Compton Greenfield, South Gloucestershire

Compton Greenfield church is no distance from the M5 and the huge queues of traffic for the Catbrain Temple of Consumerism (Cribbs Causeway). But it feels a world away. It's my favourite sort of church spot really, up a long dead-end road, in amongst fields. The churchyard had a big rose garden and smelt lovely. The church wasn't open but the superb door is in the open porch so all was ok.

This is the slightly mind-boggling pattern around the door:

This was much more complicated than I'd expected. It seems pretty impressive for an out-of-the-way small church. I like the irregularity of the chevrons even though the repetitiveness is so fundamental.

I'd picked this place for my visit because I'd heard it had 'reptilian creatures' - in fact, it's got four, one each side of the door and two guarding the outside of the porch. It seems rather grand to have four of them.

This one's outside and seems a bit toothier than the pair in the porch. I wondered if they could be later copies but the outside columns have a scalloped Norman look to them so maybe the headstops are completely real. All four have these cute little curly horns - I don't think I've seen that touch anywhere else before. They're reminiscent of some beakheads we've seen, I can just imagine them biting the arch at somewhere like Chirton.

Above is the design on the capital on the right of the door. It's got the decorative holes that I'm sure we've seen elsewhere. And even a bit of intertwining which is reminiscent of Saxon knotwork. And of course the nice fingery fans (which must have an official name if only I knew it). The design on the other capital almost has a face derived from these. But I think that might be my imagination.

And this is my rendering of the inside right-hand creature with his big ears and starey eyes.

I found an old photo of the doorway in Memorials of Old Gloucestershire (1911) - the article is by Mr Keyser, writer of a book about carved Norman tympana (I'm sure B will be pleased, and I personally feel like his devotee. How strange this Norman carving obsession is, but how nice it is to find someone else who felt the same, albeit 100 years ago). I think the article will give me plenty of further Leads.

Looking at the map, I guess this church is on the route between Bristol and where people might have crossed the Severn to get to and from Wales. Though I'm not sure why that would have made it more likely to have fancy carvings. Maybe that's irrelevent. Who knows.

Images © Rhiannon 2015

Colerne, Wiltshire (II)

We visited Colerne and its dragons back last May. I really enjoyed the process of drawing them, how the dragons emerged from the tangle of unclear lines, how you had to concentrate so hard to move from one area to another to eventually discover how the whole fitted together. How really you wanted to throw your book on the floor in frustration and disgust, and it was an exercise in self-control and meditativeness to persevere long enough to get a result. But I was very pleased with the result, like I'd excavated the pattern and understood something new about it from the process of drawing.

And next to those dragons was another panel. We were wiped out and there was no way B and I were going to start round two. But this weekend I've had a go, though admittedly not in person. Instead I used a photo I took at the time, plus one from the South West volume of the Corpus of Anglo Saxon Stone Sculpture (an expensive tome, so see your kindly local librarian), and one on the Megalithic Portal. I've also only just found these clear photos (one below) which make me think I've imagined some elements. So it's always got to be better to see such things in person, especially with something as confusing as the above. It helps that you can assume the knotwork always goes under-over-under-over, but ultimately it's better to scrutinise these ancient worn carvings with your own eyes.

from 'The Arts in Early England'

It probably makes sense that the two blocks do come from the same bit of sculpture - there's the same hatching in both, and the same type of small knots. There surely must be a dragon's head on the top left of this one? And could that be a pair of legs crossing in front and behind of its neck? Who knows. Is that another animal's head on the right? There could be a third body crossing from left to right, judging by the hatching. And another interesting thing is the loop just right of centre top - is it a single ring on its own? If so, that reminds me of one accompanying one of the snakey creatures at Ramsbury.  The design's certainly not as coherent as the other Colerne block. But with the two arcing creatures and the mirrored knots, there's certainly something symmetrical going on. Interesting. What a shame that more hasn't survived.

Image © Rhiannon 2015