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.