Moreton Valance and Leonard Stanley, Glos

Moreton Valance church was fairly sweet with what the OS map clarified as an old moat behind it - we

decided perhaps the original entrance had been on the moat side, as we found the sculpture we had come to see over the door on the back wall to the church. It was a Norman tympanum of St Michael spearing the dragon - or was it in fact another wyvern which I have now learned is the creature on some of our earlier discoveries. Wyverns have two legs whereas dragons have four. I think four legs are visible on this creature so it is a dragon. St Michael is quite pleasingly depicted with lovely folds of material in his dress and some fine looking wings. We both remarked that he had a nicely carved foot, slender and shapely. The overall composition of the picture is a bit confusing, as it was not that easy to make out what was at both sides of the picture: on one side there were some swirly patterns that could simply have been just that; and on the other a plant-like shape that we both swore looked like a potted plant. The centre is also a tad confusing, but as we have discovered, observing these carvings in an attempt to draw them invariably means working out just what is going on. Between the two figures are St Michael's shield and the pennant on the end of his spear.  In many texts which my sister has unearthed, people have often made incorrect statements about what is depicted in tympanums or fonts, and it surprises us that they have not looked closer for the purposes of description. In some cases it has only taken us a matter of minutes to figure out what is happening: sometimes you wonder if these people have just glanced at the carving for five seconds, or if they have seen the original at all.

But I digress; also at Moreton Valance were some very appealing figureheads on the side of the church - I should learn the proper words for all these items but I can't seem to get them to stick in my head despite hearing how my sister and Pevsner describe them. There were a couple of what looked like bear heads, holding both paws up to their mouths in a kind of surprised or giggling way. Okay now it sounds as if I have not looked at them long enough to work out what they are. But in the case of animals, it is not always easy to know what they are supposed to be. (Another such case to follow, at Sutton Benger). Whatever they were, they were cute and amusing, which all good animal carvings tend to be.

Talking of which, Leonard Stanley church held a lovely surprise in the form of two dragons' heads at the main door - they have to be by the same carver who did those we loved at Elkstone. The design, size and shape of the heads is all similar and I am not surprised that other people liked them too, enough to commission one for their own church (or however these things worked). That is a thought actually - how did people decide what to do in those days? The carver could not have shown them a portfolio of photos of his work as he would now. "Here's one I did at Elkstone. If you like I could do something similar here." ... They are fast becoming a favourite of mine.

Inside the church there was a wealth of carving to look at: however, a lot of it was too high up on the walls to see, photograph or draw. There was something weird with two figures and an apple - possibly not Adam and Eve, even though this had been suggested, plus something with Jesus high up and right next to the wall (also very weird). Outside, the well decorated and large tub font was being used as a plant pot and suffering as a result. We were not very impressed with this at all as we felt it would be damaged by the weight of earth.

Elkstone, Stratton and Daglingworth

It is not usually sunny on a bank holiday weekend, in my recollection, so my sister and I took the opportunity to go back to the area around Cirencester to see some more Norman and Saxon church carvings that we had rated those most worth visiting ("pink" on my sister's thoroughly researched maps). Once laden with the necessary snacks, we went up to Elkstone which is between Gloucester and Cirencester. Elkstone church is well documented for having a large amount of Norman carving, both inside and outside the church. It has all the different features which you could hope to find, namely, carved "beakheads" over the arch of the doorway, sculpted tops to the columns, a tympanum, animal and people heads outside on the walls, and inside, Norman carved arches with zigzags and flowers. We did not really know where to begin.

I was drawn to two dragons' heads that were inside the church, one each side of the first arch. Both were very well preserved, due to their position, and showed rather amusing teeth. I drew the right hand one, rather inaccurately, but it shows the overall character. In front of and behind the altar were two more decorative arches, the far wall having a pleasingly irregular zigzag pattern, and flowers, (with one tiny zigzag and flower squeezed in as if they'd planned wrong), and a detailed face pattern on the ceiling.

Outside, the door reminded us of Siddington (where we could not get into the church), as it had beakheads in a similar but not identical style, with one face having two arms holding the adjacent beaks closed and a double beaked creature. As well as beakheads, there was elaborate carving on seemingly every available column top and arch. In the centre of the arch, in the semi-circular space over the door (the tympanum) was a carving of Jesus or a religious figure, surrounded by animals including a jaunty lamb of God, a bird with some writing, and two more. We drew the lamb of God, as it was too complicated to try to draw any more. The lamb of God had a curiously rounded head which reminded me of a dolphin. Possibly the first "dolphin of God"?
I also liked very much the animal heads and figures on the outside of the church, high up under the roof. They were all different and included a centaur with a bow and arrow, a goat with a beard, a deer with antlers and an animal biting its own tail. There was also one that looked suspiciously like a dinosaur. My sister found the whole place slightly overwhelming, as did I, because there was so much to look at, it was impossible to know where to begin. Sometimes less is more, and simpler things are effective in their simplicity.

We moved on to Stratton, on the outskirts of Cirencester, and once I'd corrected my poor navigation, we found the church and enjoyed our lunch in the peace of the churchyard. As we walked down to the church porchway we had that sense of excited anticipation - what will the carving be like? Will the simple description in Pevsner translate to something quite impressive to behold? (Sorry, now I am using religious language!) I think that one of the enjoyable things is not knowing what the carving will really be like, as sometimes the book has simply failed to describe how unusual or impressive something is. Happily, the tympanum above the door proved to be very unusual, showing a complicated image of weaving lines and who knows what. It was hard to make out what was there, as some is worn, but you can see a spindly legged creature with a person's head, and long claws, next to a coiled serpent, and next to them possibly two more creatures with long legs, and a lot of foliage intertwined. The book said there was supposed to be a "tree of life" but we could not see a definite tree. Beneath the tympanum were what is known as saltire crosses.

Such is the other-worldliness and sense of another time with these places, is it any wonder that we are beginning to associate them with strange things? Last week after our successful trip to Harnhill, I could have sworn blind both myself and my sister had a photo of the dragon. But on further investigation neither of us could find one. Then this week, my sister took some photos in Elkstone and then discovered they were not on her camera. We get so engrossed in the drawing that we strode off down the road before we realised we'd not photographed the tympanum at Stratton and had to go back - much to the annoyance of a poor robin who had been trying to feed her chicks in a nest in the porch and hissed at us to get out of the way.

Our last stop was Daglingworth, west of Cirencester. It dated from Saxon times and had not one but four beautiful Saxon carvings, which were once, astonishingly, built into the church out of sight. I really liked these pictures, as they were done in a simple yet not naive style. One was of Jesus and the two centurions at the crucifixion, one was St Peter with his keys. The figures had interesting details such as their belts, done in a knot shape, and well observed hair and hands. They seemed so pristine. We generally prefer drawing animal shapes to human figures but these were rather impressive.