Catching up

It is slack of me but I have failed to blog about the previous fonting trips we have been on, so rather than forget them entirely, I will mention them here. There were, after all, many things of interest and a few moments that elicited gasps.

The Minute Face

The majority have been around the Stonehenge area. It was quite amusing when we drove past it to see the crowd of tourists who come, presumably daily, to marvel at this ancient sight. We had sights of our own to seek out and marvel at. The first trip back took in Longbridge Deverill and Brixton Deverill, with two pleasing fonts. Our next trip was towards Yeovil, where we spent a little time in Milborne Port (a tympanum with 2 affronted creatures and a woman who gave us a start inside the church); Maperton, home of the minute face (a tiny but compelling face stuck halfway up a wall in the belltower), and a Saxon-esque scrolled design in the porch. On to Blackford - a pleasingly chunky font; All Cannings (bat droppings and some impossible to draw column capitals), and Stanton St Bernard - just the cutest font you will ever see - and finishing at Marden, by which time I was too weary to draw much.

The simplicity of the font at Stanton St Bernard was deceptive - ah, just two lines of zigzags, you might think. But try drawing this and you will soon see that simple is often the most difficult, at least to draw. I had to really look and not let my brain draw what it thought was there. This font had real character and part of this appeal has to be its unevenness, which speaks of its carver and somehow the actual creation of it. You are taken back to those days 900 years ago when the carver might have taken a step back and realised his font design was getting out of kilter. But then, that doesn't seem to matter. The essence of the carvings are in their asymmetry, this refreshing difference from the mass-produced, identical and perfect soul-lessness of modern things.

Stanton St Bernard font. Who wouldn't want a font like this?