Damerham, Hampshire

It's about time I typed up our visit to Damerham, part of our visit to the New Forest. It seems so long ago that I can hardly remember its setting. Perhaps this is proof that memories are created by going over things in your mind. Perhaps writing this blog is good for my brain.

The church looks very ancient with its squat low tower.

CC image by Clive Perrin

I don't remember the church being open. But our main quarry was the tympanum over the door. This is not the best rendering but it was our last spot of the day...

So there we have a long-bodied horse (with rather nice decorative mane and reins) trampling on a person trying to protect themselves with a shield (a person apparently wearing some knightly headgear and a rather fancy belt). The rider isn't so clearly delineated (at least from the angle we were drawing at) and his short sword is probably something to do with the replaced? bit of stone at the top of the tympanum. But what's that in the right hand corner? B and I stared at this for ages but didn't come to any conclusions. It looked faintly birdlike, with long legs and a wing, but I doubt that's correct. Perhaps it's something knight-related that a Norman knight would recognise. But to the modern eye it's rather bemusing. It looks a bit like a bag with arrows sticking out of it. But not enough to be that. There's a big photo on the CRSBI website.