East Sussex : St Margaret’s, Rottingdean

During a recent visit to Rottingdean to see the windmill, my friend Jill and I also had a brief wander around the historic centre of this pretty little town. 

Jill was particularly keen to see the church after we were told by a local in a coffee shop about its Burne-Jones stained-glass windows.

Dedicated to St Margaret of Antioch, this Grade-II listed, Church of England building dates, in part, from the 13th century but has had many subsequent alterations and restorations. 

It is built of flint, with stone dressings and a tiled roof. 

Perhaps to ensure parishioners are never late for services, it has a big bold clock in the wall above the entrance door.

According to the British Listed Buildings website, all but two of the window designs are by renowned pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones, though there is a proviso that the situation may have changed since the original listing, and it did appear that a couple of windows were more modern.

The three windows that immediately catch your eye as you enter St Margaret's Church, those above the altar, are Burne-Jones masterpieces. Designed by him and made by his good friend William Morris, the windows depict the three archangels: from left, Gabriel, the messenger; Michael, the warrior; and Raphael, guardian of children.

These are two more of the stunning windows, which I think were designed by Burne-Jones though, unfortunately, I neglected to take down the details during my visit, and I don’t find the church’s online guide particularly helpful or thorough in its descriptions of the windows.

Following his death in 1898 the ashes of Edward Burne-Jones were buried in the churchyard and memorial plaques to him, and his wife Georgiana, are attached to the exterior of the church, to the south of the main entrance. Burne-Jones lived in North End House, which is just across the village green from the church.

I was intrigued by this rather odd structure, also near the church entrance. The quote, ‘The bird is dead / That we have made so much on’, is from Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, act 4 scene 2, where Arviragus enters bearing the seemingly dead Imogen. The memorial, for such it is, is explained in one of the church’s online guidebooks:

Angela Thirkel, society novelist, much loved grand-daughter of Sir Edward Burne-Jones has her memorial also to the left of the West door, a wooden structure needing repair you may think, but this was Angela’s wish that it should ‘rot’ into the ground. The Angela Thirkel Society is still very popular with members who visit St Margaret’s church frequently in her memory. One of her most popular books (repeatedly reprinted) is ‘Three Houses’ a child’s memoir of Rottingdean.

I’m sure there are many other interesting sights to see, gravestones to admire, inscriptions to read in St Margaret’s lovely churchyard but we were on a mission ... that windmill!

Cardiff: Welcoming doors

One of the loveliest aspects of Cardiff’s old Victorian and Edwardian houses is their entranceways.

The doors are frequently painted in vibrant reds, blues and greens, and they often have unusual-shaped windows inset into their upper sections, some of which are filled with plain glass, others with prettily patterned stained glass designs. It is also common to see panels of decorated tiles on either side of the doors, often with Art Deco-style patterns fired into them. Many doors feature rectangular or arched windows above and at the sides, to allow light to filter into the hallway beyond, and some of the older entranceways still retain the charming wrought-iron and glass porches that help protect those entering and exiting the house from inclement weather.

Where they have survived the ravages of time and foot traffic, some of the pavements leading up to the doorways are tiled in colourful geometric designs. Many of these tiles and designs were from the factory of J. C. Edwards & Co of Ruabon, a town in North Wales famous for its clay and terracotta ware, and you can see a page of tessellated and encaustic tile designs from an Edwards catalogue to the right here. Ruabon’s clay manufacturing was so well esteemed that the town was, at one time, affectionately known as ‘Terracottapolis’. (There will be more on J. C. Edwards and his terracotta products in a future blog.)

Sadly, not every entranceway looks as lovely as those shown here. Some house-owners have removed the lovely old doors and replaced them with double-glazed plastic monstrosities, practical perhaps but often exceedingly ugly. Wrought-iron porches have crumbled and been dismantled, tile panels have been painted over, and pavements have been replaced with dreary grey paving slabs.

This blog is intended as a pictorial celebration of how beautiful these architectural features can be, and a shout out to all those wonderful home-owners who value and care for these historic treasures.

Cheshire churches: St Mary’s in Great Budworth and St Oswald’s of Lower Peover

One of the lanes I regularly walk follows an ancient footpath used by local parishioners to commute between two historic places of worship, the mother church of St Mary and All Saints in Great Budworth and one of her parochial chapelries, St Oswald’s Church in Lower Peover, a walk of about six miles.

St Mary and All Saints, Great Budworth

According to local historian Mike Morton,

In Saxon times … the huge but thinly populated parish of Great Budworth … stretched all the way to Lower Peover and Allostock. It is likely that burial of the dead took place in Lower Peover at an early date, but baptisms and marriages were for a long time conducted only at Great Budworth. The natural way from Peover to the parish church would be following the course of the Peover Eye [a stream], itself probably a highway in heavily forested Celtic times. … The church at Lower Peover dates from the 13th century and the font for baptism dates from 1322, but it was not until about 1570 that St Oswald’s was licensed for marriages. Up until then, wedding parties would have to walk (or the wealthier ones ride on horseback) along this path.

The churchyard at St Mary and All Saints

St Mary and All Saints Church, Great Budworth

This imposing building is one of the largest parish churches in the Diocese of Chester and the mother church of the rural Deanery of Great Budworth. There has been a religious presence on this site since at least the late eleventh century, as a priest is mentioned in the Domesday Survey, but the building we see today dates from the fourteenth, fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, when the church was considerably enlarged. 

Once the property of the Augustinian Canons of Norton Priory, the church was taken over by Puritan ministers preaching radical Protestantism during the sixteenth-century Reformation and then changed again, to Anglicanism, during the seventeenth century.

One of the things that fascinates me about this, and many other old churches, is the proliferation of heads adorning the walls, both inside and outside the building. As you can see from the photos, some are realistic (perhaps the personifications of biblical figures used to educate the illiterate), others fantastical (like the grimaces of sinners sentenced to an eternity of hellfire and damnation, intended as a warning to the parishioners). Amongst the many treasures contained in St Mary’s, there is also the rather worn and much-graffitied alabaster effigy of the Sir John Warburton who died in 1575, one of the Warburtons of Arley Hall who owned much of Great Budworth from 1469 right through to the 1940s. 

The entrance to St Mary and All Saints

St Oswald's

St Oswald’s Church, Lower Peover

Though the half-timbered part of the building and the sandstone tower were built in the 1500s, there has been a church on this site in Lower Peover (pronounced Peever) since at least 1269 when Richard Grosvenor of Hulme Hall built a Chapel of Ease here. Though the aisles were altered and reroofed in the 1850s, the building is still an outstanding example of a medieval oak-framed church, and it also contains sixteenth-century furnishings and all manner of old relics, statues and plaques.

One item that particularly caught my eye was a huge old wooden chest, measuring 6 feet long by 2 feet wide, lying on the floor in the south aisle. Above the chest was a sign:

The ancient dug-out chest was brought here from Norton Priory in 1269 for the safe keeping of vestments, plate and books. It is just the trunk of some mighty oak, roughly hewn out, and bound with wrought-iron bands. The four padlocks are of later date, and testify of the days of the four churchwardens, each of whom had a key, so that the ‘safe’ could not be opened unless all four were present. … Legend has it that any maiden who aspired to dignity of a farmer’s wife should first prove her worthiness by throwing back the lid with one hand.

Looking at the chest, the maidens must have been extremely strong in days gone by as that lid must weigh a ton! The church website explains, ‘It is believed that this tale originated because it was said that a farmer’s wife in those days needed to be strong enough to be able to lift the famous Cheshire cheeses made in the area.’ 

Just as the chest is a silent witness to the history of this holy place, so are the headstones in the surrounding graveyard, a well kept and peaceful haven that was also interesting to explore. The antiquity of some of the gravestones fascinated me and led me to wonder about the stories of the people buried there. What a wonderfully tranquil place to spend eternity!

England: Chester and the Scottish play

We were really lucky with the weather the day we went to Chester for the open-air production of Macbeth at Grosvenor Park. We’d had thunder and lightning in the night and more, plus heavy rain, was forecast for exactly the time the play was on but, in the event, there was only one heavyish shower towards the end of the play, which almost everyone ignored – quickly pull on rain jacket, put bin bag over knees, focus on play – because it was riveting!

What a play it is! The Scottish play has long been my favourite Shakespeare, ever since we studied it in high school under an English teacher who sparked with life and enthusiasm and made Shakespeare come alive for a group of usually-bored-with-English-literature 16-year-olds. And this production was exceptional, with both Macbeth (played by Mark Healy) and Lady Macbeth (Hannah Barrie) performing their roles most excellently, and almost all the bit actors doing a splendid job.

It was superb to see Shakespeare performed live in a round make-shift theatre to an enraptured audience. I have no photos of the actual performance as photography was not permitted so you’ll need to be content with this panorama of the arena and a link to the website.  

We caught the train from Northwich to Chester, as it was easier than parking in the city. The journey only took about 30 minutes, followed by a short bus ride from the station to Chester’s city centre.

I adore Chester’s inner-city buildings – they have so much character, so much history to admire and absorb. There are black-and-white half-timbered buildings aplenty, and most have carved and painted figures adorning their fronts and gable-ends. 

The oldest streets in Chester also have a kind of double-decker shopping arrangement called the Rows, a series of first-floor covered walkways with shops all along one side – very sensible on a rainy day, I can tell you. Some of the inner city streets are also turned over to pedestrians during the daytime – as a non-driver, I heartily approve of this measure.

Chester is home to a very impressive Anglican cathedral, a glorious building of great age – construction of its various parts ranges from 1093 through to the 16th century. The nave has a fabulous high roof, and the wooden choir stalls are very finely carved. 

The interior also contains the tombs of an 11th-century bishop and a 12th-century monk, as well as several chapels (dedicated to St Mary Magdalen, and Sts Oswald, George, Nicholas and Werburgh). The stained glass windows, some old, some modern, are particularly beautiful as you can see from the photos.

There is a café in the refectory hall, appropriately enough – though we didn’t eat there, and a well-stocked gift shop – though we didn’t buy anything. The Cathedral is a Grade 1 listed building, and definitely well worth a visit.  

Chester’s Roman past is of particular interest to me, as a former Classics scholar, but we didn’t have a lot of time for that during this visit. We did take a quick look at the remains of the Roman amphitheatre and garden and, in the late afternoon, after the play had finished, we took a turn around half of the city walls.

We strolled along the riverside where boats were taking visitors on trips and a band was playing in the rotunda, we ate, and Sarah did a spot of shopping. Apart from the occasional shower of rain, we had a thoroughly enjoyable day, and then as ..

            Light thickens; and the crow

Makes wing to the rooky wood;

Good things of the day begin to droop and drowse;

(Macbeth, Act 3, scene 2)

… we caught our train home before the witches came out to play.