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Saint Christopher, Norton Priory, Runcorn

This statue of Saint Christopher was carved by around 1391. It is one of the most significant examples of stone carving in the UK from that period. You can find this at the Norton Priory Visitor Centre in Runcorn. When originally completed the statue was brightly coloured.

 

Norton Priory was a rich and well endowed Priory Church which actually reached Abbey Church status. This statue stood in a shrine ~ which attracted people from all over. In 1536 the Abbey was dissolved by Henry VIII and it was converted into a country house. The country house was demolished in 1928.

 

Somehow the statue survived the ravages of the Reformation with minimal damage. It is thought that the Brook family who owned the Abbey after the Reformation protected the statue.

 

It is possible to see a coloured representation of how the statue might have looked when originally brightly coloured www.flickr.com/photos/browniebear/4498251424/in/photostream/ .

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Uploaded on April 6, 2010
Taken on April 3, 2010