St Cadoc's Church, Llancarfan

I can't say I've wanted to see the mediaeval wall paintings in Llancarfan Church for aaaaaages because they were only discovered in 2008, when a thin line of red paint was discovered under more than twenty coats of limewash. 

I heard about them in 2012, which is quite long ago enough, when I went to hear the lovely Michael Wood speak at Bristol University. And on Wednesday, I finally got a chance to go there. Hooray!

Apparently, the name Llancarfan derives from Nantcarfan, the valley or stream of the stags. Here's the stream ...  

... and here's a stag. 

And here's a scratch sundial.

Even before the uncovering of the paintings, St Cadog's Church would have been worth visiting for all its other mediaeval survivals, but they do rather steal the show. 

Here's a few of the highlights ... like the magnificent St George on his 'orse, vanquishing a depleted but still impressive dragon.

Death, dressed in a shroud, wrapped around by a worm and with a toad clinging to his chest, leads the Gallant in the Dance of Death.

Rather than the more usual sinners-being-sucked-down-into-Hell, here the Seven Deadlies emanate from the sinner's body rather like heads of the Hydra. Except you can't see much of him, apart from his bent knees.

Lust reminds me - in design, if not execution - of the similar warning in the nave of St Winifred's in Branscombe, which is on the cover of my first collection, Communion.
I love how both sets of lovers are oblivious to their diabolical tormentors.

Here's a detail of Gluttony ... 

... and of the Acts of Mercy.

The south aisle

I especially like the glimpses you get of the paintings as you wander around the church ...

... and in juxtaposition with other parts of the decoration like this stone carving.

In fact, there's a fair bit of stone and wood carving but information about it is harder to come by than it is about the paintings.

Fourteenth century capital 

This fragment of a shaft of a pillar cross is the only surviving part of the late 9th/early 10th century Celtic church.

The fifteenth century Perpencidular screen and cradle roof of the Raglan chapel

The parish chest

The 12th century stoop

The also-recently-rediscovered-and-restored-canopied reredos screen

Apparently, Llancarfan once had a chancel window that was a masterpiece of stained glass, but during the Civil Wars, a local man called Whitton Bush destroyed it while shouting 'Down with the whore of Babylon!'

Rather less contentious glass here now. 

 

Sharing, fellowship and that sort of thing

Communion is an act of sharing.  So I'm sharing the title poem of my collection of poetry, which was inspired by the chance sighting of a 15th century mural warning against the perils of Lust, on the wall of the nave in St Winifred's Church, Branscombe. 

Communion

She lifts her veil of lace,
her eyes are narrowed and her face

upturned for kisses,

and as she draws her lover in,
he binds her close

with promises. Yes,

they will prey,

but on each other

on this holy feasting day.

They don’t appear

to feel the Devil’s spear

thrust into their sides,

don’t realise

that they're a warning

painted on this ancient wall

to a score of generations

against temptations

of the flesh. Instead,

they’ll partake of each other
in red mouths of sandstone spires,
in sumptuous, honey-coloured quires,

in sanctuary, chapter house and chantry,
once used as store for vestments,
warm with candlelight and incense,

in drowned and sinking chapels
filling up with sand and lapped
by worn stone steps.

In sacred glades and nymets
beneath the fan-vaulting of trees,
she’ll smile and slither to her knees

on mossy hassocks, last year’s leaves,
like her dress of lovat silk
snagged on a hook.

Deborah Harvey © 2008 , 2011

Would also like to share how much I'm enjoying being here, tucked in between Thomas Hardy and Seamus Heaney:

If you like my poems, the collection is now available to buy.  Please contact Indigo Dreams for further details, or, if you would like a signed copy, email me at deborah.harvey@ymail.com.  Price is £7.99 inc p&p within the UK, £8.50 inc p&p to the rest of Europe, £9.50 inc p&p to the rest of the world.

'Deborah Harvey's ... poems are raw and true. She is the real thing'      Hugo Williams