Medieval wall paintings
in Gloucestershire churches: a list of the churches included in the talk,
with a note of the featured wall paintings
Ampney
Crucis North transept: early 14th-century
figures of saints, including St
Ampney
St Mary Nave: late
14th/early 15th- century Warning to Sabbath Breakers
(‘Christ
of the Trades’), and a St George and the Dragon.
Baunton Nave: 15th-century
St Christopher.
Cirencester Chancel (St
Catherine’s chapel): 15th-century St Christopher.
Deerhurst Chancel (east
wall): mid to late 10th-century nimbed figure.
Duntisbourne
Rouse Chancel: early 13th-century
scheme, with ‘grotesque’ heads.
Hailes Chancel: early 14th-century
figures of St Catherine and St Margaret, figures of the Apostles and Death of
the Virgin (?), and heraldic devices and beasts, including several from the
medieval ‘bestiary’ and a lion, a leopard and an owl.
Nave:
14th-century St Christopher, and a hunting scene.
Kempley, St Mary Chancel: 12th-century
scheme showing (on the vault) Christ in Majesty flanked by the symbols of the
Evangelists, seraphim and figures of St Peter and the Virgin Mary, with (on the
walls) the Apostles, two ‘pilgrims’, a bishop, representations of Heavenly
Jerusalem and angels with scrolls.
Nave:
Continuation of the 12th-century scheme, including St
John
and the Three Marys; 15th-century Wheel of Life,
figures of St Anthony, St Michael weighing souls and three
knights, probably from a martyrdom of St Thomas Becket.
Mitcheldean Nave (above chancel
arch): 15th-century Last Judgement or ‘Doom’, on wooden panels.
Oddington,
St Nicholas Nave (north wall): early 15th-century
‘Doom’, plus a painting of
c.1520,
probably representing either the Seven Acts of Mercy
and the Seven Deadly Sins or characters from a morality
play.
Shorncote Chancel : 13th-century masonry patterns and rosettes.
Stoke
Orchard Nave:
13th-century cycle of the life and miracles of St James.
Stowell Nave (north wall): lower half of a late 12th-/early
13th-century
‘Doom’,
showing the Virgin Mary and Apostles, with a ‘sifting
of souls’ and a combat scene below.
South transept: late 12th-/early 13th-century
martyrdoms of St Margaret and St Lawrence.
Trinity,
with donors, and the remains of a Coronation of the
Virgin below.
Winterbourne Tower
arch: 14th-century heraldic scheme, showing Sir
Thomas
Bradeston (d.1360).
Other churches with remains of medieval wall-paintings,
or painted stonework, not included in the talk: Bishops Cleeve, Bledington, Buckland, Down
Ampney, Fairford, Great Washbourne, Notgrove, Oxenton, Stanton,
Turkdean. The Parliament Room at
Churches with Post-Reformation wall-paintings
include:
Further reading:
Babington, C.,
Manning, T., and Stewart, S., Our Painted
Past. Wall Paintings of English Heritage (English Heritage, London, 1991).
Rosewell, Roger, Medieval Wall Paintings in English &
Welsh Churches (Boydell Press,
Rouse, E. Clive, English Medieval Wall Paintings (Shire
Publications Ltd., Princes Risborough, 1991).
Tristram,
E.W., English Medieval Wall Paintings (12th
to 14th century, in 4 volumes, 1944-55).
Verey, D., and Brooks,
A., The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire
(2 volumes, 1999 and 2002).
Articles about
Gloucestershire’s medieval wall paintings are included in the Transactions of the Bristol and
Gloucestershire Archaeological Society for 1948 (Ampney St Mary), 1981 (Hailes),
1984 (Stowell), 1986 (Oddington) and 2000 (Ampney Crucis), in the Archaeological Journal for 1967 (Stoke
Orchard) and the Antiquaries Journal for
2006 (Deerhurst). A useful website, maintained by Ann Marshall of the Open
University, is www.paintedchurch.org.