(no subject)

It's graveyard time again, but I haven't got anything particularly exciting today, I'm afraid.  There's none of the naive, charming figures that grace the churchyards of Ayrshire, Fife and Lothian: I think the good people of late 18th and early 19th century Lochwinnoch considered themselves far too sophisticated for such things. 

Unfortunately, my camera decided to run out of battery power when I tried to photograph the earliest dated gravestone in the kirkyard.  It was dated to the late 18th century (1789, I think) and it was in beautiful elegant script, but there was no design on the rear.  I did, however, find this:-

 

This stone looks the wrong shape to be 18th century, and it could indeed be earlier- the shape looks reminiscent of medieval tombstones but I'm not convinced at all by the decoration.   If it was a cross, or if there was a sword present (a type romantically associated with the Knights Templars in the popular historical imagination locally...) then I'd be more inclined to believe it.  In fact, the surface is so poorly preserved that it's hard to make anything out at all.  The decoration at the top could be some kind of foliage, but it's hard to say any more than that.  The poor thing's in very bad condition - it's been fixed to the wall, and now the stone is splitting down the rear.  The frosts of the last couple of weeks won't have helped at all, either.

Tomorrow, I'll skip forward in time to the 19th century, and introduce you to some of the monuments that the nice, genteel folks were putting up in Lochwinnoch.  Lots of Classicism, and not a naive figure in sight!

The cold is hanging around, unfortunately, but at least it's not getting any worse.  We almost finished off a BIG building today, but fell at the last hurdle, all thanks to a hellish room packed with steam generators.  Tomorrow, we'll be moving on.  To another BIG building... 

Ah well, no one ever said this building recording lark was going to be easy... 

 

(no subject)

It's graveyard time again, but I haven't got anything particularly exciting today, I'm afraid.  There's none of the naive, charming figures that grace the churchyards of Ayrshire, Fife and Lothian: I think the good people of late 18th and early 19th century Lochwinnoch considered themselves far too sophisticated for such things. 

Unfortunately, my camera decided to run out of battery power when I tried to photograph the earliest dated gravestone in the kirkyard.  It was dated to the late 18th century (1789, I think) and it was in beautiful elegant script, but there was no design on the rear.  I did, however, find this:-

 

This stone looks the wrong shape to be 18th century, and it could indeed be earlier- the shape looks reminiscent of medieval tombstones but I'm not convinced at all by the decoration.   If it was a cross, or if there was a sword present (a type romantically associated with the Knights Templars in the popular historical imagination locally...) then I'd be more inclined to believe it.  In fact, the surface is so poorly preserved that it's hard to make anything out at all.  The decoration at the top could be some kind of foliage, but it's hard to say any more than that.  The poor thing's in very bad condition - it's been fixed to the wall, and now the stone is splitting down the rear.  The frosts of the last couple of weeks won't have helped at all, either.

Tomorrow, I'll skip forward in time to the 19th century, and introduce you to some of the monuments that the nice, genteel folks were putting up in Lochwinnoch.  Lots of Classicism, and not a naive figure in sight!

The cold is hanging around, unfortunately, but at least it's not getting any worse.  We almost finished off a BIG building today, but fell at the last hurdle, all thanks to a hellish room packed with steam generators.  Tomorrow, we'll be moving on.  To another BIG building... 

Ah well, no one ever said this building recording lark was going to be easy...