I gave E a lift into Solihull on Monday as she was meeting a friend for lunch so, as I had two hours free time before running her home, I decided to revisit the Parish Church of St Alphege as the first visit I made a few years ago was fairly brief. The oldest part of the church dates back to 1180 with additions made in the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. The church is dedicated to St Alphege who was born in 954 and was made Archbishop of Canterbury 1006-1012. He was killed by invading Danes and canonised in 1078.
I had a walk around the outside of the church first - here we have marks made by arrow sharpenings over the centuries. The long marks were made by Broadheads and the round ones by Bodkins (these are different types of arrowhead used with the long bows).
A Solihull Geology Trail booklet I have mentions that this rock is a glacial erratic - i.e. a rock that is different from the local bedrock and which was transported from another area by glaciers during an Ice Age and then deposited as the ice melted.
The Northern Porch dates from around 1360 and
contains two lovely stained glass windows.
The font dates from the 14th century but the stonework was dressed in late Victorian times.
The stained glass (apart from a few fragments of medieval glass) dates from 1845 onwards. It really is very beautiful - so rather a lot of stained glass window photos in this post!
The Candlemas Window designed by Claude Price in 1977.
The West Window - the Tree of Jesse by CE Kempe dates from 1879
The Resurrection by CE Kempe
In the bottom left hand part of the photo you can see a wheatsheaf - Kempe's mark.
This window shows Thomas Becket being murdered by four barons in Canterbury Cathedral. It dates from 1956 and is the work of Lawrence Lee once Professor of Stained Glass at the Royal College of Art and the designer of windows in Coventry Cathedral (another place I must revisit one day).
St Katherine's Chapel which contains a Reredos with paintings of Saints
Stained Glass in the Chancel
The East Window by William Vailes of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
The Chantry Chapel of St Alphege
Upper Chapel
Fragments of Medieval wall decorations
The East Window of 1908 containing flora and fauna images was by Bertram Lamplugh (a follower of the Arts and Crafts Movement)
The Lower Chapel - the Crypt Chapel of St Francis (medieval, built around 1277 and once the Chantry priest's chapel and chamber). The Altar is original.
Another photo of the church as I was leaving.
Lovely to see some thistle seedheads left to flourish near one of the entrances to Touchwood Shopping Centre.
Passion flowers - why doesn't mine flower like this?!!!
E had originally suggested going on to one of the local National Trust properties where Spotted Flycatchers have been seen recently but by the time we met up it was too late. So we stopped off in Coleshill on the way home and I had a browse round "Books Revisited" while E looked for Pokemons! Did have a cup of tea and a slice of Victoria Sandwich in a tearoom - no photo as I had left the camera in the car boot!
Reference: St Alphege Solihull Guide Book
I love those sharpening marks, more authentic than anything else on view in that church, in my view. History drips off them.
ReplyDeleteI always so enjoy these posts - and learn so much. I particularly like the photo of the brasses ... it brings back many happy memories of biking around our rural villages as a teenager to rub the local ones with heelball and brass rubbing sticks of 'astral', which I always thought was a wonderful name! We always got permission, and in those days, not many folk realised that rubbing could be detrimental. I especially liked the ones that had a faithful dog or lion at the foot of its master - or the small ones of groups of children. Some were quite gruesome skeletons etc.!
ReplyDeleteSimon Douglas Thompson - Thanks Simon. I don't think I have ever seen so many arrow sharpening marks on a church - a whole wall of them :)
ReplyDeleteCaroline Gill - Thanks so much Caroline - so pleased to hear you enjoy these posts - I always worry there are too many photos and too much detail!
I was so interested to read of your brass rubbings - it was something I always wanted to do and never did. I used to get books from the library on 100 things to do at a weekend or 50 things to do on a rainy afternoon and brass rubbings were always mentioned :) I was in a church recently (the one at Coleshill I think) and a lady there mentioned that one had been damaged by all the brass rubbings done over the years which was something I hadn't thought of before. From memory I think St Mary's at Warwick has a brass rubbing section - will have to check!
Looks an impressive church especially the stained glass and the crypt but my favourite bits are the brasses and those wonderful bow sharpening marks:)
ReplyDeleteRosie - Thanks Rosie - yes, it is impressive there. Sorry I couldn't get a better photo of the brasses - pictures with flash didn't turn out well and not using flash being in a darker area of the church meant shutter speed was very low!
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy your church posts, especially the arrow sharpening marks, a real touch-stone with history.
ReplyDeleteCountryside Tales - Thanks very much CT :) - Best example I have seen so far of arrow sharpening marks :)
ReplyDeleteI also love the arrow sharpening marks - I suppose because I can imagine the archers making them! I wonder why the church let the walls be used like this. The other objects in the church, made by craftsmen, are also impressive. There are so many lovely stained glass windows here for a parish church.
ReplyDeleteWendy Thanks so much Wendy. I too so love all the history and craftsmanship in and around churches. I've done a bit of googling re: the arrow sharpening marks. Apparently in Medieval times it was compulsory for every person who could use a longbow to practise their archery skills every Sunday usually on an area called the Butts. The church was the nearest stone building where the arrows could be sharpened as the houses were built of mud and timber. I would imagine the church would have found it difficult to stop them!! :) Interesting how many Warks churches seem to have these marks - I wonder how common they are elsewhere?
ReplyDeleteI'm writing a paper on arrow sharpening marks - could i reproduce your Solihull photo? Thanks for any help - Jeremy Harte
ReplyDeleteUnknown (Jeremy Harte) Thanks so much for asking and yes using my photo in your paper would be fine. I only put the proviso in because I discovered by chance one of my photos was being used by a Co on one of the products they sold without asking my permission!!!! I was not happy! Good luck with the paper - I have read recently that these marks may well not have been made by arrows being sharpened not sure how true that is though.
ReplyDeleteThat's really kind. As the online pictures are low resolution, would it be possible to send higher resolution versions of Solihull and Yardley? My address begins jrmharte and after the at concludes with gmail.com. I'd be happy to send you a copy of the published paper, plus some other curiosities about arrow sharpening that might interest you. Good luck with your rambles - Jeremy Harte
ReplyDeleteJeremy Hart - Thanks so much. I really am pleased when people want to use photos for papers and educational purposes etc. Perhaps Blogger downsizes photos when it uploads. I've found the Yardley ones so will email both next week probably from main email address as if I use gmail that might downsize them too. That would be very kind of you I would love to see it I really would as it is a fascinating subject. Let me know when and I will email my address.
ReplyDelete