Given the dereliction at St Helen’s, Barmby on the Marsh, only fragments of the Victorian decorative schemes survive. However, we have been able to pick out some layers, and gain an idea of how this church may have looked in the 1850s and 1870s.
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The earliest surviving scheme is simple and sober. It comprises a pinkish-brown dado to approximately a metre in height. Then a coat of powder blue runs to the ceiling. Just above the dado, a stencil scheme of light brown of repeating palmettes flows around the entire nave.
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After this, a more energetic scheme was applied, featuring the quintessential Victorian church palette of greens, reds and browns. The walls are dark green and apple green. The frieze features a stamped glossy brown foliage flourish framing a crimson rose.
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I particularly love this scheme as you can see the stipple of the stencil stamp, and sometimes stencil brush hairs still trapped in the paint.
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Over the chancel arch, brittle vestiges of an alternating pattern of fleur de lys and monstrances is pressed out in gold-leaf.
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We took the church into our care last autumn. It needs a *lot* of work. Previously, we’ve talked about the severe structural issues. Sadly, our budget doesn’t run to reinstating a stencil scheme, however, the painted layers remain in situ, ready for further research one day.
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I did those little mock-ups myself to give ye an idea of what we think the schemes were. They’re far from professional or perfect, but please don’t judge me too harshly!
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St Michael's, Tremaen, in Ceredigion was constructed in the 1840s with an ashlar facing of distinctive Pwntan sandstone, quarried from nearby Tanygroes. ...
Pwntan is an Ordovician sandstone, making it about 440-480 million years old. This pale, fine-grained, ironstained stone can be precisely cut by skilled masons. The tight interlocking of polygonal stone blocks at Tremaen is masterful.
Local blogger & Welsh stone enthusiast Caroline Palmer puts it perfectly:
‘So close is the fit that mortar looks to have been almost superfluous, and ... the whole external surface of the church resembles a complex jigsaw puzzle in which no two pieces are even similar.'
From the 1830s to the 1990s surveyors made these benchmarks to record height above Ordnance Datum Newlyn (ODN – mean sea level determined at Newlyn in Cornwall). From this reference, the elevation of another benchmark could be calculated by measuring the difference in heights.
The horizontal marks supported a stable ‘bench’ that a levelling stave could rest on. This design ensured that a stave could be accurately repositioned in the future and that all marks were uniform.
Over a stone stile, St Andrew's, Bayvil nestles in crunchy bracken. Overlooking Newport Bay, the church survives almost entirely as the Georgians left it.
But St Andrew's is a bit of an enigma. Nobody knows when it was built or by whom.
From the outside the Gothick windows are the only hint of what may lie inside.. Lifting the latch on the bead-and-butt west door, an interior “of delightful and luminous simplicity” is revealed.
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A complete set of box pews lines the south wall. A crenelated vestry enclosure takes up the northwest corner. But the chief joy is the triple-decker panelled pulpit, reading desk, and clerk’s desk - the former so tall it almost touches the ceiling with its sounding board.
In the UK, there are more churches dedicated to Mary than any other saint.
The cult of the Blessed Virgin Mary really took hold in the Middle Ages. Mary was adored by monastic orders, who promoted stories of her miracles. By 1066 she had six annual feasts.
Mary came to be depicted as the Queen of Paradise surrounded by red and white rosebushes: red for love and martyrdom, white for purity. (Later the white roses were ditched and the lily was adopted as the symbol of purity.)
But where did it all come from?
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The rose first appears as a romantic symbol in Hellenic poetry. Roman legends connecting Venus with roses establish two enduring connections with the God of Love and the blood of a divine martyr. Mary has been compared to the mystical rose since the Church’s earliest days.
Ninety years ago, in 1931, Waldo Williams visited a friend at Hoplas, Rhoscrowther. He was helping him to harvest turnips.
At the end of a day spent hunched and heaving at the earth, Waldo looked up. The sun was setting.
#OTD in 1971 Welsh poet #WaldoWilliams died. Waldo trained as a teacher in Pembrokeshire, and in the 1920s he met Willie Jenkins - one of the pioneers of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in Pembrokeshire. The two men were pacifists, and deeply objected to war.
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In 1931 Waldo came to Rhoscrowther to help Jenkins on his farm. While here Waldo wrote one of his best-known poems, Cofio (Remembering). Apparently he composed the first verse when watching the sun set after a day on the fields. He went in for supper, and then wrote the rest. 3/