Carving on the end of a choir stall.
Seen today in Dronfield's parish church.
How many old churches have I wandered into on my many rambles? I suspect that I have visited more than most vicars or bishops. My estimate is that seventy per cent of the church doors I try are locked but that means thirty percent are left unlocked for access by parishioners and passing strangers.
I enjoy the smell of old churches and I love the fact that each old church is different from the next. They evolved over time and they are all quietly reflective of the communities they served.
As a lifelong non-believer, I am nonetheless fascinated by old churches. They speak of the people - those who entered before me. A story of christenings and weddings and funerals and Sunday services that droned on season after season, decade after decade. Here the people listened to the word of God.
I have taken hundreds of pictures of churches - trying to get the entire building in my camera's viewfinder which isn't always as easy as you might think. And within thirty per cent of those ecclesiastical edifices, I have often taken photographs of interior details such as carvings in stone or wood.
Today I walked into St John the Baptist Church in the little town of Dronfield - just outside Sheffield's southern city limits. A funeral had just occurred and the last of the mourners were exiting as I arrived. The church dates back to at least 1135 though the building you see today was mostly the result of renovations in the late thirteenth, sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.
I noticed several interesting carvings on the ends of the choir stalls. The one shown at the top of this blogpost appears to show a fantastic creature with angel wings and the face of an ape or monkey. The one shown below appears to be of an eagle.
Of course and as per usual, I have no idea who was responsible for these carvings or when they were created but I find that noticing such details when you visit an old church can really add to your appreciation of the place.
Some other lovely wooden carvings I have noticed and photographed in old English churches over the years....
I love churches, the art and architecture, though what goes on inside many of them I don't like at all.
ReplyDeleteSo many sins hidden behind the curtain.
DeleteStunning!
ReplyDeleteIn their own quiet way, they are.
DeleteI like the primitive sculpture in the third last photo
ReplyDeleteThat one is called The Keith Kline Memorial Carving.
DeleteLike you, I try to enter churches when I come past them on a walk or hike, and when I am lucky enough to find one open, I always take a moment to let the place "speak" to me - or not, which sometimes happens.
ReplyDeleteAs for carvings, the ones you show us here are good examples. You probably know the ones in Ripon Cathedral? It is generally thought that the one where a rabbit disappears down a hole inspired Lewis Carroll when he wrote Alice in Wonderland, his father having served at the cathedral.
I visited beautiful Ripon Cathedral once but I must admit that back then I did not take the trouble to linger and seek out the carvings.
DeleteThe carvings are beautiful, I really like the eagle and the dragon. I was married in a Church which I later learned was actually a very small Cathedral. Well, that's what my mum said, and she wouldn't lie to me. Or would she?
ReplyDeleteIf your mama was anything like you Elsie she may have been pulling your leg!
DeleteI feel the same. I admire churches and many ecclesiastical buildings for their beauty and sense of peace but cannot bring myself to believe in any form of religion or doctrine.
ReplyDeleteIn this we are one.I sometimes wonder what it must be like to live one's life in the absolute belief that there is a God and an after-life. Surely such people have secret doubts.
DeleteYouve given me an idea for a blog piece. My daughter's house has some unusual carvings on her bannisters
ReplyDeletei particularly like the Norton Disney one..... but the fact that someone dared to recreate the flying monkeys from wizard of oz and try and pass it off as their own creation is, frankly, sickening!
ReplyDeleteOne has to wonder at who carved all of these fantastical creatures. So many unnamed artists. Did they get paid or was their pay the certain knowledge of their god's pleasure and thus, an entry into heaven?
ReplyDeleteAs a past believer, it bothers me to go in a church now.
ReplyDeleteChurches are a place where art and architecture are often preserved and celebrated.
ReplyDeleteI love old churches too. They've stood their for so long and were often the focal point of small communities. The carvings are lovely.
ReplyDeleteAmazing carvings, artwork for sure. I have no use for organized religion but I admire architecture and artwork.
ReplyDeleteSkills much more common than today.
ReplyDeleteSome of the carvings in churches are so small that they could be overlooked so easily and yet they must have given the carver great satisfaction.
ReplyDeleteAre you familiar with the Mouseman carvings of ecclesiastical furniture YP?
ReplyDeleteIntriguing. Like gargoyles but carved in wood... Don't think I've ever seen a monkey one before? Some half-random googling now - from gargoyles to grotesques and chimerae - also led me to the term babewyn (Italian for baboon) used for them back in the Middle Ages... (Wikipedia/Grotesque)
ReplyDeleteI also love old pew carvings. You can tell the people who did them had heard about the exotic animals they were depicting, but had perhaps never actually seen one. The monkey is instantly identifiable, but I wonder why it has wings? Years ago I photographed an elephant on a pew-end in North Lopham.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/sreed99342/7904377636/