Colerne and Ditteridge

Having been far in our recent travels, into Gloucestershire, we stayed local this weekend by visiting nearby Colerne and Ditteridge. (We still had to stock up on lunch snacks. Drawing requires energy).  We had visited these churches together last year but I was not into drawing things then so this time it was more memorable.
Colerne church has two parts of a Saxon cross, associated with St Aldhem's burial in Malmesbury abbey in 709AD. They are set into the wall of the church, having been found in the 1800s. It means they could be 1200 years old, which is astonishing. Both were well worn. It was hard to see what was shown on one of them, but both had interlacing figures or designs, which were quite complex. The one we chose to draw was clearer to see: it depicts two dragons, with ridged bodies and long legs that inter-weave. They appear to be biting tails as well, and I thought I could see a hint of a wing at the end of one body - but a few of the details had to be imagined, particularly for the drawing. I enjoyed drawing something quite challenging, trying to show accurately how the legs crossed over and under each other. That forced me to look properly before applying pen to paper and we stood there for quite some time (as swifts screamed outside.) Once we were home, we both realised that if we turned the dragons on their side, the drawing was symmetrical and it was much easier to see what was in the picture. We decided that it would make more sense if the stone was on its side and that originally it was probably ninety degrees to how it is currently presented.

Dragons on their side in Colerne

Dragons at 90 degrees

  Then we went on to nearby Ditteridge, which continued the recurring dragon theme. Here were two dragons on the top of columns either side of the door. Facing inwards, between the door posts, were two faces, one with a curly beard. I drew both dragons, and am thinking I would quite like to do a larger piece of art with dragons as the theme.  The one on the left reminded me of the one at Harnhill, as neither of them seem to have back legs. I particularly liked how this one curved and I am pleased with my drawing.

Ditteridge dragon

font, Ditteridge

We had to shelter inside the church as the heavens opened (there I go again with the biblical language), and there is a lovely Norman font with circles and lines on it which I rather liked. My sister also liked the thin Norman window which had bright colours and criss crossing patterns. She has taken inspiration from our previous trip to Steeple Langford to produce a large piece of artwork, based on the designs around the Norman font there. I am impressed by its boldness and how well it evokes the sturdiness of the original stone.

Drawings and dragons

Who would have known that inside the many churches throughout the country, lie so many interesting and different things to discover? My sister is very interested in Norman and Saxon carvings, which we have been drawing and which become an inspiration for artwork. She has devoted her time to going through the Wiltshire volume (and others) of Pevsner, picking out the churches where there are carvings and effigies that date back one thousand years or more. The earlier the better. She has joked that it is an obsession, as now there is a map of Wiltshire which we have colour coded to show the villages where there are carvings we wish to see. We have our work cut out, as there are many, but it is proving to be a great way to discover parts of Wiltshire which you would otherwise never see. The map helps us see where there are places near each other so we have been able to visit 2 or 3 places in one day.

Malmesbury Abbey entrance

 Our most recent trips took us to North Wiltshire, to the area around Malmesbury. If you want some idea of the peak of Norman carving, Malmesbury Abbey is the place to go: the doorway to the abbey is spectacular. There are no less than eight arches forming the entranceway, three which depict many scenes inside circles, such as people in boats, or animals, or people talking to each other. In between these are swirling designs, some like vegetation, others more geometrical. It must have taken the carvers a long time and would have been amazing in its time. It still is amazing, although some of the lower part is quite worn so it is hard to make out what the figures are doing. Within one circle, which I drew, it really seemed that someone was ironing great swathes of material; hard to imagine what else they were doing.  In the porchway are sitting figures, very well observed, although we felt their heads seemed squashed in under another figure.  Unfortunately for us we went along on Good Friday so the place was busy, but we managed to sit in the sunshine on a bench and the time flew by.

In contrast, we visited a tiny place in the middle of fields, called Little Langford, in the Wylye valley. It was a beautiful spot, undisturbed except for the passing trains, but a cool and inviting little church away from the village. It had over its door a wonderful early carving of a figure with three birds in a tree, and below him a boar, surrounded by three dogs, and a person. My drawing of it looked crude and childish but in fact the figures were simple and not entirely realistic in shape or size; the boars' feet were more like paws, and the dogs had long skinny bodies, but it was a very pleasing tympanum and I am happy with my effort. The archway over the top, a commonly found zigzag pattern, was notably different to usual zigzags in that it was not uniform in size; some zigzags were shallower than others and this asymmetry was very appealing.

Little Langford tympanum

I am constantly surprised by the differences between places; some churches are small and inviting; others are unexpectedly large in the middle of a small village. We have seen amusing heads of creatures (Steeple Langford), Jesus on a dragon (Stanton St Quentin) and a "tree of life" (Rodbourne). Rodbourne was particularly nice as it also had a small stained glass window of Adam and Eve by Ford Madox Brown, next to one of the Ascension by Dante Gabriel Rosetti. Who would think that they would come across Pre-Raphaelite glass in such a tiny place?

Tree of Life, Rodbourne

Tree of Life, Rodbourne

What is frustrating on our tour, for it is turning into that, is that in some places we arrive in anticipation of seeing something exciting, and yet when we try the big iron handle of the church door, the door is locked. It might have instructions as to where you can find the key (as in Rodbourne) or it might not; in which case it means we cannot see these things. I doubt there is a need to keep churches locked up as the crime rate in Wiltshire is surely low, and if there are items of worth in the church then keep them locked up. It strikes me as odd that churches of all places are not accessible, but we rarely see anyone on our travels anyway, not that this bothers me at all. 

My drawing is noticeably improving which is good and I am still using crayon to give an impression, rather than spend hours drawing the details. There are many more churches we wish to visit, such as yesterday, when we went to Whaddon.

Whaddon

Whaddon