All Saints, Godshill, Isle of Wight
Day three on the island.
And if all goes well, just five hours work, and time to do some exploring.
Here's hoping.
After two splendid days of warm, sunny and fine weather, it was on the change today, with high cloud above, and the sea already beginning to be disturbed.
It would only get rougher through the day.
I went down for breakfast at twenty past seven, had my usual of fruit followed by sausage and bacon butty and a whole pot of coffee, while watching the ferries come and go out in the Solent.
And as I had a pass card to get in the factory, I could leave when I wanted to be there for half eight and the opening meeting.
Traffic into Newport was worse, but I was in no hurry, and I arrived at twenty past eight, clocked in and made myself at hoem in the conference room.
Eyes down!
We worked through the morning, and then I had unch of sandwiches, crisps and chocolate. It was like a birthday party, really.
We had the closing meeting, I presented my findings, and we all said thanks. And I was done. Now, I had planned two days, but we covered everything, so I had some two hours to explore.
So, my first target was Godshill.
The modern village looks unpromising, but up Church Hill to the older part: and wow.
A semi-circle of thatched hobbit-style houses, with the tower of All Saints above the thatched roof line. Shame about the parked cars, otherwise it would be picture box perfect.
I found a place to park, and took lots of shots, and walked towards the church, where I found two couples looking round, getting in the way of my pictures!
Oh no.
But they moved and I got my shots, the tombs, the rood screen (a replica) and everything else. And then walking out and the houses spread out below as a large party of ramblers rambled past.
My interior shots make it seem crowded with icons, statues, lecterns and such, but that's not how I remember it. Nice wall tomb, and a fine funerary mantle over a tomb cut into the wall between the Chancel and south chapel.
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Here people have worshipped for about a millennium. Before that it was a major pagan holy site, perhaps going back further thousands of years. The island was the last part of England to be converted to Christianity (C7) and we know a stone church was built here in the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042-66). Legend tells how the builders started to erect a church at the bottom of the hill only to find the stones repeatedly miraculously transported to the top. This it seemed was where God wanted the church and so that is where they built it. After the Norman invasion in 1066 the church was rebuilt and the building you are in is the fourth on the site. It dates to the middle of the fourteenth century, around the time of the Black Death, and is in Perpendicular style. A piscina (for washing Mass vessels) from the original Saxon church is incorporated into the wall to the right of the South altar.
One of the features of this church is that, as you can see, it is a double church. The north church belonged to the parish; the southern church was for the workers at nearby Appuldurcombe Priory. In the middle arches are slots where a wooden partition separated the two. The priest’s door, usually in the south wall, is therefore in the north wall. The door through which you entered dates back to the Cl4 church. The roof beams are mostly original (and resemble overturned ships), as are the windows, but not the stained glass. The lovely C20 stained glass window in the north wall was created by William Morris’ studio.
In the chapel on the South side is a most precious wall painting of Christ crucified, not on a wooden cross, but a lily branch. Known as the Lily Cross it is unique in this country. It was painted circa 1450 by an unknown Renaissance artist, possibly Italian. At that time the whole interior of the church would have been brightly painted with religious scenes (traces have been found on other walls). In the Cl6 and C17 Puritans ensured that these works of art were scrubbed off and church interiors lime-washed white. It is probable that the Lily Cross survived because it was carefully covered over to hide it. lt was rediscovered in 1842. The rood beam across the south church, with the figures of Jesus on the cross, Mary his mother and St John, is a replica of what would have been there in the Middle Ages.
Appuldurcombe Priory was “acquired” by Henry Vlll and rented to the Leigh family. On the tomb between the altars, the figures of Sir John and his wife Agnes have their feet, not on the usual dogs, but on boars (the cause of his death). The monks on the bottom of their shoes are praying for their souls (soles get it?).T he memorial on the north wall shows their daughter Anne and her husband, Sir James Worsley, at He had been Henry Vlll’s whipping boy, taking his punishments for him. (For this reason he was given the Appuldurcombe estate on his marriage to Anne.) The helmet has been recently dated to the C14 and was worn in battle by a Leigh, perhaps in the Hundred Years War against France. The church is full of the Worsley family memorials. One by the altar commemorates two young sons killed in a gunpowder accident at Appuldurcombe. The memorial to Richard Worsley (famous for suing his wife’s lover and getting only one shilling damages) is so grandiose and ostentatious that it has been hidden behind the organ; it is known locally as the bath tub. The St George statue commemorates a Godshill nineteen year old soldier killed in 1944. The latest memorial, right of the door, is for Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, First Sea Lord in WW ll. In the churchyard, on the left as you leave, is the CWGC maintained grave of an Irish soldier, a casualty in WW1, who died of wounds in the parish.
All Saints, Godshill, Isle of Wight
Day three on the island.
And if all goes well, just five hours work, and time to do some exploring.
Here's hoping.
After two splendid days of warm, sunny and fine weather, it was on the change today, with high cloud above, and the sea already beginning to be disturbed.
It would only get rougher through the day.
I went down for breakfast at twenty past seven, had my usual of fruit followed by sausage and bacon butty and a whole pot of coffee, while watching the ferries come and go out in the Solent.
And as I had a pass card to get in the factory, I could leave when I wanted to be there for half eight and the opening meeting.
Traffic into Newport was worse, but I was in no hurry, and I arrived at twenty past eight, clocked in and made myself at hoem in the conference room.
Eyes down!
We worked through the morning, and then I had unch of sandwiches, crisps and chocolate. It was like a birthday party, really.
We had the closing meeting, I presented my findings, and we all said thanks. And I was done. Now, I had planned two days, but we covered everything, so I had some two hours to explore.
So, my first target was Godshill.
The modern village looks unpromising, but up Church Hill to the older part: and wow.
A semi-circle of thatched hobbit-style houses, with the tower of All Saints above the thatched roof line. Shame about the parked cars, otherwise it would be picture box perfect.
I found a place to park, and took lots of shots, and walked towards the church, where I found two couples looking round, getting in the way of my pictures!
Oh no.
But they moved and I got my shots, the tombs, the rood screen (a replica) and everything else. And then walking out and the houses spread out below as a large party of ramblers rambled past.
My interior shots make it seem crowded with icons, statues, lecterns and such, but that's not how I remember it. Nice wall tomb, and a fine funerary mantle over a tomb cut into the wall between the Chancel and south chapel.
------------------------------------------
Here people have worshipped for about a millennium. Before that it was a major pagan holy site, perhaps going back further thousands of years. The island was the last part of England to be converted to Christianity (C7) and we know a stone church was built here in the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042-66). Legend tells how the builders started to erect a church at the bottom of the hill only to find the stones repeatedly miraculously transported to the top. This it seemed was where God wanted the church and so that is where they built it. After the Norman invasion in 1066 the church was rebuilt and the building you are in is the fourth on the site. It dates to the middle of the fourteenth century, around the time of the Black Death, and is in Perpendicular style. A piscina (for washing Mass vessels) from the original Saxon church is incorporated into the wall to the right of the South altar.
One of the features of this church is that, as you can see, it is a double church. The north church belonged to the parish; the southern church was for the workers at nearby Appuldurcombe Priory. In the middle arches are slots where a wooden partition separated the two. The priest’s door, usually in the south wall, is therefore in the north wall. The door through which you entered dates back to the Cl4 church. The roof beams are mostly original (and resemble overturned ships), as are the windows, but not the stained glass. The lovely C20 stained glass window in the north wall was created by William Morris’ studio.
In the chapel on the South side is a most precious wall painting of Christ crucified, not on a wooden cross, but a lily branch. Known as the Lily Cross it is unique in this country. It was painted circa 1450 by an unknown Renaissance artist, possibly Italian. At that time the whole interior of the church would have been brightly painted with religious scenes (traces have been found on other walls). In the Cl6 and C17 Puritans ensured that these works of art were scrubbed off and church interiors lime-washed white. It is probable that the Lily Cross survived because it was carefully covered over to hide it. lt was rediscovered in 1842. The rood beam across the south church, with the figures of Jesus on the cross, Mary his mother and St John, is a replica of what would have been there in the Middle Ages.
Appuldurcombe Priory was “acquired” by Henry Vlll and rented to the Leigh family. On the tomb between the altars, the figures of Sir John and his wife Agnes have their feet, not on the usual dogs, but on boars (the cause of his death). The monks on the bottom of their shoes are praying for their souls (soles get it?).T he memorial on the north wall shows their daughter Anne and her husband, Sir James Worsley, at He had been Henry Vlll’s whipping boy, taking his punishments for him. (For this reason he was given the Appuldurcombe estate on his marriage to Anne.) The helmet has been recently dated to the C14 and was worn in battle by a Leigh, perhaps in the Hundred Years War against France. The church is full of the Worsley family memorials. One by the altar commemorates two young sons killed in a gunpowder accident at Appuldurcombe. The memorial to Richard Worsley (famous for suing his wife’s lover and getting only one shilling damages) is so grandiose and ostentatious that it has been hidden behind the organ; it is known locally as the bath tub. The St George statue commemorates a Godshill nineteen year old soldier killed in 1944. The latest memorial, right of the door, is for Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, First Sea Lord in WW ll. In the churchyard, on the left as you leave, is the CWGC maintained grave of an Irish soldier, a casualty in WW1, who died of wounds in the parish.