Events Day course on Graffiti in August – in Edinburgh Crystal Hollis graffiti talk in London on 8 August Items of Interest Database of Romanesque Sites in Britain and Ireland WW2 graffiti in Bayeux More WW2 graffiti at Bayeux German POW graffiti from WW1 Sharpening Marks If you have ever sighed at someone explaining…
St Martin, Little Waltham, Essex The church of St Martin at Little Waltham dates back to the Normans, but was rebuilt extensively in the 15th century. There is no graffiti visible anywhere in the church, but some if to be found on the north side of the tower arch. There, divided by a modern partition…
St John the Baptist, Bere Regis, Dorset The church of St John the Baptist dates to the 12th century with additions for three centuries. The ceiling was paid for by Cardinal John Morton (of Morton’s Fork fame) in 1485. Morton was born in the parish of St John the Baptist. There are statues of the 12…
Kings College Chapel, Cambridge There is a danger in graffiti hunting that you focus so much on the details on the walls and columns that you can fail to appreciate the wider beauty of the structures you are visiting. Here’s a tip, if you go looking for graffiti in King’s College Chapel, before you do…
St Mary and St Clement, Clavering, Essex (4/4) The north arcade has a wide variety of graffiti and also holds its own mystery. North Arcade & Outside The challenge of seeking out and recording historic graffiti lies beyond the finding and taking of pictures. The real task is to try to understand why the graffiti…
St Mary and St Clement, Clavering, Essex (3/4) Rood-loft Stairs Doorway To the south side of the chancel arch is a small doorway opening on to the stairs to the rood-loft. This is where Violet Pritchard found the short inscription, Amor Vincit omnia (love conquers all), which she records in her book ‘English Medieval Graffiti’….
St Mary and St Clement, Clavering, Essex (2/4) South Arcade The south arcade of St Mary and St Clement has an abundance of exciting graffiti. ” template=”/var/sites/r/rakinglight.co.uk/public_html/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/products/photocrati_nextgen/modules/ngglegacy/view/gallery-caption.php” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″] There are several compass drawn and hand drawn circle designs of varying complexity in the south arcade. The most notable of which are one…
St Mary and St Clement, Clavering, Essex (1/4) The chancel of St Mary and St Clement was built in the late 14th century. The rest of the church was built at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries. The roof is original, with angel carvings. The screen has traces of saints…
June Miscellany This is June’s edition of monthly posts where we feature items of interest from a variety of sites and some links we’ve come across during the month. Even if you only have a single photo from a site, do send it in with details of where it was taken, so we can…
Saint Michael the Archangel in pre-Reformation England, and implications for the ‘butterfly cross’ graffito The mark commonly known as the butterfly cross is just one of the many perplexing symbols left on historic stone and woodwork by past generations. In form it tends to resemble a bow-tie shape, simply cut with two upright ends and…
St Mary’s, Charminster, Dorset St Mary’s church at Charminster is an 11th century church, extended and improved in the 14th and 16th centuries by the local Trenchard family. The monogram of Thomas Trenchard made up of spirally intertwined Ts is visible in carvings and plaques throughout the church interior and exterior. The are two compass…
St Nicholas, Studland, Dorset The church of St Nicholas in Studland in the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset is a simple Norman structure. Built in the 11th century on the base of an earlier Saxon structure, it consists of a nave, chancel and sanctuary. The round arches are simply carved with none of the dog tooth…
St Mary the Virgin, Cerne Abbas, Dorset The church of St Mary the Virgin, in Cerne Abbas, Dorset, was built in the 14th century and enlarged in the 1450s. It has a stone chancel screen, which dates to the 15th century. It has several unusual and interesting features including a gargoyle near the south…
Skull and Crossbones Hole, Thrupp, Nr Stroud, Gloucestershire Skull and Crossbones Hole in Mackhouse Wood Quarry, Thrupp, near Stroud was located earlier this year by members of the Gloucestershire Speleological Society. An alternative name is Mackhouse Wood no 2. ” template=”/var/sites/r/rakinglight.co.uk/public_html/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/products/photocrati_nextgen/modules/ngglegacy/view/gallery-caption.php” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″] The mine contains a large slab of stone with a…
St Andrews Church, Great Yeldham, Essex St Andrews church in Great Yeldham, Essex appears in Violet Pritchard’s English Medieval Graffiti. Unfortunately, the three intertwined fish she describes cannot be seen. All the columns and piers have been whitewashed, so this may be hiding the design. A compass drawn quatrefoil is clearly visible on one of…
All Saints, Rickling, Essex All Saints Church, Rickling is an interesting church in more ways than one. For a start, the nave and the chancel are on slightly different alignments, which indicates an earlier plan than the current 14th Century one. The graffiti, also has some unique elements including compass circles of hitherto unseen design…
West Ogwell Church, Devon West Ogwell Church is a 13th century church, now redundant and in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It has a simple, whitewashed interior with box pews. The only visible graffiti is on a single limestone block beside the door. There are some Marian marks, initials, dot patterns and hash…
Holy Cross, Felsted, Essex Holy Cross is a wide, light-filled church built in the 12th century with additions and alterations in the 14th and 16th centuries. There have been renovations in the 19th and 20th centuries. These later renovations have removed some of the graffiti, but there is still a substantial amount, especially on the…
May Miscellany This is the first of a series of monthly posts where we feature items of interest from a variety of sites and some links we’ve come across during the month. Even if you only have a single photo from a site, do send it in with details of where it was taken, so…
St Mary’s Church and Tower, Berkeley, Gloucestershire St Mary’s is a Grade 1 Listed 13th century church, with the core of the current building dating from 1225 – 1250. All that remains of the earlier Norman church is the south door and the font, which was built for the total immersion of infants. To the…
St Mary the Virgin, Lindsell, Essex This is a pretty, but odd-shaped church. It is wider than it is long with the tower in one corner. It is originally Norman with a simple round chancel arch with a large squint on the south side. A large column stands beside the font. The column and the…
St Mary’s, Kingskwerwell, Devon St Mary’s parish church in Kingskerswell was built in the 14th century with additions in the 15th century and is on the site of an earlier chapel. There are only a few examples of graffiti in the church. They are to be found on the effigies of Sir John Dinham and…
Holy Trinity, Burrington, Somerset Holy Trinity Church, Burrington, Somerset is a Grade 1 Listed Building dating from the 13th century. The tower, which dates from 1250 to 1320, is the oldest part of the current building and is believed to have been built on the site of an earlier church. The church was restored in…
St Mary the Virgin, Elsenham, Essex St Mary the Virgin is a charming church, close to Stansted Airport, out of the village of Elsenham and up a single-track lane. Pevsner praises its Norman windows and doorway. It was visited by Violet Pritchard, who noted some text with a face carved into the capital letter. There…
Sutton House, Hackney, London Sutton House is a Tudor house in the middle of Hackney. It was built in 1535 by Sir Ralph Sadler, a privy councillor at the court of Henry VIII. It has been a family house, a school, a centre for WW2 fire wardens, the offices of a trades union and a…
St Mary’s Church, Wolborough, Devon St Mary’s, Wolborough dates from the 15th century, although the west tower is earlier. Contents include an ornate screen of circa 1518 and a Norman font. The church stands on a hill, commanding a view of the Teign estuary. There is little graffiti in the church. It consists of a…
The Guild Chapel, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire The Guild Chapel in Stratford-upon-Avon has strong links to Stratford’s famous son. Not only is it literally across the road from New Place, William Shakespeare’s home, but his father, John, as town bailiff, was tasked with removing the wall paintings as part of the Reformation. He chose to cover them with…
The Church of St Thomas the Martyr, Bristol This beautiful late 18th century church is built on the site of a former medieval church demolished in around 1790 when it was deemed to be in an unsafe condition. The current church was designed in 1789 by local architect James Allen. The 15th century west tower…
Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire The castle, which is open to the public, originally dates back to the 11th century and has been in the Berkeley family since they reconstructed it in the 12th century, except for a short period of royal ownership by the Tudors. It is belied to have been the scene of the murder…
St Saviour’s Church, Dartmouth, Devon St. Saviour’s was dedicated as a Chapel of Ease in 1372, but it may be earlier in date. The church was enlarged in the late 14th/early 15th century and has been repaired and refurbished several times since. It is described as having one of the best interiors in Devon. Features…
St Blaise, Haccombe, Devon Haccombe parish church of St. Blaise, dedicated by Stephen de Haccombe, whose tomb lies here, was built in 1233, probably as a household chapel. Enlarged in the early English style in 1328, it contains a freestone screen, an octagonal font, a three-pointed sedilia, a 19th century chancel screen, tiles bearing coats…
St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol St Mary Redcliffe is an Anglican parish church in Redcliffe, Bristol, and is one of the largest parish churches in England. The church was constructed from the 12th to the 15th centuries, and has been a place of Christian worship for over 900 years. The church is renowned for its beautiful…
St Mary the Virgin, Henbury, Bristol St Mary the Virgin is a Church of England parish church in Henbury, Bristol. Construction of the present building took place in the 13th century with later restoration work carried out in the 19th century by the Gothic revival architects Thomas Rickman and George Edward Street. The church has…
St Peter & St Paul’s Church, Foxearth, Essex St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Foxearth presents some challenges to the graffiti hunter. For a start, it’s difficult to find. It is not visible from the road. The postcode and GPS will put you on the wrong street anyway. When you do find the correct unlabelled…
Exeter Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire How do you photograph graffiti from a long-demolished building? In the case of the stones from the Old Sarum cathedral and castle site (demolished in the 13th century) you can go to Exeter St in Salisbury and find them making up part of the cathedral precinct wall. Now it’s not normally advisable…
The Temple Church, London It can be hard being a graffiti hunter in London. There have been three waves of destruction visited upon the medieval buildings of the City of London. There was the Great Fire of 1666, which destroyed so much of the old structure of the city. Then there were the Georgians and…
The National Slate Museum The National Slate Museum is located at Gilfach Ddu in the 19th-century workshops of the now disused Dinorwic slate quarry, which closed in 1969. It is situated in the Padarn Country Park, Llanberis, Gwynedd. Today, the workshops tell the story of the Welsh slate industry. The workshops were built in 1870,…
Ritual Protection Marks in Caves Under the Mendips Conservation work in 2003 in Goatchurch Cavern on the Mendips revealed some fine inscribed marks on calcite flowstone next to the Giant’s Steps. The marks resembled the letter W and aroused interest as the patina was considerably darker than the lighter exposed calcite nearby in graffiti dated…
St James Church, Avebury, Wiltshire Just outside the boundaries of Avebury Stone Circle lies the parish church of St James. It dates back to Saxon times, with additions from the Normans and in the 13th Century. The south porch has many reused stones, including one in the window frame dated to 1660-something and replaced upside…
St Peter’s Church, Sudbury, Suffolk Sudbury is a town on the Suffolk/Essex border with a rich medieval and Georgian history. There are three medieval churches in the town, with St Peter’s being on the market square. It is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust and is also used as an art centre. It dates…
St Augustine’s Tower, Hackney, London St Augustine’s Tower is a strange remnant of 16th Century Hackney still standing in the midst of a bustling shopping district, a couple of minutes away from Hackney Central Overground station. It has a complex history. It was built in the early 1500s as part of a…
St Mary Church, Chickney, Essex The church of St Mary in Chickney, Essex is a Churches Conservation Trust church you approach down a single track road off the B1051. There is a small parking bay outside the churchyard. The church goes back to Saxon times with additions through the years and major restoration in the…
St Mary the Virgin, Wendens Ambo, Essex The church of St Mary the Virgin in the wonderfully named village of Wendens Ambo in Essex is a little gem of a church. It is small, dimly lit and smelled of incense on the day I visited. The graffiti is mostly found on the south pillars and…