St Botolph, Cambridge

     I took the opportunity when walking around Cambridge in November to pop in and take some photos of St Botolph's church for this blog.  A slightly forgotten church, St Botolph's. Typical of Cambridgeshire; like Hertfordshire and indeed most of SE England, a 'small stone' county. The walls here are constructed of rubble masonry, a  mixture of Upper Jurassic Barnack Rag (a type of ooltic limestone) and the relatively local Carrstone - there may also be some local chalk in the mix. Some of the Carrstone, in the form of cobbles, looks like it has been garnered from Glacial Till (the geological phenomena formerly known as 'Boulder Clay') or alluvial deposits. These stones collected from from the Till are known as 'Fieldstones'. The Till itself forms the 'Western Plateau', the extensive area of 'high' land just to the west of Cambridge. The mouldings to windows and doors etc. are also of oolitic limestone, perhaps of Barnack Rag though there the best quality stone was worked out by 1460. Unlike the local chalk and the Carrstone (which in addition is also difficult to work) the Ragstone is not only easy to carve and much more durable. However, unlike the chalk and Carrstone, ooltic limestone is not indigenous to Cambridgeshire but had to be brought across the Fens in barges from the Limestone Belt, from quarries in Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Rutland. 

     Enough of the geology! The exterior of the church is mainly Late Gothic - the chancel is Victorian, by George Frederick Bodley. The darker colour of the wall seems rather insensitive, particularly from an architect such as Bodley. The texture of the Medieval walls is very satisfying. Inside all is light, and a little austere rather like one of those 17th century Dutch paintings of a church interior. The arcades date, according to the good Doktor (aka Pevsner) to the early 14th century, so Decorated then. Bodley's rebuilt chancel dates from 1872 and is dark with colour and stained glass. The contrast with the nave, I think, too stark. The panelled ceiling is rather pretty though. The rood screen is late medieval and there is a Royal Arms under the tower, but the treasure of this church is the Laudian font cover - all attenuated Jacobean classicism and marbling. Rather fun.

St James, Kinnersley

     Back to Worcestershire at the weekend for a family birthday with three stops en route. The first was the church of St James at Kinnersley in the far west of Herefordshire. Ever since we've been making this particular journey I've been intrigued by this church - it looks so beautiful from the road. A visit was a must particularly on learning that the church contained work by that great Late Victorian architect G F Bodley, and that the graveyard contained his mortal remains. Thankfully our visit did not end in disappointment. The church is a delight. Small, aisled, nestling under a vast roof of riven Herefordshire Tilestones of local sandstone. The square headed aisle windows are a delight - very elegant. Medieval or Bodley? There is a timbered porch and there's that wonderful, masculine tower. Architecture that seems in harmony with the landscape it inhabits.

     Inside there are two arcades, one sturdy, the other one light and lithe Perp Gothic. It has those small inconsequential capitals we saw in the choir of Malvern Priory.  There are a number of monuments too, the most spectacular being the Smalman monument in the chancel. Carolean and in need of much help. And then there is the work by Bodley. Most conspicuous and beautiful are the large areas of diaper pattern above the aisle arcades. They are fading a bit. The church is currently undergoing a restoration/repurposing; I just hope they do as little as possible to the wall paintings here.  They are in just the right state of 'pleasing decay'. However I think that Bodley's work in the chancel would probably benefit from a more proactive approach. I should add here that the work is not by the usual suspects but the then incumbent the Rev Frederick Andrews under Bodley's supervision. Andrews incumbency started in 1873 and ended in 1920. In addition to all the painted work there are Bodley tiles in the chancel (made by Godwin of Lugwardine, also in Herefordshire), organ case and beautiful wrought iron chandeliers like those at St Helen's Brant Broughton in Lincolnshire (Bodley restored the church in the early 1870s) and were made by Coldron's in the village. I suspect they supplied the chandeliers here too. I suspect too that the roofs were replaced by Bodley or in an earlier restoration by Thomas Nicholson in 1867-9. I would suggest also that the chancel was decorated first, the nave second.

     As I said the parish are currently busy at work on the church - there is much do. I only hope the work will not rob the church of its special atmosphere. As it is there is too much clutter.

Currently reading.....

   'George Fredrick Bodley and the Later Gothic Revival in Britain and America' by Michael Hall.  Bodley, (1827-1902) was one of the foremost architects of the late Gothic Revival; and an architect of refined and superlative taste.  The designer of some wonderful churches.  This hefty book, which is lavishly illustrated, is the first monograph to be published on this slightly enigmatic yet highly influential man. Sir John Ninian Comper, Robert Lorimer and Charles Ashbee all trained and worked in his office. 

   Bodley began as the designer of High Victorian churches, before reacting against that very hard type of architecture and returning to the style of Pugin, creating churches that are at once deeply rooted in the English Medieval tradition but open to influences from Europe; and, like George Gilbert Scott, he was one of those late Victorian architects who dispensed with Gothic when it came to domestic design contributing to the emergence of the 'Queen Anne Revival'.  Bodley's mature churches are elegant and refined perhaps even a little patrician, but they represent to me at least an intellectual and sensual anglo-catholic culture I find deeply attractive and satisfying.

Worcester Cathedral II: The Interior

   The interior of the cathedral is dim and cavernous.  The furniture and decoration, which are mainly mid-Victorian, have an astonishing richness and opulence - encaustic tiles, marble, mosaic, metal-work and gilding that have turned the cathedral into a schatz-kammer - and are the work of Sir George Gilbert Scott. I particularly like the inlaid cross on the back face of the High Altar reredos. In all the sort of work that earned the opprobrium of later architectural critics such as Alec Clifton Taylor who hated it all, and longed for its removal as had by then already happened at Salisbury. There is work too by that master of the Late Gothic Revival, George Frederick Bodley.  Amongst the many tombs and monuments are two royal burials:  King John and Prince Arthur (the eldest son of Henry VII).