Chilling in the sun

As part of an extremely relaxing week off, we fitted in some visits to some old favourites and a few new delights. First up was nearby Lullington, of beakhead fame. The church is kept locked (as are many we have come across in Somerset) and so to save a wasted trip I went to get the key from a nearby house. The man who came out, lovely barking dog in tow, reminded me of the man with the dog from Detectorists. The church key was pleasingly huge and opened the door to some wonderful gems inside. The cool interior was a welcome change from the burning sun that we have been having for so long now.

 Lullington's font is elaborately decorated with some nice arches, flower shapes and faces. More unusually it has writing around it and on the top. There are some pleasing capitals above the columns, with patterns, faces and creatures, including a very fetching pair of birds who reminded me of dinosaurs because they had scaly tails. Some relaxing drawing was enjoyed.


The beakheads were baking in the sunshine and I had forgotten that they are less well defined than many we have seen. Unfortunately they have been more exposed to the elements. But each creature has appeal and there is an amusing variety of creatures and faces.

At the end of the week, a return trip to the idyllic spot of Little Langford beckoned, and luckily there was a triangle of shade in which to stand to draw the marvellous tympanum. I checked the visitors' book and it was a surprising 4 years since we first visited. My sister did an impressive drawing of the hounds beneath the main picture and I tried to draw the man and the birds. The font there, although simple, is pleasingly wonky and as such definitely Norman.

After a rather hot and slow trip through Salisbury we found Pitton. Here the font had a deceptively simple band around it, which on closer observation was not quite as simplistic as you might first think. The chevron pattern reminded me of plaited material or two lines of bread dough wrapped over each other - the carver had smoothed off each separate shape and the overall effect was of plump material or something soft. All such designs would transfer nicely to another medium such as fabric. It is time to get on with something artistic and create something using these carvings as inspiration.

It was too hot to drive looking for other places so we came back via Wood Henge, a very interesting and atmospheric spot, marred slightly by the couple who chose to set up their deckchairs and have a drink at the far side of it, as if it were a picnic area. Very odd. Perhaps the heat was getting to them. Luckily we did not wander around Amesbury (having seen recent news) and actually went past the mysterious Porton Down and Boscombe Down (no photos allowed) on the way back through the weirdness of Wiltshire.

Kilpeck

It is no surprise that we have long wanted to make a pilgrimage to Kilpeck to see the cornucopia of delights there; so as a Christmas present to ourselves, we made a small detour en route home for Christmas, to the famous village.

It was one of those bright winter days where the sun is low and the light is golden. With my finger glued to the map as we headed towards our destination, I remarked that the light would be perfect for picking out the carvings. As we were musing on this, I pointed out a sudden pocket of low-lying mist, hanging in a valley over to the left. "By the way, where is it we're going?" my sister asked. "Over there," I replied, pointing at the mist. It was too strange. And rather disappointing! We had no hope of seeing anything if the wonders of Kilpeck were shrouded in fog. As we crept forward through the blanket of white, we got to a crossroads. "Where do you think it is?" my sister asked. All of a sudden, the outline of a church tower rose out of the mist straight ahead of us. It couldn't have been more like a film. Was it the mystic creatures of Kilpeck keeping themselves hidden?

Kilpeck has so much to enjoy - and is so well preserved. The stone looks red and softer than some, but the carvings are in excellent condition, both inside and out. We went inside first - there are very unsual carvings on each side of the arch, three figures each side. The entrance into the church is amazing. A whole host of wonderfully comic beakheads, some most unusual, flanked by another arch of eyes and designs very like those in Stottesdon. The columns either side of the door are also very well preserved, all of it seems like it could have been carved last century. They are not like any I remember, but have a complicated design of interlacing foliage, figures and creatures.

The corbels are amazing. They go all around the church, not a space is left - although a couple are missing. The creatures are most amusing and full of character, who could fail to love them. The hare and hound pairing looks so modern.
 Rams, pigs, horses, people.  The back of the church looks out across the graveyard and across a field. A large tree was rising out of the mist that hung low over the fields. It all looked quite mysterious.

Others came to visit, one over-confident man striding around with his girlfriend, lecturing her in a boring manner and saying "there's nothing interesting inside". Hopefully she would make up her own mind.

The mist began to clear and the sun lit up the corbels in gold. As we got ready to leave, a few beams of golden light shone through the yews in shafts.

Bibury, Windrush and Cold Aston

On a beautiful sunny day we decided to head further afield to explore the rich pickings in the Cirencester area. North east of the town is a small Cotswolds village called Bibury. We (in our ignorance?) had never heard of it, it was in the middle of the countryside. So it was to our great surprise when we turned into the main street to see coachloads of Japanese tourists standing in the road, sporting pollution face-masks and taking photos with their selfie-sticks. A look to the right confirmed why - Bibury is home to a remarkable and ultra-quaint row of weavers' cottages, that are quintissential English cuteness. I recognised them instantly as the recent location of the yellow car parade that went through the village in support of one of said cottages' residents.  Even though there were ice cream shops along the main road, we drove on to the church and were lucky to find a parking space.

What an unusual place, there was even an interesting old building backing onto the churchyard where we had our boiled eggs (now a must-have) and weak lemon drink. Many tourists had drifted up as far as the church (we are not used to being disturbed) which had several things of interest, including a deceivingly simple circle design that proved impossible to draw. Even at home. The interior had several carved features and a copy of a Saxon carving which is now safely in a museum.

Back on the road, we were spoilt for choice and headed off to Windrush in Oxfordshire (we are slowly getting further and further afield and several counties from home). It was a quiet, idyllic spot (bar the Tory posters dotted throughout the well-to-do villages) - with lovely views. What's here...? Oh my god, a DOUBLE beakhead door! Double beakheads! Previously unheard of an unseen in our travels. Not one arch of beaky creatures gripping the door, but TWO, an inner and outer arch. They had been strangely cleaned but maybe this was a good thing - just weird given that we are used to worn and weathered carvings. The cleanness of them gave them a weird new feel. But more to the point they were quite unusual beakheads. Their blank, almond shaped eyes, and long beaks, gave them a decidedly menacing feel, which we both thought, and we were rather wary of them.  My sister tripped backwards up the step and ended up sitting down which was perhaps unsurprising, given their startling appearance.

Last stop, which we squeezed in, was Cold Aston, yet another small cute Cotswold village. Unfortunately the church was next to the school - I say unfortunately because while we were there the poor innocents were marched into the church for a short lesson on kindness or something.  We however were busy engaged in the carvings in the porch, and a rich and varied treasure trove they were. My sister diligently drew the extensive saltire cross pattern filling the tympanum and some of the carved woven pattern in one of several chunks of carving set into the wall. I was intrigued by a relative of the minute head at Maperton, one almost green-mannish head with (what I thought were) leaves for hair, and a hole in his head which formed part of a drain for water (or so it seemed). He seemed quite a cheerful chap (at least in my drawing) and I was pleased with my effort.
 

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.

Somerset wanderings

As we have done a lot of exploring in Wiltshire, we decided to head off into the wilds of Somerset. It may just be over the border but we both agreed that the geography and feel of the county is noticeably different to Wiltshire. I even admit I felt as if we were in a strange place, not so sure of ourselves.

Our first stop was Tellisford, a small place where it felt like locals were eyeing us warily as if they knew we were not villagers. The church was down a small mossy lane and in the front porch were two interesting heads either side of the door. I drew one with a strange beard.

Beckington was our next stop: here we found some creatures high up on the inside of the church walls, quite amusing but a bit high up to draw or see properly. The church blurb described them as lions, but given the obvious and celebrated history of the wool trade that the village had (visible on many church pictures), we thought they were more likely to be lambs. They had fluffy looking coats.

Then we headed to a place we have been before, but in the days when we were not drawing as a matter of course. Lullington is another sweet village, with an amazing door now at the back of the church, surrounded by fabulous beakheads (beaky creatures) of all descriptions. It also has a tympanum of two animal figures, carved capitals with figures and much, much more. I entertained myself by trying to capture some of the beakheads, though my cold was putting me off.

We ended the trip with a stop at Limpley Stoke. As you enter the church, the middle of the building as it is now is an amazing Saxon door, which was originally an entrance to the church on an outside wall. It was used by Saxon pilgrims making their way to Glastonbury.  In the solid narrow doorway are carved cross shapes which the pilgrims made.  It feels like a special place to stand, given that centuries ago you know people were passing through it. Its nature as a doorway gives you a real sense of stepping from one time to another. Here, if anywhere, would be the place you could walk through and find yourself in another time.

Potterne, Chirton and Upavon

Not only is the hunt for more Norman sculpture becoming increasingly interesting in terms of what we find, it is also a great way of seeing different parts of the countryside. I feel I have covered a lot of Wiltshire now and it is such a pretty county. We have seen so many quaint English villages, you begin to think that everyone lives in beautiful old cottages.

On a trip out to the Devizes area we first stopped off in Potterne, to have a look at the font there which is large and plain but unusual in that it has writing around its rim.

Then it was on to Chirton, which has a double whammy with a door adorned with beakheads (aka beaky creatures) and also a fantastic font, containing twelve carved figures - you've guessed it, the twelve apostles. The beakheads were, I hesitate to say "the usual" because clearly I'm becoming too used to seeing such fun and fine carvings - they were recognisably the same sort of style as many others we had seen, fairly chunky and with the same wide variation between faces - some with horns, some with beaks, some with teeth, some with long ears - even a hand. One looked like a dog with floppy ears, or a pig which was rather unusual.

The font was interesting because each figure was different and I expect if you had known what to look for, you could perhaps identify some of them from what they were holding. The only one we knew was Peter, who is always shown carrying keys. My sister had read that he has 2 keys in many pictures. I guessed this would be one to the front gate of Heaven and one to the back? We also both liked the elaborate foliage/organic design around the top and bottom of the font bowl. The figure I drew had rather appealing rolled hair and nicely observed folds in his gown.

Travelling onwards on the edge of Salisbury Plain, via the super quaint Urchfont, we arrived at Upavon. Here there was a most unusual font with eight sides, two of which had creatures, one had figures and five had foliage designs. The draw of this one had been the promise of two leopard like creatures - and we were not disappointed. Two panels show what we decided were more likely to be lions, and they were carved in lovely detail with a long curling tail, furry legs, and possibly a mane. They also had long claws. I was intrigued to later learn that Upavon was the setting for a big cat sighting; could the two somehow be related?

By the way, do take care if you go to Upavon as there were a gaggle of most entertaining but bolshy geese on the bridge. They even had their own sign to warn drivers - we saw them in action, coming on to the path and chasing off anyone who wished to go past, especially dogs and they were apt to cross the main road at any time, holding up traffic.

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.

Carved creatures, South Gloucestershire

South Cerney door

The list of places to visit to see carvings, in particular carved creatures, is increasing weekly. My sister has now been through a book about Gloucestershire and we have marked churches of interest on the Gloucestershire map. Enticingly, there were many which we gave the highest ranking, based on the fact they had very unusual things there or many different things in the same church. It was too tempting to take a longer trip than usual, heading off on a sunny day to villages south of Cirencester.  There was a whole cluster of churches in a small area, all with our top ranking.

Our trips are so that we can have fun drawing. I have a new sketchbook, which is larger and allows me to draw more freely. Armed with our usual snacks, three-coloured crayons, ink and watercolour, we set off to discover yet more Norman and Saxon inspiration.

Saxon door, inside

outside

We stopped off first at Somerford Keynes, where the church has an original Saxon doorway possibly dating from the 8th century. It is not every day you see something from around 700AD, and this doorway was a real treasure. I did not know what to expect, but as you came in through the front door, (an old wooden door with a fabulous opening mechanism), the Saxon door was just to the left on the facing wall. In Saxon style it was tall and narrow. A member of the parish had been good enough to pay for its preservation; it was open to the outside, rather than blocked in, with a very tasteful panel of engraved glass across the space. It let in the light to the church and made a real feature of the Saxon door. Full marks to whoever designed this. Outside, you had a real sense of the history and atmosphere of the doorway, and could easily imagine Saxon people using it to go into their church.  It had 2 rope-like motifs over the top, and was beautiful in its simplicity.  Inside the church, we were disgusted to read that a fragment of Saxon stone carving had been stolen a couple of years before.

beaky creatures

Further north we stopped at South Cerney. From the book, we were expecting to see "beakheads" or as we call them "beaky creatures" - a feature of Norman doors that can be found in this area. Previous beakheads we have seen are of creatures' faces over the archway of a door, some of them gripping the archway in their beaks or mouths. We approached the church and were both very excited by what we saw. There were many beaky creatures gripping the archway, plus some beautiful carvings above the door posts and forming the archway. The whole doorway was very ornate and must have taken ages. You didn't know where to look, or what to draw first, such was the detail.Inside there were some Saxon crosses, later carvings and a resin copy of a wooden head and foot from a rare 12C crucifix.

It wasn't far to the next village, Ampney St Mary, but finding the church proved a little more difficult. It was not actually in the village, but a small distance away, on the main road. It turned out the original village had been evacuated due to the Black Death and since then the new village had grown up further away from the church. This church has a carving over a now blocked up doorway, which is very unusual and appealing. It has a long-bodied, skinny lion, with long legs, stretched over two faces that look almost cat-like, but are attached to long, almost crescent shaped bodies - who knows what they really are (some suggest a serpent

Ampney St Mary

but I am not convinced). Next to them is a creature with a bird's head, four legs and a long forked tail. (Both this tail and the lion's tail curl up over the bodies). The inside of the church was equally pleasing and there is a nice atmosphere: all over the walls are the remains of some medieval murals, which must have been very impressive in their day. There is another ancient wooden door and a simple and sturdy Norman font with a zigzag design. If you venture up towards the altar, you will see a stone screen and suddenly notice that one side of the church is leaning outwards at an alarming angle, which is a shame.

On the route back, we passed Harnhill, so we had to call in and see St Michael fighting a dragon, over the doorway. It was a little green, but the actual carving was charming and very bold. The dragon had its tongue out and was a really nice shape; I also liked St Michael's clothes, and noticed he too had wings...

St Michael and dragon, Harnhill

At our last stop, Siddington, we were disappointed to find the church padlocked at the gate. I find it hard to believe this is necessary in these small places. It prevented us from seeing the Norman font which sounded like it had impressive decoration. However, we could peak through the netting across the doorway to look at yet more beaky creatures - these however, did not somehow hold the same appeal as those at South Cerney. We thought maybe it was because they seemed more uniform, more flatter, and also looked newer - although I believe were also Norman. An interesting and unusual thing to note about them is how one beakhead had two arms, each reaching out to its neighbour and holding their beaks shut! The beak of the creature on the left was even pulled slightly towards the hand.