Tuesday 2 October 2018

Mythic Beasts And Angels


While making my visit to St Mary's church at Over recently I took the opportunity to walk the mile or so down the road to the neighbouring village of Swavesey. It's another place with a big church, reflecting the former importance of the area. 



By the 1860s the church was in need of extensive restoration. One small aspect of this work was to replace most of the pew benches. If you look carefully at the photo above you'll see that there are small carvings on top of each bench end. These are known as poppy-heads, a name which derives from puppis which means the figure-head on a ship. Lets have a closer look...



During the Victorian period there was a belief that our churches should be returned to some kind of medieval perfection. A few 15th century pews remain here and the picture on the right above is almost certainly a rather battered medieval survival, whereas the one on the left is a nineteenth century copy. Many of the 120 poppyhead designs on show are copies, but no less interesting for that.



Sometimes the Victorian craftsmen incorporated any usable fragments of the earlier work. The front part of the ass (?) above seems to be grafted on to an older remnant.



The style of the work varies enormously. The left one here could be a scene from a fable and strikes me as very Victorian. The one on the right however is just plain weird as many medieval carvings were.



The owl here has caught a rat - predation by animals is often a theme in this set of poppyheads.




Sometimes the animals are mythical beasts of some kind, while others are clearly recognisable.




No one can doubt the artistry of the woodcarving, though most of the artists are unknown tradesmen. A few like Henry Ringham and William Polley are known to be associated with certain churches but here no one seems to know who the artists were.



A dog is surprised to find it's grown a fin on its back. Nearby a lion with wings appears to resent having to hold a heraldic shield.



The style here, with oddly elongated forms but vigorous movement, is different again. Does this reveal different restorers, different original carving from earlier times or a mixture of both.



There were many angels amongst the assembled throng, though I seem to have concentrated mostly on the bizarre creatures. 



Isn't that boar magnificent?



Here a unicorn seems to have found a use for his horn, scratching that difficult to reach spot. And a very odd-looking animal finds it all highly amusing.

OK. I got rather carried away taking pictures of these poppyhead pews. But there are more than 100 others, plus more in the choir stalls. And no one really knows why on earth such things find themselves in church, but there are many examples, both originals and reproductions, in the country churches of East Anglia.


Take care.




19 comments:

  1. How wonderful - I love the boar and the owl in particular.

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  2. What a wonderful eclectic collection these poppyhead pews are - you can readily appreciate both the humour, and the skill that has been used by the various craftsmen in creating them.

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  3. Thank you for this post. Never heard of this ornamentation before.

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  4. What fun creatures they are! My thought was that the joy of such strangeness might keep parishioners awake through long or dull sermons, but of course that would never be mentioned out loud!

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  5. Woodcarving really is an art! Very interesting to see these little pieces.
    You mentioned that there were more than 100 others.. is each one different from eachother?

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  6. These are fascinating to see...Thank you.

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  7. Those are very interesting and bizarre carvings. And really quite strange to find them inside a church.

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  8. Didn't individual families use to have their own pews where they sat every Sunday? Mightn't the carvings have had some significance to that family, like a beast from their heraldic crest, guild crest, the livery crest of their liege lord, or maybe represent a rebus of the family name? (or even a way to tell which pew belongs to your family without having to count the rows!)

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  9. They are totally amazing, John and carved to perfection. I really happy that you shared this with us. I never heard of poppy-heads before, now I know what they are.
    Thank you!

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  10. Artistry indeed! Love them. Thanks for sharing, John.

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  11. Those are brilliant. I don't think I've ever seen poppyheads before (though I don't venture into many churches. I love the boar!

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  12. This church and the last are a couple of magnificent looking buildings with superb features

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  13. Hi John - I was amazed at the richness of the churches around Bury ... and here you've given us two more. Gosh these little poppy-heads are delightful ... and what treats to see ... you must have been hooked on looking at them - so well worth it. I love the boar - South African warthogs are my favourites ... so the boar gets the thumbs up too ... Cheers Hilary

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  14. They are all amazing but the boar is quite wonderful:)

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  15. The donkey looks sad! :(

    But that is some amazing artwork.

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  16. It's like a wonderful art gallery inside an amazing old church! I like the unicorn!

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  17. Oh I don't blame you John, we would have all done the same, they are absolutely fascinating!

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  18. Some of them are sooo strange....but all show such talent! I wish I had half as much.

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