Avening and Cherington

Avening and Cherington are both in Gloucestershire and provided some key drawing opportunities. We hadn't been out drawing for a month, so we took our usual provisions and art things and set out to get back into it. Avening had quite a large church with many things to see - it was a little bit dark inside (it was a rainy day) and so we stuck to drawing what was outside the church. As you go in there is a porch and in the porchway two lovely columns with spirals. At the top of one, an unusual and interesting carved figure, which has two bodies and one head - or is it one figure but seen from both sides, as it were - slightly Picasso-esque? It had the recognisable Norman style tail heading up from underneath its body and over its back and jaunty feet. Behind its head was something indistinct like a tree.

On the other side of the door above a second column was a complex carving of foliage - with appealing chunky central shapes that looked a bit like a raspberry. It reminded us both of Rodbourne and the tree of life - similar lines and two leaves that looked almost like wings. There is a repeating theme we have seen at Whaddon where lines are joined together by a horizontal band. Like an idiot I forgot to take the photos off the temporary phone I was using so I do not have them. Inside the church were many different things including some Saxon work set in the wall and some very appealing capitals that were based on nature - there was one that had shapes which looked like ears of corn or wheat. And another a bit like grass or feathers. All very appealing but again we could not find light switches to illuminate them adequately for drawing. We managed to find a red light that turned some of the church an eerie colour, and quickly turned that off again.

Cherington just 5 minutes away, promised a Norman tympanum of two lions. We braved it through a downpour to have a look. They were quite simple figures facing each other, over the church entrance, with tails aloft (but not curved under the bodies) and surprisingly small heads. No doubt carvers had not seen many lions and these had small round faces - not quite lions - with solid stumpy legs. My sister was not totally convinced of their age but I felt they looked that old.

Teffont Magna, Stapleford and Codford St Peter (and Britford)

We had one day before I headed off to sunnier climes and so it was with some feeling of urgency that we set off to squeeze in some last minute drawing and visiting. Well, you have to take the opportunities. First stop was another of seemingly countless delightful "English" villages that I thought only existed in Midsomer Murders, one Teffont Magna, off the beaten track in Wiltshire. Inside a simple church building was some Saxon knotwork, set firmly into the wall, thankfully. There was a hole in one part of it, not sure why, and a complicated knotwork pattern. It is absorbing to set about trying to draw the interlacing lines and invariably I go wrong, but it's not really a problem; it's my interpretation. Some of it was quite worn so that part always needs a little imagination, unless you can see that the pattern was repeating and try to recreate it.

If my memory serves me correctly we went on to Britford near Salisbury next. And ended up wishing we had never been. In fact the less said about it the better, but there were some fabulous examples of knotwork there and other patterns. They were sort of hidden in a corner in the dankest, darkest, vilest smelling place I have ever been. It was not, I don't think, just damp. It felt wrong in there. Just a weird, unwelcoming feeling. It was dark: we searched on every wall for light switches, but there were none. There were high pews on the side: I peeked in gingerly and then ran away as there were strange jars all along them. I can't explain it but neither of us felt right and we simply had the strongest urge to leave. It wasn't the baby's grave in the graveyard, it wasn't just the smell, there was something not conducive to staying and certainly not to drawing. Both of us were disappointed because the carvings were fine examples, but I could not even bring myself to keep my photos of them and we spent the rest of the trip trying to rid ourselves of the taste/smell and put it out of our minds. At Stapleford we tried to focus on what was there to get back into the groove - a sweet little church with some rather amusing faces on the inside columns. I tried to draw them but my heart wasn't in it.

Things improved measurably when we decided to stop at Codford St Peter as our final stop - we have been before but not done drawing. It has a truly wonderful Saxon carving of a figure, who looks like he is dancing and holding a branch. It is done in beautiful detail and I love how light of foot he is! It seems like something that might be celebrating fertility or the harvest, with the branch. On each side of it is more carving and we have long laughed at something that described it as having "dace" and "an otter" when proper (and even brief) examination will tell you there is no fish nor otter anywhere! I thought my imagination saw things that were unlikely but really, there is nothing shaped like either creature. Codford St Peter is a calm and restful place to draw and I enjoyed having a go at drawing the carving and also the rather charming font.