St Andrews, Stoke Dry, Rutland

Stoke Dry church contains many ancient wall paintings.


 

The church is made of a combination of stone and red brick below

Stoke Dry Church is usually open

"Painted Pulpit"

Saint Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire

The pulpit in Fotheringhay is one of the most magnificent in any English Church. Brightly painted and carved with intricate detail it balances on a very small wine glass base. The sounding board and canopy is equally impressive and can be seen in more detail below.

The church is usually open

Thomas Willement Window,

All Saints Church, Beeby, Leicestershire

Detail from the East Window in Beeby church showing one of the panels featuring various serpents. This window was created by Thomas Willement who lived from 1786 to 1871, a British glass artist, he was known as "The Father of Victorian Stained Glass". He worked as a glass artist between 1811 and 1865 having started work initially as a plumber and glazier.

Beeby church is now in the care of the Church Conservation trust and is open for visiting every day

"The Black Unicorn"

St Peter and St Paul, East Harling, Suffolk

All that remains of the rood screen from East Harling church is now at the west end of the church at the back of a group of pews. It is easy to miss but a closer look reveals the beauty of its lower panels. Originally it would have been brightly painted and this can still be seen. Note the unusual black unicorn in the middle of the panel with his golden mane.

"Clopton Chantry"

Holy Trinity, Long Melford, Suffolk




The Clopton Chantry is a small room lying to the north of the chancel in Holy Trinity Church. Clopton lived from 1450 - 1500 and his tomb lies between the chantry and the nave of the church with a squint above (Middle left of the above image). There is amazing stonework in the chantry and around the upper parts of the walls are a painted inscriptions of poetry by John Lydgate which remains in very good condition. John Lydgate was a monk from Bury St Edmunds, who lived from 1370 to 1451. There is more information about him HERE 


Also around the walls are Clopton Arms painted on stonework. 


The inscriptions can be seen more easily on the image below.




This is a huge church which is more like a cathedral. It is more famous for its medieval glass and is open daily for visiting.

" Pews On Parade"

St Mary and All Saints, Willingham, Cambridgeshire

Although these choir stalls don't contains a lot of intricate carving they still have a beauty of their own. I find this angle using a deep depth of field shows than at their best, with all the small carved heads lines up as though on parade.

Willingham is usually kept open for visiting.


More information about the church can be found HERE

"Natures spotlight"

Saint Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire

Sometimes sunlight streaming in through a window can make photographing the inside a church very difficult with extremes of light and dark. In this case though the beam of sunlight was in the perfect plane to illuminate this memorial which sits nicely contatsed against the darker shadows.

This memorial dates back to the 16th century and commemorates Mrs Kath Hutchinson daughter of the reverend Mr Lewis West who died aged 83 in 1726.

The church is usually open

"St George"

St Helen, Ranworth, Norfolk

   

Ranworth contains a superb rood screen, probably one of the best of all the UK's churches. Each panels features a different saint, all of which escaped damage during the reformation which in itself is unusual. This one is one of the best and features St George and the dragon.


More saints can be seen below

Ranworth is usually open including access to the tower.

St Marys, Wilton, Wiltshire




Wilton church is testament to its fame in the world of carpets.



Wilton church is usually open to visitors

"Sharp Clawed Guard"

St Andrews, Stoke Dry, Rutland

Stoke dry is a small village close to Eyebrook Reservoir in the smallest county in England, Rutland. The church is always open and is famous for its wall painting, ancient carved stonework and annual candle lit carol service. The church also contains a number of old monuments which have some great carvings. Above is one of them which features a small sleeping dog who has some very sharp looking claws. 

The church is made of a combination of stone and red brick below



Stoke Dry Church is usually open

"Stained glass details"

St Peter and St Paul, Lavenham, Suffolk

I love to phorograph stained glass windows and enjoys magnifying my images on the computer to look at the detail of the painting. Sometimes when viewing a whole window there is so much to see the brain becomes overwhelmed, so its nice to pick out an rea of detail and remove everything else, like in the example above.

There is another example below

"Magnificent Beasts"

St Mary and All Saints, Holcot, Northamptonshire

WARNING THIS POST CONTAINS DETAILS AND IMAGES WHICH SOME PEOPLE MAY FIND OFFENSIVE

In my collection of church photographs I have a large number of images of Royal Arms. Often at the time of taken these it is hard to see much details. They are mounted high on walls in darks churches and usually have a thick layer of accumulated dirt hiding the details. Once home with the help of various tools in Photoshop and Topaz Adjust it is usually possible to reveal much more. This was certainly the case with teh Royal Arms from Holcot. Dating back to 1711 it features a lion and a unicorn supporting the arms with a wonderful background. A closer look though reveals that these two really are magnificent beasts, see below. Whether this was a little daring joke by the artist or whether he wanted to show the power and strength of these fertile creatures I'm not sure.

Holcot church is usually open for visiting

"Hundred Years Of Polishing"

Saint Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire

Lecturns come in all shapes and sizes, from very formal functional structures to grand brass eagles such as this one in Fotheringhay in Northamptonshire. Obviously over the years this has been polished on a regular basis and is a credit to the cleanerds and church wardens. I love the build up of polish highlighting the gaps between the feathers.

Fotheringhay church is a magnificent structure which is best viewed across the river from the south. There is a small layby near where the picture below was taken.

Fotheringhay is usually open for visiting

"Sir Roger Smith"

St Michael, Edmondthorpe, Rutland

This church sits quietly in the small Rutland village of Edmondthorpe.  Now under the care of The Church Conservation Trust, it is usually open and inside appears little changed over the past few decades. There is lots to see in the church but my favouritre is a large marble monument at the East end of the south aisle. It contains a number of carved figure in various positions surrounded by a protective iron railing and commemorate Sir Roger Smith who died in 1655. Other monuments to members of the Smith family are located around the church.

The church is usually kept open during daylight hours.

"Angelica"

St Mary and All Saints, Holcot, Northamptonshire

Through the churches of England Angels can be found in various guises. In Holcot in Northamptonshire there is a gorgeous wooden reredo at the East end of the south Aisles which contains three carved examples. This is a close up the central of the three, which has wonderful detail and carving. These can be quite a challenge to photograph as they are usually hgihly polished and so with flash reflection can be a challenge and with windows usually to the right reflections from natural light can be a problem also. In this case I opted for a long exposure using a tripond which I undeerexposed and then used a bounce flash off the wooden ceiling which bathed the wood in a warm light from the brown timbers above. A little touching up in photoshop created the finished iamge. Below is another images taken at an angle which can also help with intrusive reflections.

Holcot church is usually open and contains some nice medieval wall paintings.

"I'm Watching You"

St Mary, Cavendish, Suffolk

The chancel of Cavendish church has a wooden panelled ceiling with very decorative floral painted decorations.  This covers the whole of the ceiling and must have taken considerable time to have created. It wasn't until I decided to process this image though that I became aware of the fact that the centre of each blue square as a carved wooden face. looking downwards. This is repeated at intervals throughout the ceiling.

 

Cavendish Church is usually open during daylight hours for visiting

"Laughing Skeletons"

St Peter and St Paul, Kedington, Suffolk

I recently spent a week visiting Suffolk's churches and managed to photograph in excess of 80 over an 8 day period. I was exhausted at the end and had to invest in some new hard drives but it gave me a good reserve stock of images to use in this blog. Over the 8 days I saw some amazing things, but the one church which particularly sticks in my memory was Kedington and its array of skulls. They were in abundance and the above two were probably my favorite. Whether these were meant to look terrifying I'm not sure, to me they look as though they are sharing a joke to shouting obscenities at the gathered congregation. 

I'll include some of the others in later posts along with some of the other interesting features from this church.

"Cheeky Chappie"

Selby Abbey, Selby, Yorkshire

I know it is probably only a month ago that the daily blog post included some stonework from Selby Abbey but I couldn't resist using another similar image. The last creature was fierce but this one is more like a cartoon "cheeky chappie". 

Look at those eyes and those wings..... and those lips make him look like he's related to Mick Jagger. Its looks as though he has just returned from tormenting some unsupecting person and is resting again on his perch. 

Did you ever see "Ghostbusters", he wouldn't have looked out of place in that film. Obviously the stone mason had a sense of humour.

   

The Abbey is usually open daily for visiting although the stonework being on the outside can be viewed at any time. This one was on the north side towards the east end of the Abbey.

"St Wilfrid In Residence"

St Wilfrids, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire

Prior to the Reformation our churches contained a multitude of medieval imagery which included the presence of Patron Saints in niches particularly above main doors. In most cases these were destroyed and the niches remain empty. In some though the Saints can still be seen, few are original, the majoity later replacements, In Kibworth the church is dedicated to St Wilfrid who can be found in niches above both the South and North doors.

Unlike other more popular patrons such as St Michael and St Mary  there aren't many Churches dedicated to St Wilfrid, so finding one complete with an occupied niche is something of a rarity.

Above is a view looking from the south



St Wilfrids is usually open to visitors.

"Painted Alabaster"

St Marys, Cavendish, Suffolk



Detailed view below

Looking like the sort of thing that would normally be on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London the above reredo resides in St Marys church in Suffolk. Although at a first glance it looks as though it could be made of plastic it is actually painted alabaster and dates back to the 16th century. It depicts the crucifixion and a camera just doesn't do it justice. The detail is superb and not expecting to find it, it was a great surprise when i came across it. As a reredo it would have originally been positioned behind the altar but now resides of the north wall of the nave given an uninterrupted view.

It was originally commissioned for the Private chapel of Athelstan Riley, in London and was made in Belgium by Flemish artists. The gold colour is gilding and the brighter colours painted. Many years ago many of our alabaster monuments would have been painted in a similar way colours which have been lost over the years leaving most plain white.

The frame was the work of Ninian Comper and is equally impressive. The full reredo can be seen below.

The church is usually kept open for visiting.