Singles at Hoar Cross

 

Despite being a relatively young church (built 1876), Holy Angels at Hoar Cross is a stunner, and gets hugely high ratings from both visitors and 'church-crawlers'.  

However, this photo is of the church's single pews (I've neer seen single pews before).  They could almost have been custom made for worship in a time of Covid social distancing...!

Death has undone so many

Yet again, Armistice Day is upon us - the day to remember the servicemen and women killed in the world wars.
It's always sobering, and quite shocking, to walk into churches in villages deep in the countryside and see the record of how many of their young people were killed in WW1 - often a huge percentage of the village's population at the time. This memorial at Yoxall is no exception.
As TS Eliot's poem says: "I had not thought death had undone so many".

That which is necessary

Well, a joke in church is never a totally bad thing.
In the church at Sandon, the toilet door is labelled (in Latin) as a 'necessarium'...

Book-knot in roof

As readers of this blog will know, I 'collect' sightings of the Stafford Knot, the symbol of the county.
This one is depicted inside (or on?) a book, and is among a number of symbols - which can all be found up in the roof-ceiling at Cheddleton Church.
But why is it depicted on/in a book?

Time painted into a circle

Look very very carefully at this picture of the tower at Yoxall Church.  See anything odd?

The oddness is that this is not a real clock-face at all, but a painted one.

I don't know why, but I find this almost to be a form of cheating...  But why should I feel that way?

Rainbow in church

The Meerbrook Church Flower Festival was really colourful and, well, better done than most.  (Frankly, a lot of church flower festivals look like the place is just decked out for a grand funeral).

The theme for this particular festival was 'A Good Read', and each exhibit illustrated the makers' favourite book. Featured were the usual suspects - from Tarka The Otter to Wind In The Willows etc.
Mind you, I was a little surprised to see that the exhibit in the photo above was a tribute to 'The Rainbow' by DH Lawrence, a book banned on its first publication for its risque passages!
Good ol' Meerbrook...

Grey Ilam

Definition of English summer: the greenest countryside under the greyest skies. 
The gloomy grey stone of these Staffordshire countryside buildings is typical; and, to be fair to the architects of same, one can hardly have buildings decked out in rainbow colours when we are usually under such louring skies.

These are the grounds of Ilam Hall in the Staffordshire Peak District.

Heritage dilemma

On the outskirts of Rugeley town centre stands the 'Old Chancel' as it is now known. This medieval (12th Century) building forms part of the ruins of the former parish church of the town.  Whilst not exactly derelict, the site is isolated and subject to occasional petty vandalism.
The chancel, which is as big as a squash court only, is permanently closed to access.

What is amazing to think is that its lancet window (in my photo) consists of some rare fourteenth-century stained glass "of a beautiful hue" according to Landor's history. It is protected by a mesh, yes, but....
It's said that we are heritage-crazy in this country (in fact, a bit too fond of the past), but I find it quite bizarre that this glass has not been lifted and transferred to a museum - before it is broken by some kid who is determined to do damage...

Time stopped still in Barlaston

People get very confused about the church of St John the Baptist on the edge of the Wedgwood estate in Barlaston.
It’s assumed the church must be something to do with the original Josiah – as Barlaston Hall, for which St John’s serves as an estate church, is also 18th Century. In fact, the Wedgwood firm only bought the Barlaston estate in the 1930s.
However, inside, if you could get inside, there are indeed memorials to the Wedgwood family. Very confusing.

It’s also assumed that St John’s was closed in 1980 because the hall next to it went into ruin then for a few years. Actually, the building was literally undermined by subsidence from the coal-working deep underneath it...
It’s all rather abandoned now, despite being near an estate of new luxury homes; and the vandalised clock tower is a sad symbol of that state of affairs

Too graphic for church?

This curiously sexual wooden panel relief can be seen in the Lady Chapel of Saint Edward Confessor Church at Leek.  The church is the grand old lady of Leek and is fascinating for any visitor, especially anyone who likes stained-glass.

I thought this depiction of The Annunciation was rather graphic for a church (or am I just old-fashioned?), so I bought the guide to find out when it had been done, and by whom.  It's actually quite a fine piece of work anyway.
However... the guide does not mention this piece at all. I wonder if the wardens preferred not to draw attention to it?

Blymhill's vomiting lion

This little monster is part of the reason that Blymhill Church in south Staffordshire is one of Simon Jenkins' '1000 Best Churches in England'. The vomiting-lion, as he is affectionately called, is basically a gargoyle but quite an attraction, espcially when it's raining heavily and he is 'spewing'.

The strange thing is that, in old Greek, both 'vomiting' and 'preaching' can be translated with the same word. Was the maker who named the lion having a sly dig at clerics whose sermons went on and on and on...?
Quite possibly.

The gulls of St Modwen

Gulls regularly line the roof of St Modwen Church in Burton.  They seem to find it a good look-out for the adjacent River Trent.

Burton is of course hundreds of miles from the sea, but the Trent is navigable all the way up to the East Coast (yes, this surprised me too)... so maybe these gulls floated down from the North Sea.  Hmm.  Perhaps.

Incidentally, St Modwen's parish district now consists of ... basically ... the small island in the middle of the Trent river. Now that is weird.

Grotesquely frightening

This is one of the 'grotesques' that you will find acting as a pillar-stop in the Lady Chapel at Bradeley Church.
Its job is to scare off evil spirits.  It sure frightens me.

Horns in waiting

The mysterious and ancient Abbots Bromley Horn Dance takes place this year (2015) on Monday 7 September.  I have been a little disenchanted in the past with the sight (of men skipping about in costume wearing antlers on their heads) - but the village does take the whole thing very seriously.

So does the local church, where the antlers & hobby-heads are kept in pride of place permanently waiting for their annual outing. They look rather slyly grim to me.

Rebels' bullet holes

The doors to the tower at St. John The Baptist in Mayfield bear distinct marks, as you can see.  They are a peculiar and historic form of vandalism - which is why they have not been repaired in over 250 years.
In fact, they are said to have been made by balls fired from muskets by frustrated rebels who were trying to frighten local villagers who had locked themselves in the church.  Quite what Bonnie Prince Charlie, the rebels' commander, thought of their actions is not recorded.
These 'scars of war' remain untouched to this day.

War damage still with us

Talking of the past being in the present (see previous post), I had assumed that the blank window in Blithfield Church was either where the church ran out of money to build the twin-piece or some irreparable vandalism.

Actually, it was the latter... in a sense.   The blank window is where the original window was blown out by the blasts from enemy bombs landing many miles away. 
It stands, unreplaced, as a reminder that even quiet communities far from the front line can still live in terror in war.

Country church mystery

Country churches contain mysteries. St Mary's at Enville has number of these strange Saxon carvings, and it places them prominently up on its walls.
But - are they Saxon?  Tradition says so, but historians err toward Norman.
What does it represent?  Tradition says it is a former priest, but ... really?
And is that a beard under its chin?

What's great is that the church doesn't care.  Church wardens in these situations know they are just the custodians of the village's history, not the interpreters.

Snake and monkey in the Peak

These crawling creatures, lifelike in their own way, can be seen on Grindon Church, which is rather famous for the (stone-carved) fauna - including human heads - covering its exterior.

Church-within-a-church

The church of Rushton Spencer is a church-within-a-church.  The eighteenth-century sandstone exterior that you see encloses an older, fourteenth-century timber church.
No one is clear as to why the parishioners of 300 years ago wanted to preserve the old building inside the new building.  Perhaps they were just familiar with it, and respected its age...

Impressive, but not impressed

You'll find the Lady Chetwynd Memorial in Colwich Church.  It's impressive enough, being almost life-size, but this mid-Victorian style of relief sculpture does leave me cold I'm afraid.

I think the boy is supposed to be one of the Roman guards at Jesus's tomb, in the act of being surprised by Jesus coming back to life.  His plainly eroticised figure rather distracts from the message, I'd think...