Saint Chad - in one piece

It's good old Saint Chad's feast-day tomorrow (March 2nd).  St Chad is the patron saint of Staffordshire, having converted many of the area's inhabitants to the faith in his time as Bishop Of Mercia in the seventh century.

It used to be the case that his bones were paraded around the Catholic Cathedral of St Chad in Birmingham on this day, but I can't find any reference to the practice being scheduled for this year.
In fact, poor St Chad's skeleton has had a torrid time. Not only have his bones been moved from pillar to post, but for a while his head was kept in a small chapel at Lichfield Cathedral - only to disappear during the Reformation.
In this photo of a window at Brewood Church, St Chad is depicted holding Lichfield Cathedral.

A wonder house - in an ordinary place

This ‘Gothick’-style wonder of a house is Speedwell Castle, which is slap-bang in the middle of Brewood on the main crossroads.
It’s said that, around 1750, a local man won such an outrageous bet (that he had placed on a horse called Speedwell) that he was able to fund this building project with the winnings.

The story seems odd to me. 
Why did he build right on top of the crossroads (unless it was an extension to an existing house, I suppose)? 
The fact is that: two rather uninteresting pubs face the house; the frontage is right on to the road (ie a very less than grand entrance); and the posh end of Brewood is actually 200 yards away (near the church). 
I wonder if the man, an apothecary by the name of William Rock, just wanted to impress his immediate neighbours, and used his sudden rise in fortune to publicise his rise in fortune - in an unmissable spot?  In other words, a self-aggrandising vanity project?  I wonder.

It’s now converted into flats.

Bearing nine children in eight years...

Poor Lady(ies) Giffard.  Sir John Giffard, who was the big-man in Brewood in the sixteenth century, had two wives, and had fourteen children with them. 
His first wife Jane had nine children in eight years, which is... well... incredible.  It's perhaps not surprising that she died in the throes of giving birth to her last child.

Sadly, most of Jane's children died young. Here you can see, on the side of the tomb, tiny statues that memorialise some of Sir John's children - the ones depicted in their shrouds are the ones who died young. A quick count shows that, of the ten shown, NINE died young.  The kind of grief the parents must have experienced almost seems beyond belief.
One touching item about this tomb (which you can't see here) is that there are three effigies on its top - Sir John is there lying squeezed in between his two wives. (See the Wikipedia page for a view).

Family feud in stone

This most curious carving can be found on a house opposite the parish church in Brewood. The face (could it be a mask?) has its tongue sticking out...   There is no explanation.

However, a passer-by told me that the story behind it is that, some many years ago, a lady so disliked her own sister - who lived in a house on the same street - that she had the carving specially made as a permanent signal to her unfortunate sibling.  The sticking-out tongue pointed in the latter's direction, apparently.
Somehow this sums up an aspect of Staffordshire people - quite happy to tell it how it is (even to the point of rudeness), yet co-existing happily in the same street!

I can find no information about this on the web.  So I'm happy to believe the story I heard!

Panther in Staffordshire

The grandiose stone fireplace in the main saloon room at the stately home of Chillington Hall reflects an outstanding story from the owning family's past.

Five hundred years ago, one of the Giffards of old managed to fire an arrow, over a huge distance, killing a panther (believe it!) that was about to attack a woman and child.  Such accuracy and self-belief become an ambition for later generations, so much so that a panther is now the family's heraldic symbol.


You don't see a lot of panthers in Staffordshire, so this is worth seeking out.

The beauty in Brewood

I'd never heard of St Mary of Cleophas (aka St Mary Clopas), but a little research shows that she was the mother of two of the Apostles, and was one of the “Three Marys” who followed Jesus, and was present at the Crucifixion (which is why, I guess, she is holding the Crown of Thorns in her right hand).


Anyway, it wasn't her story but the beauty of this piece of stained glass in Brewood Parish Church that drew me to take the photo.
Old churches really are unrecognised art galleries, with some amazing stuff... in my opinion.

700 years of old smithy for sale

The chance to buy a 700-year old house is still fairly rare, even in in Brewood, which is about as Merrie Old England as you can get nowadays.
Yet, look here - the town's Old Smithy - parts of which go back to 1350 - is up for sale.
Ghosts are an extra.

Link: Old Smithy - Listed Building

Swastika at Brewood

The swastika symbol is now so associated with Nazism that there is a feeling of distaste whenever one sees it.
So, it’s quite a shock to see it in the design of the floor-tiles in a church - as here, in the parish church in Brewood.

Of course, what we sometimes forget is that the swastika is an ancient, very widespread symbol, which is used quite innocently all over the world - and in fact was innocently used all over Europe too, right up to the 1930s. (The English writer Rudyard Kipling even had it as his personal symbol, until it became inappropriate).
It has lots of meanings, though sometimes it was just decorative, like here at Brewood.

The tiles you see were probably installed in Brewood in the early 1900s.

There is also a strange myth that the Nazi version of the swastika, which is generally left-facing, like this one at Brewood, was deliberately faced in the reverse way to the ancient swastika. In fact the ancient swastika could face either left or right.


Links: Brewood Parish Church / Meaning of the Swastika

Canal missionaries

The Days Of Elijah narrowboat can be seen touring the canals in this part of the world over the summer months. Its purpose is to bring the Gospel to boaters, and – well anyone else I guess…

It seems odd to think that Christian missionaries are sailing along the canals of the region some thirteen hundred years after St Chad converted Staffordshire, but there you go.

I guess it’s heading for its winter quarters now.

Link: Days Of Elijah ministry

Church memorial in colour

This perfect little tomb memorial in Brewood Church in South Staffordshire is something I could look at for ages. In fact all the coloured seventeenth-century tombs (some of which are much much larger than this one!) in the church are pretty special.
Notice the children of the married couple - the small one in the middle is in a shroud, meaning the child had died in infancy.

Link: Brewood Church