St Mary’s, Woodham Ferrers, Essex The church of St Mary’s in Woodham Ferrers, Essex dates back to the 13th and 14th centuries. It has a faint doom painting above the chancel arch and a few remnants of paintings on the columns. These are dated to the 14th century. In terms of protective marks, St…
St Mary the Virgin, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex The church of St Mary the Virgin at the north end of Burnham-on-Crouch dates back to the 12th century although the current building dates from the 14th century. It is unusual in having no differentiation between nave and chancel, with the north and south arcades stretching down to the…
All Saints, Brightlingsea, Essex All Saints church, Brightlingsea, stands on a hill just outside the seaside town where it has operated as a landmark for centuries. The chancel dates back to the 13th century, with the south aisle dating to the 15th century and the south door to the 16th century. Seafaring is part of…
May Miscellany Upcoming Events Graffiti talk at Flamstead Festival Items of Interest New gladiator graffiti found in Pompeii Historic graffiti in Venice Kent door Napoleonic graffiti Prehistoiric dot patterns in Greek cave From Twitter Graffiti in St Mary’s, Whitby Graffiti in Thornton-le-Dale, Yorkshire Daisy wheels on…
St Giles, Great Hallingbury, Essex The church of St Giles dates back to the 11th century with a 14th century tower and evidence of roman bricks in the chancel arch. The north aisle and porch dates to the late 19th century, as does the decoration of the east wall. However, the church is more…
February Miscellany From Twitter A few more pics from our trip to Selby. The daisy-wheels (and other marks) are on a column in the north aisle at the West end, the Marian marks are on a medieval effigy right up against the West end. pic.twitter.com/gEaJty6CY1 — Brian Hoggard (@folkmagicman) February 3, 2023 In contrast…
St Barnabas, Great Tey, Essex St Barnabas church in Great Tey, Essex, immediately shows a long history of building and remodelling. Its massive (in the solid sense) central tower was built in 1160. The chancel and north and south transepts were 14th century changes and additions. Other changes, including shortening the nave, occurred in the…
St Mary the Virgin, Henham, Essex The church of St Mary the Virgin in Henham, Essex dates back to 13th century. The tower is dated to 1325 and the south porch to the 15th century, as does the font. The south porch is where most of the graffiti is to be found. It…
St Mary Magdalene, Wethersfield, Essex St Mary Magdalene church in the Essex village of Wethersfield dates back to the 12th century, although it is believed that there was a Saxon church on the site before then. Perhaps the church’s most unusual feature is the Samson Post at the base of the tower. The Historic England…
November Miscellany Items of Interest Graffiti found in Westbury, Wiltshire The Mysterious ‘Arrow Stones’ of Shotwick From Twitter What an absolutely fantastic #Roman tile: it's marked with #finger lines, hobnail #shoe prints, #dog's paw prints, and a #stamp of the LEG(io) XIIII G(emina). Tiles with imprints are very common, since tiles were laid out to dry…
Eltham Palace, London Eltham Palace in south east London has had a long history. It was given by the Bishop of Durham to Edward II in 1305 and used a royal residence from then until the 16th century. Out of favour as residence from then on it fell into disrepair until only the great hall and…
St Mary and St Andrew, Whittlesford, Cambridgeshire The church of St Mary and St AndrewSt Mary and St Andrew, Whittlesford dates back to the 12th century12th century with chancel works happening in the 13th century and the south aisle being rebuilt in the 14th. The first item to note is outside. On the south side…
St Mary Magdalene, Cowden, Kent The church of St Mary Magdalene Cowden is a border church, only just within the area covered by the Kent Medieval Graffiti Survey, lying as it does with its southern edge almost touching the Sussex border and is three kilometres at the most from Surrey to the West. Cowden, although…
October Miscellany Upcoming Events Popular Magic: Then and Now Church Studies Zoom lectures Items of Interest CCT lecture on Macabre Church Lore Historic Graffiti to ward off evil found at old church For when protective marks on the windows and door frames just isn’t doing it for you, you can have all…
St Vivien, Pons, Charente-Maritime, France Pons is a town in the Charente-Maritime department of south-west France about 35km from the Atlantic coast of France and half-way between La Rochelle and Bordeaux. The town was on one of the main pilgrimage routes to Santiago di Compostella. The Romanesque church of St Vivien dates to the 12th…
St Mary, Upchurch & St Margaret, Lower Halstow The Kent villages of Upchurch and Lower Halstow lay roughly five and six miles east of Gillingham respectively and north of the main A2 road. Lower Halstow is possibly slightly the smaller of the villages, with the little church of St Margaret of Antioch, tucked away on…
St Michael, Great Sampford, Essex (3/3) Chancel Graffiti This is the third and last post about St Michael, Great Sampford. The chancel has 26 seats set in stone bays. The Historic England listing states that they were said to have seated a Knight Hospitaller who were supposed to have built the church. The most prominent…
St Michael, Great Sampford, Essex (1/3) You only need to walk around the exterior of St Michael in Great Sampford to realise that it has a history of rebuilding. Somewhat unusually this rebuilding was mostly confined to the 14th century. The church had been under the jurisdiction of Battle Abbey in Sussex and the Knights…
St Mary’s, Gestingthorpe, Essex St Mary’s church in Gestingthorpe dates back to the 13th century, the south aisle was built in the 14th century and rebuilt in the 15th when the tower was also added. There is double-hammerbeam roof, also of the 15th century, and ‘uncommonly splendid for Essex’, according to Pevsner. One wall has…
St Giles, Great Maplestead, Essex St Giles church in Great Maplestead was built in the 12th century with major additions in 13th and 14th centuries. In the 16th century, the Deane family, who lived in nearby Dynes Hall, added a small south chapel in the church. It holds their monuments. The most splendid monument in…
St Christopher, Willingale, Essex Sharing a churchyard with St Andrew’s, St Christopher’s church served the parish of Willingale Doe. The church dates to the 14th century, the font is 15th century and the church was extensively restored in the 19th century. This restoration may be why there is little graffiti in the church itself. The…
All Saints’ Church in Shillington occupies a commanding position on a hill with excellent views of the surrounding countryside. This was my first Bedfordshire church on a trip where I set out to follow in the footsteps of Violet Pritchard, one of the pioneers in the field of English medieval graffiti. Talking a campervan up…
St Peter and St Paul, Bardfield Saling, Essex The church of St Peter and St Paul in Bardfield Saling (also known as Little Saling) dates to the 14th century. It is notable as being one of only six churches in Essex to have a round tower. The organ is an 18th century chamber organ and…
St Martin’s Cathedral, Leicester Leicester Cathedral was built from the 12th to the 15th centuries and much altered and restored in the 19th century. Until 1927 when it was consecrated as Leicester Cathedral, it was the parish church of St Martin of Tours. It is now famous as the resting place of Richard III. …
All Saints, Great Chesterford, Essex All Saints church in Great Chesterford, Essex, dates from the 13th century. although most of what is visible dates to the 14th and 15th centuries. The west tower was rebuilt in the 18th century and that is where the south door now stands. Restorations have thinned out the graffiti in…
All Saints, Ashdon, Essex (2/2) All Saints church has a number of apotropaic marks on its stonework. It has several of one particular type – the eight pointed star. This has shown up in other churches (most notably in St Mary and St Clement, Clavering). It is described in MB Jackson’s book, Ciphers and Scripts….
St Andrews, Helions Bumpstead, Essex St Andrew’s in Helions Bumpstead is an unusually light church. In part this is due to the south wall of the nave, rebuilt in the 16th century and, to repeat the lines about Hardwick Hall, it is more glass than wall. This superfluity of daylight is also reflected by the…
Bath Abbey, Bath and Northeast Somerset The Abbey Church of St Peter and St Paul, better known as Bath Abbey, has been undergoing a £19.3 million programme of major works, funded largely by the Heritage Lottery Fund, in order to repair the Abbey’s collapsing floor, install a new heating system using the nearby hot springs…
St Botolph’s, Hadstock, Essex The current building of St Botolph’s in the village of Hadstock dates back to 1020 when King Cnut ordered it to be built to after the battle of Assundun in 1016. There is evidence of an earlier Saxon church on the same site, possibly belonging to an abbey founded by St…
St Andrew’s, Wormingford, Essex Wormingford, in North Essex has its own version of the George and the Dragon story. In Wormingford’s case, however, it is not Saint George, but Sir George of Layer de la Haye who slew, not a dragon but an escaped ‘cokadrille’ or crocodile. This ‘dragoun’, a gift to Richard I for…
The Abbey Church of Holy Cross and St Lawrence, Waltham Abbey, Essex The Abbey Church of Holy Cross and St Lawrence is more familiarly known as Waltham Abbey Church. There is evidence that there was a church on the site as far back as the 7th century. The church was rebuilt and enlarged in Saxon…
June Miscellany Upcoming Events Talk at Leicester Guildhall in July. Hidden Charms Conference call for papers. Tickets are available for the Making Your Mark symposium. Items of Interest Prehistoric Stone engraved with horses found in France. Helmsdale Castle graffiti.
St Mary, Bures, Suffolk The village of Bures is divided by the River Stour and, as the river functions as the border between Essex and Suffolk, the village is part in Suffolk and part in Essex. The church of St Mary falls on the Suffolk side of the border. It is always nice to see…
St Mary the Virgin, Little Sampford, Essex There are some churches where setting, exterior and interior combine to form a whole that achieves way more than the sum of its parts. St Mary the Virgin in Little Sampford is one such gem and I would urge anyone to visit whether they are interested in graffiti…
St Mary the Virgin, Great Bardfield, Essex The church of St Mary the Virgin, Great Bardfield dates back to the 12th century. It is noted for its stone rood screen, one of only three in Europe. The screen has two angels facing out towards the nave and two demons facing in towards the chancel. Local…
St Barnabas, Alphamstone, Essex The little village of Alphamstone is recorded in the Domesday Book, but there is archaeological evidence that there was a settlement nearby in the bronze age The churchyard has several sandstone sarsen stones which may or may not have formed a stone circle. This is not the only mystery. The church…
St Mary’s, Stebbing, Essex (2/2) Stebbing church has several compass designs ranging from simple circles to elaborate daisy wheels with mulitple petals. There are a range of protective marks throughout the church including Marian marks, pentagrams and butterfly crosses. The crosses in St Mary’s are mostly of a plain, latin type with a couple of…
St Laurence, Ridgewell, Essex (2/2) St Laurence church has several compass drawn circle designs, including a very clear daisy wheel and an unusually long sequence of linked compass drawn circles. There is a large incomplete daisy wheel by the west door in the tower, it is obscured behind an old noticeboard. ” 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”…
St Andrew’s, Buckland, Hertfordshire The nave and chancel of this Churches Conservation Trust church date to 1348. The tower, south aisle, porch and south door are from the 1400s. There is a bird of unidentified species, several harps and a heraldic shield. Notable among the protective marks is a concentric circle made up of twenty…
Hampton Court Palace, London (1/2) I went to Hampton Court Palace as a tourist, wanting to keep an eye out for graffiti but not having planned this visit as a graffiti-hunting trip. I was blown away by how much graffiti there is in the place from drawings and protective marks in the Tudor kitchens to…
The Porch of St Mary Kenardington Alan Anstee of the Kent Medieval Graffiti Survey pays a visit to an old haunt and describes the fascinating porch of St Mary’s church in Kenardington, Kent. St Mary, Kenardington is a small church with medieval origins near Ashford in Kent. Kenardington is a scattered hamlet consisting of clusters…
St George, Anstey, Hertfordshire St George’s church, Anstey, dates back to the 12th century with additions and changes in the 13th to 15th centuries. It is thought that some stones used in the church’s construction came from the nearby Anstey castle. Violet Pritchard has made extensive notes on the church in her book, English Medieval…
Pew and Choir Stall Graffiti from Kent and a little from elsewhere Graffiti isn’t only found on stonework in churches, castles and houses. Alan Anstee of the Kent Medieval Graffiti Survey talks about some of the fascinating graffiti he’s seen on wooden church pews and choir stalls. When I was first asked to write something…
St Sacerdos Cathedral, Sarlat-la-Canéda, Dordogne St Sacerdos is a Roman catholic cathedral in the beautiful medieval market city of Sarlat in the Dordogne region of France. The cathedral has seen a great deal of reconstruction over the years. The east end of the cathedral dates back to the 14th century and was originally named Saint…
St Lawrence Tower, Ashburton, Devon A visitor to Ashburton, approaching from the high ground of Dartmoor, might be forgiven for wondering why a small market town deserves two medieval churches with soaring Devon towers. The answer is simple, though it sounds as if it might be the start of a surreal pattern of riddling: one…
St Mary’s Priory, Little Dunmow, Essex (2/3) In the previous post of St Mary’s Priory in Little Dunmow, we looked at the graffiti round the doorway and the first two columns. This revealed the first of two graffiti described in Pritchard’s English Medieval Graffiti. The rest of the graffiti in the church is on…
St Mary’s Priory, Little Dunmow, Essex (1/3) St Mary’s Priory, Little Dunmow is a strange church. The windows on the north side are wildly out of proportion to those on the south and the tower looks like someone stole an italian campanile and glued it to one corner. Inside, there is an arcade of…
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…
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 (2/4) South Arcade The south arcade of St Mary and St Clement has an abundance of exciting graffiti. There are several compass drawn and hand drawn circle designs of varying complexity in the south arcade. The most notable of which are one large spiral within a compass drawn…
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…
Abbey Church of Sainte-Marie, Souillac, Dordogne The abbey church of Sainte-Marie in Souillac in the Dordogne region of France has its origins with the Benedictine monks of Saint Pierre d’Aurillac, who established a priory here in the 10th century. The abbey church was built between 1075 and 1150 and ranks amongst the finest examples of…
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 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…