Hay-on-Wye

     A fine day out in Hay-on-Wye Saturday.  Crisp and sunny.  The place humming with locals and late-season tourists.  Breakfast at the Blue Boar Café; lasagne and chips for lunch at the Rose and Crown (very fine those chips).

     A mere three books bought: 'The Garrick Year' by Margaret Drabble; 'Six More English Towns' by Alec Clifton-Taylor, and 'Rutland, a Shell Guide' by W G Hoskins.

     'The Garrick Year' is something I've been looking for for some time - though on Saturday I was actually on the hunt for Storm Jameson's 1966 novel 'The Early Life of Stephen Hind'.  'The Garrick Year', 1964, Drabble's second novel, is an exploration of a decidedly shaky marriage.  It is told from the wife's viewpoint, as she and her husband relocate from London to Hereford, where he is to take part in a theatrical festival.  Apparently satiric.  Could be fun.  Cover artwork by Caroline Smith.

     'Six More English Towns' written as an accompaniment the eponymous BBC television series, broadcast in 1981 on BBC2.  The original series - 'Six English Towns' - had been broadcast in 1978, and a third series - 'Another Six English Towns' aired in 1984.  The towns in this volume are Berwick-upon-Tweed, Beverley, Bradford on Avon, Lewes, Saffron Walden, and Warwick.  He said of these broadcasts, 'I'd like every programme to be an exercise in looking.'  I have mentioned Clifton-Taylor in a number of previous posts before.  He was educated at Queen's College Oxford, the Courtauld Institute, and (I think) the Sorbonne, and was a man of strong opinions.  He was brought to our screens by a man of equal robust opinion, John Drummond.  Clifton-Taylor was a regular contributor to the Buildings of England series, and wrote a number of books, such as 'The Cathedrals of England', and 'English Parish Churches Works of Art'.  As with John Drummond, it is unlikely we will see his sharp, erudite like again, or, for that matter, programmes such as 'Six English Towns'. He deserves a post to himself.

     So does the great WG Hoskins; and the whole phenomena of the remarkable the Shell County Guides. The guides were published by Faber & Faber under the patronage of Shell, and were edited by Sir John Betjeman and the artist John Piper. They were designed to be an alternative to 'The Buildings of England'.  Sadly, the project never reached completion. However the books are rather lovely.  The photography, for instance, is always top notch. In addition to 'Rutland, a Shell guide' of 1963 - one of the smaller and rarer of the series - Hoskins also wrote the Leicestershire volume in 1970, where in the introduction he manages to completely ignore the sw part of the county. No mean feat.

Church crawling: Exton

     Our final stop last Saturday was Exton, an even more attractive village further into Rutland (England's smallest county).  The great W G Hoskins wrote of the county:

"Rutland is a small part of England as she used to be before the Industrial Revolution - unspoiled, clean, full of fine buildings, full of country smells and sounds, of sound arable farming with great stone barns, of neatness, order and natural good taste almost everywhere. No other county surpasses Rutland for unspoiled, quiet charm []They say good things come in the smallest parcels: Rutland is both very small and very good."

     This is no longer quite so true.  It can't be. But at Exton one gets a view, a glimpse as it were, of what it was and what it could be again if only we applied ourselves.

     Anyway to the church. This is by far the grandest of the three churches we visited. It stands slightly aloof from the village and on the edge of the park that surrounds the Hall.  One rather beautiful house keeps it company.  All in all quite heavenly.  Peaceful.  At first sight the whole thing looks rather Victorian, and to be honest nearly all the visible masonry is 19th century.  First, the tower.  A noble and very satisfying design. The original was struck by lightening in 1843, and subsequently rebuilt in replica. R C Carpenter, who has appeared in this blog before as the restorer of Ss Peter and Paul Algarkirk, is credited with the work.  The restoration of the body of the church is the great Gothic Revival master J L Pearson, 1852-54, and a thorough job he did of it.  

     A surprise perhaps for the visitor on entering the church to find Medieval work, and a pretty majestic interior it is; tall and spacious, monumental and full of Seigneurial pomp - banners and more importantly tombs.  Perhaps one of the best collections in England, and all of great interest both aesthetically and historically.  There is a fabulous Late Medieval tomb of English alabaster - look for the tiny figures lurking around the feet of the main figures, and a vast Elizabethan tomb in the south transept, but the best is in the north transept: a vast white, grey and black marble construction by Ginling Gibbons in 1686, to the memory of the 3rd Viscount Campden. Baroque and voluptuous. It cost £1000. But that is just to mention three in a remarkable ensemble. I plan to return.

     Thanks to A for the use of his phone when my died for lack of juice.  Some of the following images are from his phone.