East Bergolt Bell Cage

Just been reading an interesting blog post at English Buildings about East Begholt's unusual bell cage...

http://englishbuildings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/east-bergholt-suffolk.html

Hare & Hounds, Kilpeck Church

Kilpeck Church in Herefordshire is a beautifully preserved romanesque church with fantastic carving. The building consists of three cells: nave, chancel and apse. The whole building is of pink sandstone. It is famous for its collection of carved corbels, each with human and animal figures, such as the charming hare and hound. They have a soft, cartoon-like quality and deep piercing eyes. Of particular not is the doorway. The church's survival is probably thanks in part to its remoteness, in the wild borderlands of England and Wales. The churchyard is right up against a farm yard, and shows the closeness of religious and manorial sites in many ancient settlements.

Some Links:

http://hoary.org/snaps/engl/kilp.html

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/kilpeck-church.htm

Kirton Church, Lincolnshire... Got any spare cash?!

This beautiful Grade I listed church in Kirton, just south of Boston, Lincolnshire, needs some cash! It's £40,000 short to pay for roof repairs. Can you help? It has a beautiful perpendicular clerestory

The news story:
http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/Lincolnshire-church-facing-closure-pound-40k-roof/story-17094159-detail/story.html

Listed Building Description:
http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-192089-church-of-st-peter-and-st-paul-kirton-li

The Thatched Church at Markby, Lincolnshire

One hundred years apart... spot the differences. (I think there are five)

Scratch Dials / Mass Dials

A little known feature of many of England's mediaeval parish churches is Scratch Dials or Mass Dials. They were essentially small sundials built into the South wall of churches, presumably to indicate the times of church services back in the days when most people were illiterate. Most of them have lost their indicating stick, so no longer work, and others have been moved to other walls, are upside down, or have been relocated to the North walls of churches.

The Sundial Society is compiling a list of all known scratch dials, so if you know of one, let them know!

http://www.sundialsoc.org.uk/massdials.htm

St Peter's, Northampton

Northampton is seldom considered a very beautiful town. Its architectural heritage has been mostly either lost of bastardised. But the town is blessed with a few isolated gems which are up there with the finest buildings in the country. The Sessions House, 78 Derngate, The Guildhall. The town centre's four remaining ancient churches, All Saints, St Giles, Holy Sepulchre and St Peters, each have their own place in the superlative lists of English churches.

The church of St Peter is today in a neglected outpost of the town, between the station and the town centre. It is on Marefair, a road that once hosted a market (fair) for female horses (mares). It sits high on a mound overlooking the inner ring road. It was once so different. The station is the site of Northampton Castle, a major royal palace and fortress in the Middle Ages. Nearby St Peters served the town (and supposedly once a Saxon Palace). The town centre has since shifted eastwards, and the area around St Peters, known as the Boroughs, became the location of slum housing and small industrial buildings.

The church has beautiful Norman carving inside and out. Like many cottages in the area, it makes use of the contrasting local limestone and ironstone in horizontal bands. A single, long, roof covers the nave and chancel and below it is an arcades clerestory. It was rather enthusiastically "restored" in both the 17th and 19th centuries, yet there is still so much to see. The tower has moved east, the east front has moved west, but the norman body survives.

Centuries of social decline in the area left the church forgotten and neglected. Once it was surrounded by urban grain, little houses and factories. Today, it has Marefair on one side and nothingness on the other. It was eventually declared redundant, but this move may be what has saved it. It was taken over by the Churches Conservation Trust.

The CCT have restored the GG Scott paintings in the chancel, sorted out the damp problem, restored the fabric, and importantly open the church on a regular basis. The area to the south of St Peters, along by the overlooked River Nene, is soon to be redeveloped (supposedly) as part of the Northampton Business Improvement District. Let's hope that this investment can be used to improve the church's setting and reinvigorate the ancient heart of the town.

For more information about the church go to http://www.visitchurches.org.uk/Ourchurches/Completelistofchurches/St-Peters-Church-Northampton-Northamptonshire/

For The Friends of Northampton Castle go to http://www.northamptoncastle.com/

St John the Divine, Kennington by GE Street

St John the Divine in Kennington, London. was designed by GE Street, of Royal Courts of Justice fame, in 1871. The interior was the work of GF Bodley. The church has a landmark stone spire, whilst the main body is constructed of industrial red brick with stone details. In many ways, the church is the epitome of heavy gothic, stained black by decades of London pollution. It was gutted in the blitz, but has since been restored twice.

The interior

The vault in the porch

I've been Brass Rubbing at Hathersage Church

I remember on primary school trips to old churches taking brass rubbings with purple blue and red crayons. Or taking the textures of tree bark and bricks. Oh the simple pleasures.

This primitive art seems to be in terminal decline. I, for one, have only rubbed brass once in the past decade to my knowledge. It was at Hathersage church in Derbyshire.

Hathersage is a beautiful little Peak District village just outside Sheffield. The three main claims to fame are a particularly beautiful lido with views of the surrounding hills; David Mellor's round cutlery factory; and "Little John's Grave" (supposedly the resting place of Robin Hood's mate). The church's spire punctuates the top of the village surrounded by lush green hills with moorland plateaus above.

After wandering round the cool dark church interior on a glorious July afternoon some years ago, we did some brass rubbings of their mediaeval Eyre family brasses. And then, for the grand sum of 20p I bought a badge that proclaimed "I'VE BEEN BRASS RUBBING AT HATHERSAGE CHURCH".

St Joan of Arc, Highbury

Yesterday, as I was walking through north London I saw a rather unusual looking Catholic church. It's toblerone-like form seemed very 1960s, yet its West window was of a strangely rational gothic style. A bit of research and I discovered St Joan of Arc, in Highbury Grove, was built in 1961 by Stanley Kerr Bate who wanted to build 'a happy church'.

If only more architects tried to make happy buildings.

St Vincent Street Church, Glasgow

St Vincent Street Church by Alexander "Greek" Thompson stands majestically on a hillside in central Glasgow.

Glasgow city centre is shaped by steep, wavy hills which allow great views along its grid-like streets to such monuments as the university, the necropolis, or the many churches which fill the city.

St Vincent Street was designed in the 1850s by Alexander "Greek" Thompson who, despite his name, incorporated many Egyptian features into his buildings.

The church makes the most of its hilltop setting, with the body of the church raised up above the streets in the form of a classical temple. The landmark tower, of an idiosyncratic and complex design, is almost detached. There are complex bands of details, all in stone and beautifully discoloured by decades of Glasgow's polluted air. Unfortunately, recent developments of office buildings have started to overshadow the church.

The church is not in great condition and has plants pushing through it, but its survival is all the more important because of the ruinous state of Thompson's other great church, Caledonia Road in the Gorbals.

http://www.greekthomsonchurch.com/

Bucolic vs. Chaotic. Tottenham is not what you expect.

For years Tottenham in North London has suffered with an image problem. Urban decay, Broadwater Farm, deprivation, social isolation, poor transport, decaying buildings. Since last summer's riots have undone twenty years of slow and often non-existent progress to improve the area's reputation.

Few people visit Tottenham, other than to go to Ikea (where there was a riot when it opened) or to White Hart Lane, home to Spurs.

Tottenham has a rich history dating back to Roman times, located on the famous Ermine Street heading north out of London. Like neighbouring Hackney and Enfield, Tottenham became a popular area for hunting and rural retreats from the 16th to the early 19th Centuries. The most venerable secular building of this era is "Bruce Castle", once home to the Kings of Scotland and the Earls of Northumberland. Today it is open as a museum. It is approached from Bruce Grove which contains some of Tottenham's grandest Georgian houses. The High Road, too, is blessed with once grand mansions that housed those wealthy enough to afford a home in the Middlesex countryside away from the dirty crowded city. Today many of these houses are neglected, hidden behind later shops, or restored but under appreciated.

Behind Bruce Castle, and well away from the traffic of the A10, stands the most idyllic corner of Tottenham. The ancient All Hallows Church. It was begun in the 12th Century, and the original tower still stands (with later haphazard alterations). The 15th century brick porch is particularly fine.

All Hallows was even painted by Constable, and the original is at the Met in New York.

Next to the church, behind a high brick wall is the Georgian Rectory. The iron gates are beautiful, and the garden behind, on a sunny day, could be mistaken for a small town in the Chilterns.

The church is surrounded by a graveyard with a selection of interesting and not so interesting graves dating back to the 17th century. But as the railway arrived and Tottenham became part of the growing sprawl of 19th century London, the graveyard quickly became full. An adjacent cemetery was opened. As one moves further from the church, we shift through a hundred and fifty years of cemetery and grave design. There is perceptible shift from rural to urban to suburban not only in Tottenham's houses, but also in its graves.

The earliest part is lined by limes and filled with gothic slabs in closely packed rows.  Continue along and the WWI memorial and portland graves have their own enclosure. They are, as with all CWGC graves, immaculate. Their pristine whiteness only highlight the decay in the rest of the cemetary. Scarcely a single grave is either upright or clean.

Furthest from the church, and closest to the 1920s LCC estate are mid-20th century graves, with green glass chips and plastic flowers. At the centre of this is a picturesque lake with weeping willows, rose garden and crazy paving. The final corner has the most recent graves, invariably timber crosses or black marble with gold lettering.  The space has almost run out. How will Tottenham commemorate its dead now? Or has Tottenham already been killed by the media? Must 2000 years of history be erased and the Estate Agent's rebranding begin?

"Welcome to North Hackney/ East Wood Green/South Enfield"

http://www.haringey.gov.uk/brucecastlemuseum