Luke Sherlock Profile picture
May 20, 2023 11 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Top 10 English church doorways from my travels - a thread.

1. Church of St Mary and St David, Kilpeck, Herefordshire. A riot of Norman carving. Dragons, grotesques, angels, a phoenix, beakheads, a basilisk, a lion. A writhing phantasmagoria of the 12th century imagination: Image
2. St Edward’s, Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire. Visitors come from far and wide to see the famous yew lined door of this church, said to have inspired J.R.R Tolkein’s “Doors of Durin” as featured in The Lord of the Rings trilogy: Image
3. St Germans Priory Church, St Germans, Cornwall. Well now…Seven orders of Norman decoration on the great west doorway. Need I say more: Image
4. St John’s, Barnack, Cambridgeshire. Although there are many Saxon doorway contenders, this one shouts out its great age. It is simple. It is crude. It has endured a thousand winters. It is in. Image
5. St Mary’s, Berkeley, Gloucestershire. Built in the mid-15th century the elaborate ogee crocketed arch marks the threshold into the Berkeley family chapel; the family arms held by a pair of proud, watchful angels. Perfection. Image
6. St Mary’s, Patrixbourne, Kent. One of the quiet masterpieces of English romanesque architecture: the south doorway on this tucked away church, a few miles walk from Canterbury. Arches fan out from a “tympanum” where Christ is seated with creatures of the apocalypse (probs): Image
7. Watts Cemetery Chapel, Compton, Surrey. Something a little bit modern. Designed by Mary Watts, over 70 villagers were involved in the creation of this stunning chapel between 1895 and 1904: Image
8. St John’s, Higham, Kent. Forlorn in the Dickensian “marsh country” Guarding the threshold of St Mary’s church for over 600 years is a magnificent and weighty carved wooden doorway. With elegant tracery panels, flower patterns, animals, and medieval faces: Image
9. St Mary’s, Isle Abbots, Somerset. High gothic drama. Imagine this. Saints in the niches (btw this church maintains a near full set of carved medieval figures in the tower above - extraordinary), flickering lights on the candlemas procession. Phwoar: Image
10. St Peter & St Paul’s, Salle, Norfolk. Angels swinging cencers to guard a rural church of epic proportions, seemingly in the middle of nowhere…magnificent. In a culture of scant visual stimulation this must have been overwhelming: Image
If you would like to see more of my work do follow me on instagram (englishpilgrim) or visit my website for some of my writing (lukesherlock.com). Look forward to seeing your favourite doors. Keep it Rock and Roll 🤟

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Luke Sherlock

Luke Sherlock Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @lukejsherlock

Nov 12
A few weeks ago we stayed in this 15th and 16th century cottage. This is what we found 🧵: Image
The cottage in Branscombe, Devon, is named “Margells” and was rescued by the @LandmarkTrust in the 1970’s. They found it in this state (before + after shots) Image
Image
Image
Image
It’s thought the house has a 15th century core with the upper floor added towards the end of the 16th century - once part of a much larger property: Image
Image
Image
Image
Read 10 tweets
Aug 29
I was handed the giant key to a medieval priory cared for by the @LandmarkTrust last weekend

What is it like to stay in such a building? Here’s what I found…at Woodspring Priory, Somerset: Image
This former Augustinian priory is remarkable in that it still looks like a religious building… Image
Although it was converted into domestic usage not long after the reformation… Image
Read 11 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(