In and around Bath

After stopping off for vital supplies at the art shop, and breakfast at Waitrose, we headed to local areas around Bath, as it was not a great day weatherwise, with a constant drizzle of rain as if we were sitting in a cloud. (We were). Visibility was poor and it didn't seem sensible to go trundling off too far.  Armed with our usual snacks, first stop was Charlcombe, the most delightful little church set up on one of Bath's hills, above a garden and St Alphege's Well.

The one problem with font-ing in this season is that there was no light and churches seem intent on saving electricity (who can blame them) as there are only minimal lights for visitors. You can see lights up above but no switches, so perhaps only the vicar has the key for these. It makes visiting on a dull day rather a dark affair and we were literally peering through the gloom all day. But luckily with the front door propped open we could just about see the delights of Charlcombe font, a real gem, which impressed me the second I opened the door. It is a lovely shape, with an interesting and unusual design set around the bottom. I took to calling the swirly bits "chelsea buns" and then there were definite mushroom designs between these. All rather deeply carved, which was accentuated by the light which fell on it.  We had to peer closely to draw it. The best thing about the font was that it was from one piece of stone and that it had an original stem and base! I do not even recall the last time we saw this as usually the base is later and the font bowl has been put on top. It was for me an absolute delight to see a whole, unaltered font. It somehow made such a connection to the past because the whole thing was as it had been from its creation.  Apparently the writers Henry Fielding and Jane Austen both visited the church (Fielding was married there. I often think if I got married I would use it as an excuse to have a nice font at the back of the room and to make this a focal point for the guests. "Now, if everyone can please admire the font.")

We stepped carefully through the wet grass of the garden on the slope below and found St Alphege's Well (on the hunt for moss again for other purposes). It had atmosphere in such a secluded setting, with the trees dripping around us, and apparently the water was good for eyes, so I doused my lids in the hope that I will no longer have to wear glasses. So far, no change.

Next stop was Langridge, where we have been before and I did remember it once I was there. The columns in the porch are lovely with some fine spirals, always fun to draw. There was also an arch of saltire crosses, or were they circles with shapes in that then formed saltire crosses where they met? I don't know if there is a difference. Inside there is a very impressive arch with much zigzagging and we noted some new things this time: two feet-like carvings at the bottom of columns and also two arch ends that looked like they could have been the start of dragons, they really did - we could see the faint line of where a mouth or teeth would be, as if the carver had been going to start dragons and then been called away or the church said, no, don't bother, those zigzags are more than enough.  See, we really are like Antiques Roadshow experts now.

Finally we finished in the small hillside village of Swainswick; again, somewhere I remember going in times before we drew. I did not remember a most unusual feature inside the church, which was a kitchen area. I jokingly asked my sister if she wanted a cup of tea, and then saw to my surprise that the church provided free tea and coffee for walkers and visitors. What an innovation. If more churches had kitchens, this would be ideal. It felt really kind.  I remembered a strange corner of the church where there was a weird bit of carving - a long piece of fish/finger/weird things like eels all coming out of the wall. Didn't really care for it then and didn't care for it this time either. There was a weird head, a roll of carpet on a famous Bath architect's memorial tablet, and some heads in the porch. I drew one of them - it had an okay expression, but turned more into a halloween mask in my drawing.