Gloucestershire

Hallowe'en is always going to be a strange day, in my opinion, as the two worlds of so-called reality and spooky things are at their closest. Strange things have happened historically and today was no different. Well, for a start it was gloriously sunny, which was unusual. We had decided that it might be one of the last good days this year for getting out to places (sob!) so we set off, this time in The Van, which was a pleasant change and meant that anyone who did hurtle down narrow lanes towards us would have to do the reversing this time...

So we set off further afield than usual, all the way out past Cirencester in Gloucestershire. It is an area we visited once before and so we were recalling the delights of Langford, Inglesham, Highworth, Ampney St Mary etc and the not so delightful drizzle in which we visited them. Gloucestershire seemingly has a wealth of things to visit and we were absolutely spoilt with what we found. It was one of those trips that was just one gasp after another. And we increasingly laugh about how probably no one else really understands our excitement. Although there are a few people who have shared or share our interests.

First stop (and what a stop), was St Swithins, Quenington, a place near where we'd been before and nearly visited, but ran out of time and energy.  We were without our usual information books, but my sister remembered that Quenington had "beakheads" - the ones where animal heads grip the arch above the doorway in their beaks or mouths. Always entertaining and always worth visiting.  So we found the cute old village of Quenington, complete with 15th century stone gateway, the "knight's arch" and stream. The church notice proudly declared "NORMAN DOORWAY" which boded extremely well, as when the church cares about its romanesque architecture, you can be sure they have looked after it well. (It is a Grade I listed building, I am glad to read). So we walked with anticipation up the long pathway craning a little to get the first look at the door, expecting something exciting. (It's always exciting that first glimpse...)  Gasps ensued. The doorway has a wealth of excitement. It's as if the carver got carried away and did everything he could. Arch decoration, capitals with fabulous faces, flowers, interlacing patterns, and a complicated tympanum showing Jesus standing on the devil, spearing him in fact and 3 figures - with what looked like rabbit ears but must have been hair. There was also a ram's head (date unsure) over the top. It is all a little overwhelming when there is so much to see. It is almost as if the carver is showcasing his talents.  So we stood there, marvelling at it in excitement, and a woman (I can't remember if she said she was the churchwarden or vicar) came along. She seemed rightly proud of the door and gave us an information leaflet.

We decided that, although R had been sure there had been beakheads, perhaps she had got muddled with somewhere else.  But as she was reading about the north doorway, she read on and spluttered in excitement that there was also a south door! Not believing our luck, we hurried round the side of the church and were amazed to see a second equally elaborate doorway, with carved arches and tympanum, this one even more complicated. It was apparently, the coronation of the Virgin and there she was with the figures of the evangelists (their animal forms) and a house (for good measure). And more importantly - there were the beakheads! Around the archway were some delightfully comic beakheads, clutching the archway in their mouths for all eternity, including a wide-faced horse, a boar(?) with little teeth and a hare.  Fabulous.  The "hinge" design up the sides of the door was just the same as the one at South Cerney, also in Gloucestershire - it must surely be the same carver. This sort of thing is exciting for me because how many people (except Pevsner and one or two many years ago) have gone round viewing carvings and comparing them, to the extent that they know the same person must have done their special design in more than one place? We were joking that we could set ourselves Mastermind questions on the subject (but apparently we have better things to be getting on with).

So Quenington was rather exciting and we returned to the van feeling that the day could not get any better, because one amazing door is something, but two is just fabulous. The Knights Templar ran the church so perhaps this has something to do with how ornate the doors were.

Next stop was nearby Coln St Aldwyn's where we went to see two dragon heads. You can't beat a good dragon's head and these two were some of the finest we've seen. Both had lovely toothy grins and had more detail than some, and I was rather pleased with my drawing too.

   

Finally we finished up at Southrop, where there was another woman who told us about the church. The font there was just inside the door and was very elaborate. It had a fancy band all around the top, which was a very complicated design with a rather pleasing "buckle" part.  Below this (we read) were some figures standing on other figures and spearing them. They were the virtues conquering the vices. It was interesting but I don't care for designs with people as much as patterns, I've decided. I didn't really care for the bloodthirsty depiction of these virtues either, and it was an echo of a very unpleasant scene we had inadvertently driven through to get there. We'd been going through country lanes and the sides of the road were cluttered with stupid people waiting to watch a hunt go through. I won't rant here but you will get the point that we were not on their side. Anyway - the font seemed to echo this in tasteless violence.  There was an arch inside that had a similar pattern to that at Ditteridge.

   

The wealth of riches in Gloucestershire (there were many places we had to leave for another day) was a bit tiring and so we headed home before the sun set.