rather plain and locked but within the churchyard there is a poignant area containing military headstones commemorating RAF pilots and aircrew who died in WWII and later, some tragically very young. These must have been stationed at the nearby Swinderby aerodrome.

Our trip then continued back to the simple, mainly Georgian, church at Stapleford very close to the river and well away from its village. Then on to Coddington, but both churches were locked. We had hoped to see the Victorian Pre-Raphaelite stained glass windows at Coddington but it seems to be necessary to pre-arrange access to the church and we will have to return another time. 

So in the late afternoon sunshine we went onto our last church at Barnby in the Willows. Here the churchyard borders the river and it is a really superb setting seen from the riverside. The church is surprisingly large for a small village and the general impression is that it looks a bit patched up with areas of rendering around the clerestory and eastern end. The first thing to see though is the grand and ornate C15 north porch which features again some rather comical carved faces and creatures, very similar to those at Norton Disney, perhaps even by the same set of masons. It also has a particularly long chancel which appears to have been added on much later than the rest of the building. This is unusual in several aspects, not least because of the curious windows in the chancel which the British Listed Buildings website describes as C17, though I’ve certainly never seen anything like them anywhere else.

Our day out was as usual very enjoyable and despite being in a week of heavy rain and grey skies luckily we seem to have picked the best day of the week. I hope that we are similarly lucky when we go out in May, this time, for a change, to the area around Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire.

22 April 2012.