East Knoyle, Wiltshire

I'm not sure what put me on the trail to East Knoyle. For once it wasn't Mr Pevsner. And so we should have been wary. There's certainly the remnants of some very believable and respectable Saxon arches at the back of the church. You can see they're like the shapes in the building at Bradford on Avon.

But we were keen to see some kind of Saxon cross stone that was widely rumoured to be in the graveyard. But when we got there there was this:

 

It's wonky and there's not a trace of carving on it at all. And then when you look at the back of it it looks like this:  

That is, very weirdly and very neatly stepped.

B and I were wholly and entirely unconvinced that this was anything to do with a Saxon anything. It's in a weird place at the very edge of the graveyard. It's not like the wide stones we've seen used in Saxon carvings in any of the numerous places we've been. And why on earth wouldn't it be deliciously carved with knotwork? The whole thing felt very wrong. But I'm happy to be disproved. The curves look ever so slightly like Moss's photo here of an Anglo-Saxon cross. Which is, I suppose, where the idea comes from. But it doesn't look the same. The curves are wrong and the back is weird. I'm not convinced.

After that we felt rather disgruntled and didn't bother going into the church. Hmm.

Avebury, Wiltshire

If I thought the other two fonts today were complicated, they had nothing on the one at Avebury. This one has some order in its geometric arches at the bottom. But the rest is crowded organic foliage, animals and a human figure. There was too much to draw in situ so I took some photos, which I'll have to work further from at a later date.

Images © Rhiannon 2014

Donhead St. Mary, Wiltshire

Images copyright Rhiannon 2014.

Blagdon, North East Somerset

On the right of the altar in St Andrew's church you'll find these four smiling faces. They're part of a piscina - a niche containing a dip where a priest can / could wash the communion vessels. The piscinas we've seen never look very big so I'm guessing the washing isn't like when you do the washing up. It's about a more symbolic purification. Although if you believe, I suppose it's not symbolic to you, it's actual purification. Ah it's potentially very complicated isn't it. Especially when you introduce the idea of Transubstantiation, but that the C of E don't go that far. I think I'll just stick to the sculptures.

 

The faces are super smiley. You can see some photos on the CRSBI website. Those make me wonder whether the figures haven't got traces of arms - or at least, v-necked outfits. Since there's four of them, you're inclined to imagine they're the four evangelists.

Images © Rhiannon 2014