Saturday 20 April 2019

Four Churches Walk - Part Three (St Mary The Virgin)

We're on our way to Wiggenhall St Mary The Virgin next, which has the finest set of carved medieval fittings to be found this side of...…..well, Wiggenhall St Germans half a mile or so down the road.



I'm aware that as Church Walks go, we're seeing a lot more "church" than "walk" on this four-part outing. Most of the walking was along the raised flood-banks of the river, overlooking wide, flat fields with few trees. Every so often there's a modern bridge or a huge, futuristic sluice system to control the water flow. It's not pretty, and it's quite a surprise when such a path suddenly delivers you into a traditional country churchyard.



Lets see if the church is open....



Over the porch door there's a very stylish sundial dedicated to the memory of a former church warden.




This is a redundant church, which is hardly surprising with just a handful of houses nearby and St Germans just down the road, and is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. As is usual with their churches, the fabric of the building is in good repair, but it lacks the little human touches that add a touch of colour and friendliness to buildings that are in regular use.



The Bible has been left on the big brass lectern though, as if a service has been interrupted.



The benches are if anything even more splendid than in the last church we visited. They were made in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and depict various saints, some familiar and some who are difficult to identify. Again the makers are not known, though it's been suggested that they may have been imported from the Low Countries, with which this area was in constant trade during the Medieval period.



Although the carving is exceptional, the subject matter is unsmilingly pious and does not extend to the quirky depictions seen elsewhere.



More saints are depicted on a couple of panels which remain from the rood screen.



These look as though they are the original, pre-Reformation, work that somehow escaped the vandalism of the protestant iconoclasts. They re-enforce my opinion that painters from that time had never set eyes on a real baby! If it comes to it, they weren't much good at painting noses either.



There's a big, imposing memorial to Henry and Winifred Kervil who both died in 1624, and with them the ancient name of Kervil too, as both their children pre-deceased them and are depicted on the front of the tomb, one still in swaddling clothes.



High up on the wall there's a royal coat of arms dating from 1791.



But the sun is shining in through the windows beckoning me outside once more.



It looks pretty nice out there, even through the rather dusty windows, and I shall seek out a sunny corner, sheltered from the blustery wind, and sit for a while before setting out on the last leg of the journey, to Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalen.


Take care.




13 comments:

  1. How blessed you are to be able to visit churches like this...all relatively close to each other. Wonder what wood was used for the benches. Again, they are amazing.

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  2. The paintings in the rood screen and the carvings on the pew ends are wonderful. The Kervil monument is wonderful too but also very sad:)

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  3. Great carvings...though a bit somber...as is fitting for the rest of the church. I gather nobody uses it regularly now. I wonder if I have any ancestors in that churchyard. When I consider the thousands that went before me...it's always possible. A somber thought.

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  4. It is so interesting to see the inside of these churches. They seem a bit like museums as well as houses of worship. They each have their own histories apart from their shared histories. I don't know why that surprises me, but it does. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've been inside a church, so this journey is quite enlightening. Thank you for that.

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    1. Well, it may come as a surprise but I'm not a religious person at all, though growing up in an allegedly Christian country I suppose I must have picked up some of their values along the way. What interests me is the geography of the land and the way it has shaped, and been shaped by, the people. The history of kings, queens and parliament has been only a distant influence on their lives but the church was right there in the heart of every village and town in the land. And most churches have preserved a great deal of that history for anyone who learns how to make sense of it.

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  5. Love that shot through the window.

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  6. The carving is pretty special. Its good that the church was open and hadn't been vandalised. Lovely photos.

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  7. Hi John - quite amazing ... what wonders in a derelict church - beautiful shots for us.

    Fascinating ... love your comment on your interest in 'life' - there's so much here in in this one. It's interesting what we realise we learnt as kids (growing up) and which now we can remember or 'translate' when writing and thinking about things.

    I see Sir Henry died abroad ... his wife retrieved his heart ... and so they were 'buried' together ... history is amazing ... those carvings are exquisite ...

    Thanks - loved seeing this - cheers Hilary

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    1. Actually it was Robert Kervil (one of Henry's ancestors) who died abroad and his wife sent a monk to retrieve the heart. Given the slow pace of travel in those times I can't imagine that the deceased's organ was in a very nice state by the time it made it back to Wiggenhall.

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  8. Gosh I'm not sure why but it felt a little sad that St Mary's has been abandoned like the deserted ship. I'm not a religious person John but I imagined how important the church was to past congregations. Love the sundial above the porch door, I need a sundial in my garden ✨

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  9. I just finished catching up on the first three of the four churches tour. I am always so taken with the artwork, the quality of the woodcarving, the work of the sculptors even in the smaller churches. They must have been itinerant, going wherever a new church was being built in the rural countryside. Also interesting to think that the church was the repository of the much of the beauty that was present in many of the people’s lives in those days — unless you were among the very, very rich.

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  10. Just caught up on this little 'box set', all very fascinating. You have a great eye for detail. When I visit places, I tend to skim over a lot and then read up about it later and discover what I missed! Just been in a church that apparently has mouse carvings by a famous woodcarver. I missed them!

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