Romsey

When asked what I wanted to do for my birthday, the answer was simple. Yes, animals are always a good option but fonts (or rather, Romanesque carving) won. As a special treat we went that bit further to Romsey Abbey, near Southampton. And it really proved to be the sort of special treat you want for a special birthday, as mine was.

Before we even got inside, we were delighted to find wonderful Norman corbels high up around the outside walls. Most were of faces of people or animals and some distinctly different to those we have seen before; some faces had things inside their wide open mouths such as figures of people. There were also a number of pairs of heads. The garden outside was a lovely spot to stuff our faces so we admired the corbels as we ate.

Around the corner from the main entrance was a figure of Jesus, on his cross, not unlike the one at Langford. Over this one was a hand of God. The Jesus was next to a rather fine door, I'm not sure how much of it had been touched up as it seemed in remarkably good nick.  Then more corbels (it was a bit overwhelming) and then we finally made it to the front entrance.

Inside you are struck by the high walls and lofty ceilings of the building. It has many treasures and they are keen for you not to miss any of them, as a detailed map was given to us by an interested guide (although this was once we had been round the abbey already). We were both soon going from one thing to another, doing the usual thing of "look!" and then finding something even more exciting around the next corner. In terms of Norman carvings, the place is a real gem. Towards the back of the abbey, every column seems to be topped with a carved capital - and all seem different. You have the foliage design, reminiscent of Knook, and some more unusual ones of people and animals. The abbey had provided a drawing of some of the more complicated ones, suggesting what was being depicted, but cynical and questioning as we are, we did not take everything as gospel (despite being in a church). The only problem was that all the capitals were hard to see for two reasons: the main one being the height - it was impossible to crane your neck back and to see anything in detail with them being so high above your head. And secondly, each was lit with a bulb that shone down into your eyes so you could not see very well anyway. It was a real shame and we considered writing to the abbey to see if we could get a ladder or platform from which to view them all close up, under the guise of wanting to produce a book on them.

see how high they are

The back of the abbey is just one carved capital after another and then you come across the far right hand corner, where there is a Saxon rood. Thankfully you can have a proper look at this one. The figure of Jesus on the cross and the people around him stood out from a darker coloured backgro
und... which on closer inspection appeared to have been painted in bronze enamel paint, which had been applied quite carelessly. We almost began hyperventilating at this - clearly someone had done this in the recent history of this ancient carving. I just hope the offending paint can be removed without any damage.

Luckily there were plenty more carved capitals around the corner to distract us, including a rather cute one of animals biting each other. It is just a shame we could not draw anything because we could not see it in enough detail at that distance.  Unsurprisingly, many people going round were not looking up and so were walking past, in our opinions, the best bits.

So to fully appreciate the abbey we need to return with ladders and permission to shin up them, although even then I don't think I'd be able to draw at such heady heights. But even without drawing it was the perfect place for a birthday.

Who did this!?

Escape to the New Forest

No, not escape from the EU, but from the awful result of the referendum. We took off for the day to a new area of the country for me, the New Forest and very pretty it is too.  It was relaxing to be driven through the leafy lanes and to see the ponies. There are a lot of posh houses and we had the chance to see many as I inexpertly misdirected my sister several times and gave us a longer-than-necessary tour around the villages.

It was a weird sort of day, of course, but the pocket of green helped calm us after a few rants, and being out fonting was the perfect thing to do.  Four villages had been chosen, first of all Minstead, which proved tricky to get into. We drove down a lane that said Road Closed and indeed it was closed, so we chose to walk through and look for the church on foot. We tried using our sixth sense but after wandering down several roads and also asking some passers by, we realised the church was miles off and that we needed the car. So we stopped for a sandwich, under a tree, in a peaceful spot.

The church itself was quite weird, looking more like a house than a church. It was a bit unusual inside as well but the font was a cracker and reminded me slightly of Steeple Langford as it had four rectangular sides each with its own picture. But the pictures were more elaborate here and harder to make out on two sides. One, described by the church as Jesus's baptism, was three figures - but very hard to see who they were or what they were doing. One looked like it was holding a hammer, or was it holding a person? One looked like an alien. One was possibly an angel with wings. A second side had strange designs too, hard to make out. A third had a rather appealing animal, with two bodies and one head, which is not unlike other animals we have seen. The head looked very like the Cheshire cat, with a grinning mouth.  The fourth side was sadly hard to see as it was too close to a wall. It was, to our delight, a long-bodied but appealing Lamb of God, holding the requisite staff in one foot.

"Are you doing the flowers?" asked a woman who came in, who somehow reminded me of Samantha Cameron. I ignored her because it was such a stupid question,  but she repeated it and we both answered no. Obviously not as the flowers were done and sitting on top of the font. It became an amusing line to ask each other in the other churches we visited during the day.

Second stop was Landford, which also proved awkward to find, giving the day an edge of weirdness. We stopped for a lemonade at a carvery inhabited by only 2 men at the bar and the landlady, and I dared to ask where the church was. The older bloke kindly told us but neither of us really understood what he said. I thought he said something about Royal Gibraltar, the referendum still on my mind, but knew he couldn't have done. After much driving around we chanced upon an Indian restaurant, the Royal Jaipur, on the main road and I was quite chuffed I wasn't going completely mad. The church itself was away from the village and sadly locked, but there were two nice Norman capitals either side of the door, which we drew.

We moved on to Breamore, just outside the New Forest, again stumped as to the whereabouts of the church (I was just using the road map which let's face it, is useless for finding churches). We found this one through a mixture of luck and sense, as there was a "Breamore House" on the map and often posh houses are near the church and luckily there it was. It was a sweet Saxon church with tall windows, and a lovely Saxon archway inside with some writing over the top. Sadly my drawing of it was less than accurate so it looked very odd. There was some fine "ropework" carving as well.

Final stop was Damerham, north east of Fordingbridge. The church was on its own again, stuck down a lane. In the porchway was a rather wonderful tympanum of a horse and knight, vanquishing some poor soul down on the ground. We agreed the carver must have liked horses or certainly observed them well as the horse was accurately depicted. We particularly liked the way its hoof rested on the person lying down, who appeared to be holding an axe. There was attention to detail, as the horse had some decoration and the people's clothes did too. Rather pleasingly my own interpretation of it came out well.

Digging my (new) heels in

I have been wondering, with all the little things that were going wrong, if either Etna or Sant'Agata (patron saint of Catania) was trying to dissuade us from staying here. I can't work out which and that is probably the problem, that I have been trusting in both of them and they are historically in conflict with each other. Or something. I know Sant'Agata "stopped" the lava flow. I expect she didn't really.

Despite thinking we were safe to use the "second" sink in the corner of the kitchen, until the landlord can come to fix the main one, I went to make myself a cup of tea and found myself paddling through water. Oh, I'll just mop that up, I thought, it must be from last time. I opened the door to under the sink. The bucket was full to the brim with water. How is that possible, I thought. It turned out Jo had used the washing machine, which was connected to the same pipes I suppose. I opened the door to the corridor, where the cleaning stuff is kept (it is a large flat) and joy, the water was sloshing all over the floor, in the little room. Definitely don't want to be a plumber now.

Yesterday I checked out the local Sunday market. Far from finding a light duvet (it's getting colder) or any house-y things, it was only veg and cheese. But everyone was there, jostling at the stalls, and the veg was fresh and cheap. I have more broccoli than I could ever eat for €1 and I bought a large pepper and a fennel for 80 cents together! I made some rather delicious pasta with broccoli and a ricotta nut sauce (out of a jar). The freshness of the broccoli was amazing. Very tasty, and with vitamins literally going straight into my bloodstream with every mouthful.

On the way back from the market I passed some religious types who were doing the old Sunday call for other religious types, trying to save you at the roadside with a microphone and a guitar. There was some painful singing. You could still get the general gist, I mean you know what these people say in English so it was quite easy to pick out all the stuff about Jesus dying so you can live, etc etc. I walked on by.  Reminded me of a picture of Jesus we saw in the ice cream parlour back in Giardini Naxos. He looked quite handsome. Jo remarked at the time that even Jesus had to look good for the Italians, and that if there was a "sexy Jesus" at the church, she might be persuaded to go herself.

Today things are looking up: the landlord and his dad fixed a growing list of small things that needed fixing, so everything in the flat should now be working! Jo went to the gym, finally, after trying to join for 7 weeks, and came back on some sort of endorphin-high. Thank god she loved it. I had a nice lunch with my workmate and her Italian boyfriend who was quite encouraging when I tried to say a few things in Italian. Best news of the day, my phone is back on (hooray!!!!) and I bought some small boots, and another purchase, that are like an Ian Dury song :)  The only downside is having confused the pre-intermediates about the past continuous. I knew I would.

It's still warm here. Still not coat weather. We were sat outside having lunch. Madness.

Bank holiday bonanza

As it was a Bank Holiday it somehow begged to be spent on a bit of a mega-trip seeking more Norman excitement - and despite the weather we did just that. It rained from the minute we set out to half an hour after we got in - but we did not let that put us off.

We decided to go to what is known by us as a "pink area" - which means that there is a cluster of churches in one area which have been rated (by us, via Pevsner) to have top quality carvings. Our ratings are based on what has been said in the book rather than our appraisal of it post-visit, and so they do not always prove accurate, but pinks usually have more than one thing of interest. It is amazing that this particular area, north of Swindon, is jam-packed full of churches with pink status, so much so that we could barely drive in any direction without encountering a pink village. Talk about being spoilt for choice.

Kencot

We drove to the furthest one north so that we could work our way back (probably wise, given that otherwise we could have been "just having a look at the next village" all day long).  Kencot in Oxfordshire (near to the wonderful Cotswold Wildlife Park) had a delightful little church and an equally delightful tympanum set over the main doorway. It featured Sagittarius with a bow and arrow drawn on a poor dragon's head. I loved the dragon's head, it was big and bold with a comical look and a pleasing eye and ear. Sagittarius had well observed legs and hooves and his name "Sagittarius" across the picture, which I was stupid enough to begin to write in the wrong place on my drawing!

Our next stop, on the road back south, was Langford, Oxfordshire. As soon as we approached we were amazed to see a large Saxon figure of Jesus (minus his head, poor chap) on the side of the porch. It looked very similar to the wonderful carvings at Daglingworth, Gloucestershire, because of the proportions of the figure, quite thin, with a long tunic and a rope tie around the tunic. We would have loved to draw Saxon Jesus but the rain just would not stop and it was not possible. Inside the church (accompanied by a faintly unpleasant smell) was a nice window of St Francis of Assisi and lots of birds.

Heading south again, we stopped at Inglesham, back inside the border of Wiltshire. We were not expecting what we found: the church is not one in active use but is preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust. It has escaped the sometimes ghastly make-overs done by the Victorians and as such you could see what churches used to be like before those times. Of Anglo Saxon origin, it has traces of wall paintings, wooden box pews and ancient memorials. There in the corner was an Anglo Saxon carving of Jesus and Mary, looking for all the world like some weird creepy alien face from modern times. I am not being sacrilegious, but simply describing what I saw. The features of Mary's face were rather strange, and although Jesus's facial features were a bit worn, we both thought he looked like he was an adult form on her knee, rather than a baby.

Our next stop was at the larger Highworth, where we glad to get out of the rain and find a re-positioned tympanum, over the entrance but inside the church. It was a touch too high up to see well and I did a most unsatisfactory drawing of it, but it was an interesting subject: Samson and the lion. Samson, in cloak and dress, had both hands on the lion's mouth. I feel he should have left him alone really. 

Disappointingly, Stanton Fitzwarren church was locked, despite proclamations on the notice board that we were welcome to come in and look at its history. I had been looking forward to seeing a font with detailed carvings of figures, but there are times when you are just not in the mood for ringing the church warden, especially when it was still raining and there were simply loads of other "pinks" to choose from along the way.

So we back-tracked north a little to visit Castle Eaton, and I was pleased to actually navigate accurately to the church for once. We were greeted by a pleasingly chunky font in the belltower, with a swirly foliage band around the centre, and also two more of the beautiful dragon head carvings on either side of the main entrance. These were smaller versions to the ones we have seen, but for me, equally appealing with their big toothy grins. And indeed we had had plenty to smile about in such a packed day and who cares that it rained all day, that is traditional.

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.

Fantastic Fonts

The obsession is now reaching more and more counties. My sister has read Pevsner's books on different counties and noted the Norman and Saxon carvings which we must now somehow get to see. I even found myself reading Pevsner last week and watching a dvd about him. At the weekend we were lucky enough to be driving through Shropshire and Herefordshire and this meant that we went near to two fonts which Pevsner described as outstanding examples of what is known as the "Herefordshire School" carving, which refers to what may have been a certain group of masons working in this area, and Worcestershire, in the 1100s. The most well known example is Kilpeck, which I am sure we will get to one day.  But the two fonts we saw over the weekend were in one word, amazing.

The first one seemed to be in the back of beyond, in Stottesdon, a village in Shropshire. It was tucked out of the way and it seemed very dark inside, so that we had to open the front doors to get a decent look at the font. It was very large, and covered in the most impressive carvings. Both of us stood and stared in amazement (once we could see it clearly). The top has a wide band of interlaced plaiting around it, the centre has animals in circles, and cats' faces where the circles touch. We were both thrilled to see another lamb of God and this one - yet again - looked like a dolphin's head. Perhaps it is hard to carve lambs or perhaps they were copying the style of the time.  There was a rather appealing bull/cow/type creature, a dragon biting its own tail (possibly) and some excellent birds. The base was very fancy as well, with interlacing designs. It was all very impressive.

Hidden out of view, behind the ugly organ, was a tympanum over the south door. It was hard to see in the gloom and looked quite worn anyway - there were two upside down creatures and a third upright one.

We were unimpressed by the arrival of a woman who was more bothered about why we had (inadvertently) turned on the lights at the end of the drive, instead of sharing with us how lucky she was to be a member of a church with such an amazing example of a font of the Herefordshire school.

But if we thought that was good, Castle Frome held even more excitement. We nearly didn't stop to see it and we nearly didn't find the right village, but it was a good job we did. The church is really sweet and sits out of the way of the village. The outside is unusual and the porch and doorway is plain - because of this I wondered naively whether it would be good. But the door swung open and my sister literally gasped with excitement: inside, not hidden this time in darkness, is a marvellously ornate and beautifully carved font - very large and round, carved from one block, sitting on a base of strangely crouching figures (two that have lost their heads). The carving on the font was deep and sort of chunky, very tactile, although I managed to keep my hands off it, and so impressive. Around the bowl are the four evangelists in symbolic form: an angel, an eagle, a lion and a very charming bull. There are also two wonderfully observed birds, with their claws touching and their beaks jaunty, as well as a depiction of Jesus at his baptism, with John the Baptist, the hand of God and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. Jesus is particularly well done as he is standing in a pool of rippled water and you see the shape of his body through the ripples. In the pool are some fabulous fish.  My sister noticed that the human figures all had ankles with little circles on them, like an ankle joint.

It was better than tv and I imagine that these sort of pictures would have entertained the people of their time in much the same way that good tv can do these days. We were pleased because we actually noticed some similarities to the other font, and how the creatures all have long claws, and how the lion's tail comes up and curves over his body, exactly like the creatures at Ampney St Mary. We then read that these are features of the Herefordshire School style.

The base of the font was an intricate knotwork of patterns. No doubt it would have been tricky to draw. Sadly we were unable to stay long enough to draw this font, but it is one I would love to return to. The birds were particularly pleasing and the whole thing was beautifully preserved. The church community seemed to value and appreciate what they have there, from what I could see. If you are ever passing by, pop in. You will not be disappointed.

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.