Another long day! Today we drove quite a ways down to East Anglia, the bit of England that sticks out into the North Sea and contains Norwich. It was a much longer trip than our organizers had planned, due in part to construction, in part to the fact that having eighteen people in a bus requires more time, and in part due to British regulations about how often drivers have to have breaks (who would have thought?). We had to cut one church from our slate of three, but we still saw two fabulous parish churches that preserve some spectacular medieval art. I also feel that fourteen hours (ten of which was in a bus) has truly bonded our seminar participants together. These churches, like the ones we visited yesterday, are truly out in Britain’s boon docks, down narrow roads and in the middle of very small communities. The pride (and the wealth) of the medieval congregants is obvious in how lavish these buildings would have been in the Middle Ages.<\/p>\n

Both churches we visited today are particularly noted for their preserved rood screens. A rood screen (really a giant structure made out of wood) divided the nave (where the laity hung out) from the chancel (where the clergy were). It was often difficult for the laity to see what was going on in the chancel, so the rood screen became a major focus of their devotion. Rood screens contained depictions of the saints, and the rood loft (the top part of the screen) contained a crucifix typically flanked by statues of the Virgin Mary and St John. Because the nave was the responsibility of the congregation, and the rood screen was the thing they stared at, the screens that remain often show signs of a great deal of care and investment.<\/p>\n

Church #1: St Helena’s, Ranworth. The remarkable rood screen contains images of the twelve apostles along the bottom row, deacon (Stephen and Laurence) on the sides, “military” figures (St George and the Archangel Michael) on the sides, female saints including the Virgin on the side of the Lady chapel, and then John the baptist and other local saints (Aetheldreda, Thomas a Beckett) on the final side. Lots of pics today, because I enjoyed these images so much. These images really reflect the life of the community–the depiction of the Virgin is a\u00a0Maria lactans, <\/em>a depiction of Mary nursing, while\u00a0Mary Cleophas is depicted with the four apostles she was thought to have born (James, Joseph, Simon, and Jude) in very lively positions. St Barbara was the patron saint of childbirth, while St Margaret was thought to protect against sudden death (or to provide for you if you did die suddenly). These pictures contain a great deal of detail, including in the depiction of the saints’ clothing. Victorian arts and crafts folks such as William Morris actually designed fabric patterns off of medieval images such as these.<\/p>\n

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The entire rood screen seen from the aisle.<\/p><\/div>\n
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Six of the apostles.<\/p><\/div>\n
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Mary Cleophas with her four sons. You can just make out the windmill toy the boy in the lower right is holding.<\/p><\/div>\n
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Maria lactans<\/p><\/div>\n
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Fabric detail. Each saint’s clothing is different!<\/p><\/div>\n
Also very fun at Ranworth: we climbed the tower and had a spectacular view of the Norfolk “broads,” \u00a0a giant wetlands area made up of a series of rivers and lakes that ultimately runs to the sea. The Ranworth church ladies have a lovely tea and coffee shop, which serves wonderful scones and pretty awful coffee. But the coffee was warm, and Ranworth had a chilly breeze coming in off the sea, so I didn’t complain.<\/p>\n
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The tower itself–89 steps and two ladders to get to the top!<\/p><\/div>\n
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A view of the Norfolk broads.<\/p><\/div>\n
Church #2: Cawston. Another lovely medieval rood screen. The four Latin doctors (Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory) are depicted on the door. Even more impressive, however, are the wonderful wood ceilings in this church, which contain a great deal of sculpture, including a number of green men. The ceilings in the transepts are painted, which is undoubtedly a more modern update, but reflects what these spaces would have looked like in the Middle Ages.<\/p>\n
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A view from the balcony.<\/p><\/div>\n
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The wooden ceiling.<\/p><\/div>\n
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Greenmen bosses on a painted ceiling.<\/p><\/div>\n
Cawston had a number of other delights. Another thirteenth-century poor box, and a thirteenth-century trunk which would have been used to store parish records and other church valuables, such as the liturgical vessels. They also have a piscina in the chancel–a very small drain which leftover communion wine would be dumped. And a squint, which was not for an anchorhold, but for a small room of the chancel that was used by lepers.<\/p>\n
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