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endlessraritiesIt's another squally horrible day today, and rumour has it that we'll be having snow tomorrow night and into Monday morning rush hour, which is just what we need. Grrr!!
I never got my report completely finished yesterday, which means that I'm for the Royal Order of The Doghouse, because I'm now slightly overbudget. Oh dear...
But I don't have to worry about that until Monday, so I think I'll just forget about it and immerse myself once again in the beauties of the the Parish Church of Much Wenlock.
A nave shot, first of all, looking east towards the chancel. The arch dividing nave and chancel is stubbornly Romanesque, which makes sense, since the earliest surviving fabric is in the north wall, where the windows seem to be closer to Transitional than Romanesque... Once again, I'm relying on any of you who are better versed in the interpretation of ecclesiastical architecture to keep me right here...
An aisle was added on the south side of the nave in the thirteenth century - how the building would originally have been laid out completely beats me - I'd have thought the line of piers shown here should once have marked the external wall of a church that's cruciform in plan, but the style of the stonework seems awfully old... Perhaps they changed plan before the original building was complete?
An earlier roofline can be seen fossilised in the east wall of the south aisle, as this view shows clearly, looking east towards the Lady Chapel -
I never got my report completely finished yesterday, which means that I'm for the Royal Order of The Doghouse, because I'm now slightly overbudget. Oh dear...
But I don't have to worry about that until Monday, so I think I'll just forget about it and immerse myself once again in the beauties of the the Parish Church of Much Wenlock.
A nave shot, first of all, looking east towards the chancel. The arch dividing nave and chancel is stubbornly Romanesque, which makes sense, since the earliest surviving fabric is in the north wall, where the windows seem to be closer to Transitional than Romanesque... Once again, I'm relying on any of you who are better versed in the interpretation of ecclesiastical architecture to keep me right here...
An aisle was added on the south side of the nave in the thirteenth century - how the building would originally have been laid out completely beats me - I'd have thought the line of piers shown here should once have marked the external wall of a church that's cruciform in plan, but the style of the stonework seems awfully old... Perhaps they changed plan before the original building was complete?
An earlier roofline can be seen fossilised in the east wall of the south aisle, as this view shows clearly, looking east towards the Lady Chapel -
It bears absolutely no relation to the broad shallow arch beneath, and therefore appears to be predate it. forming perhaps part of an older, smaller structure with a steeply pitched roof.
Looking west, towards the entrance, there are two windows which would once have been on an external wall. Following the addition of the tower in the 1190s, they became surplus to requirements. The larger of the two has been retained, allowing light to enter from beyond the tower, while the smaller - at clerestorey level - has been blocked:-
Looking west, towards the entrance, there are two windows which would once have been on an external wall. Following the addition of the tower in the 1190s, they became surplus to requirements. The larger of the two has been retained, allowing light to enter from beyond the tower, while the smaller - at clerestorey level - has been blocked:-
And, a nice little mystery to tease us all with, here's a relict arch, survivng in the masonry above the north wall of the south aisle. I can't for the life of me remember where I took this photograph, but I suspect it's in the chancel, looking south towards the Lady Chapel.
Could this hint at the church's original Romanesque design? A row of larger windows at ground floor level, with an upper row of smaller windows, all with rounded arches. The wallhead also appears to have been raised, altering the pitch of the roof. Since there's no sign of a raggle at the west end, it could mean that there were two tiers of windows in the east end only, i.e. that there was some kind of lower tower structure here.
Since the rest of the masonry is smothered in whitewash, there's no way of finding out what the rest of the story involves, unfortunately. Though I don't suppose it's really that important.
Could this hint at the church's original Romanesque design? A row of larger windows at ground floor level, with an upper row of smaller windows, all with rounded arches. The wallhead also appears to have been raised, altering the pitch of the roof. Since there's no sign of a raggle at the west end, it could mean that there were two tiers of windows in the east end only, i.e. that there was some kind of lower tower structure here.
Since the rest of the masonry is smothered in whitewash, there's no way of finding out what the rest of the story involves, unfortunately. Though I don't suppose it's really that important.
One last visit to the Much Wenlock tomorrow, where we'll take a peek at some carvings....
