Cold Aston, Gloucestershire

We don't often meet people at the churches on our travels, and when we do they're generally welcoming and either we exchange pleasantries or have a little chat about our shared interest in the building. As we stood drawing in the porch at Cold Aston, though, a long trail of tinies from the adjacent school trooped into the church and took their places in the pews. I shouldn't mind this, should I. It's an example of the church Actually Being Used. But I didn't like it. Now I can't say I know much about children, but I do know that I was once one of them. And when I was five I had a soft, receptive, gently forming brain. I seem to remember I liked filling it with dinosaurs and trips to the swings.

It's not that I don't think that children should get a education in Behaving Nicely to their Fellow Man. Of course a bit of moral guidance is the way to encourage a nice society where we all help each other and think about others. But I just thought it was very odd that they were shuffled into the church, as though talking about being helpful or kind or whatever it was, couldn't be done in an ordinary setting. As though by going in the church, God would be watching. The teacher (she was wearing a football strip, bizarrely) seemed to switch between that patronising slow sing-song voice some people use with small children, and then swooping on individuals to berate them for their fidgiting or previous misdemeanours. I thought the whole thing was rather creepy, it didn't sit well with me.

I don't know what I'm trying to say really. But it didn't seem quite right to be moulding such small children's minds using the building in that way. It wasn't the same as going there of a Sunday with one's parents to listen to the vicar.

Anyway. There were some interesting bits of carving at Cold Aston. The tympanum was an all-over repetitive pattern (I admit photoshop has helped me with the above depiction) with some rather familiar style weaving foliage underneath. This was very well preserved and rather nice.

Also there seeemed to be a bit of knotwork in the porch - one assumes Anglo Saxon. You can see the collection of bits and pieces here on Britain Express. I always like to see a bit of Saxon knotwork, and because they're quite a challenge to draw, they're always especially satisfying to have a go at. Various descriptions on the internet mention "entwined serpents" but I fear this is overly optimistic. B and I have seen quite a few serpenty examples and this one wasn't doing it for us. But we both felt that there might be little clasped hands - as we independently came to this conclusion I set some store by it.

There was also a Maperton-esque little head, which B drew.

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.

Britford, Wiltshire

As Mr Pevsner says, at St Peter's at Britford there is some decoration 'that is unique in English pre-Conquest work' and he suggests it's from the 9th century. So you can imagine, I was rather eager to get here, I was very much looking forward to it. But it wasn't long that we'd stepped through the door that both of us felt a bit weird about this place. Thinking women from the 21st century like to rationalise these things - I mean was it the gloominess, was it the unnerving way you couldn't see into the transepts from the nave, was it the really awful and oppressive smell (of what? of what? of the flowers (no), of something far more revolting eww)? I don't know what made this place so horrible but it really was and we hot-footed it out of here, though not before I took a few hasty photographs of the carvings. We both felt freaked out for ages and as though the horrible smell was totally stuck in our nostrils. In the course of my weird obsession we've been in a lot of churches and none of them were like this, it was horrid. Everyone writing in the visitors' book seemed to love it, mind. It actually makes me feel a bit weird to think about it even now. But trying to forget about all that subjective malarky, the carvings are indeed rather interesting. You can read at length the debate about their age and origins on the impressively detailed Extraordinary Book of Doors website.

In these three pictures I've used colour to highlight the way the knotwork works. 

 Images © Rhiannon 2014

Daglingworth, Gloucestershire

 Images © Rhiannon 2014

Somerford Keynes, Gloucestershire

All Saints church has an amazing Anglo-Saxon doorway. It's been opened up and tastefully glazed. It looks beautiful from inside and makes the space light and superb.
 

You can almost imagine stepping through it into another time.

From the outside you can see the long-short arrangement of stones which is characteristic of Anglo-Saxon architecture. Over the doorway is an arch with a simple twisted rope design. It's very striking the way the stones are so chunky and yet the gap is so narrow. It sort of fits the shape of a person. It was difficult to see inside. This rather added to the Portal-like effect.

 Images © Rhiannon 2014

Malmesbury, Wiltshire

The front of Malmesbury Abbey is quite spectacular. Trying to draw even a tiny part of it makes you appreciate something of how detailed and complicated it is.

 

This is a section of the arch that goes over the door (it's actually even wider).

 Images © Rhiannon 2014

Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire

St Laurence's church, Bradford on Avon

 Images © Rhiannon 2012