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Jan 20 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Winter sunlight spills from St Helen's, Barmby on the Marsh. It glints off the fine recycled 18th-century doors.

#AdoorableThursday

1/4
On these doors, trompe l’oeil painting imitates panelling on inner face. Even the heavy iron strap-hinges have been grained to imitate timber!

2/4
The outer face is full-blooded panelling. We recently removed the peeling plastic paint and revealed a veritable alphabet of initials etched into the surface. The earliest graffiti we found dates to 1782.

3/4
Removing the overpaint made it plain to see how the doors were extended to fit their new location - see the additional strip of timber to the base. 

We have a good photographic record of the graffiti, and in time, hope to woodgrain the external faces of the doors once more.

4/4
As ever, humongous thanks to @fotofacade for these sublime images. ♥️

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More from @friendschurches

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Jan 18
Last summer, we pulled back a door mat at Boveney church and revealed a tile stamped with the maker’s name: Garrett Brothers, Burslem. Not one of the usual tile makers, we did some research, and discovered their business took an interesting route into... ferns.

#thread
Garrett Brothers, Brownhills, Burslem, Staffordshire It seems that the firm only operated for a few years in the 1860s. A trade directory of 1864 describes their business as ...

2/5
Blue Metallic tileries, near Burslem … and 16 south Wharf, Paddington, London; Paving and ridge tiles … stable Bricks, Garden edging etc … also improved pressed flooring tiles for churches, entrance halls, conservatories, dairies &c.'

3/5
Read 6 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
Jan 15
At Llangwm Uchaf, what remains of the gloomy inscription on this crumbling gravestone has a great example of the archaic use of 'ye' (the) which we tweeted about recently, but you can also spot two lovely examples of another extinct letterform: ſ - known as the 'long s'.
At a glance, ſ looks a bit like an f (especially in typefaces that give it a little nub on its left hand side - like in this edition of Paradise Lost).
But what looks like 'fpend' on the headstone is actually 'spend'.
Read 11 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
Jan 14
In some of our churches not all is what it seems. Marble columns that appear round and richly carved recede to painted curlicues. Velvet curtains that hang sumptuously are nothing more than daubed oils. Varnished woodwork the work of an illusionist.

#thread
Because that's what these are: illusions. Or, to give the proper name, it's trompe l'oeil - a French term that literally means deceives the eye. It's a technique to trick the viewer into perceiving a flat painted detail as a 3D object.

2/
At St Mary's, Mundon in Essex, the east wall has Baroque-style Commandment boards feigned in pink squiggly marble and suspended from impossibly delicate ties.

3/
Read 8 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
Jan 13
Welcoming hands greet visitors to St Michael and All Angels', Castlemartin in Pembrokeshire.

The wrought iron gates in the lychgate were made and presented to the church in 1890 by the multi-talented Pembroke engineering firm J&A Stephens - known locally as 'Knacky Stephens’…
The original "Knacky Stephens" was John Stephens — Castlemartin's village blacksmith. He had the knack for fixing machines. His sons John and Archibald were also very ingenious, and grew a business as Agricultural, Marine and Motor Engineers.
J&A Stephens did everything from repairs for the Admiralty Dockyard, to hiring out steam road rollers and farm machinery, to providing equipment to build a lighthouse on Skokholm Island. Archie even invented and patented a new submarine shackle, but it never went into production.
Read 6 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
Jan 11
At St Beuno's in Penmorfa, Gwynedd, a fragment of 16th century stained glass remains in a window on the west wall. In 1905, it piqued the curiosity of Charles E Breese — a local solicitor, Liberal politician and antiquarian …
Breese learned that until about the 1860s it had been a part of a larger window on the east wall, which was known, from its inscription, to have commemorated Maredudd ab Ifan ab Robert (aka Meredith ap Ivan ap Robert, or Meredith Wynn) and his third wife, Margaret Maurice.
Meredith, the founder of the influential Wynn(e) family, was said to have fathered 20 children and to go everywhere with a personal bodyguard of 20 tall bowmen.
Read 9 tweets
Friendless Churches Profile picture
Jan 9
Do you need to know how to graft an apple tree, how to ‘make a horse piss and dung', or need advice on making a wise choice in marriage?

John Gwin, 17th century churchwarden at Llangwm Uchaf, has the answers to all of these questions, and much more … Image
Throughout his life, John kept a 'commonplace book' — recording family affairs, local events, home improvements, advice on husbandry, poems, medical treatments, and parish politics.
It’s survived to give us a fascinating window into life in Monmouthshire in the late 1600s. Image
John had a particular interest in medicine, recording cures that combined traditional and modern medical ideas. His interest wasn’t purely academic. We can imagine John’s fears as he notes the directions for treatment of his two children — 'sick of the smallpox'. Image
Read 5 tweets

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