I’ve passed St Edmund’s, Emneth, many, many times. And stopped to investigate more than once. But it’s always locked.
Today I sought out a keyholder. And gained entry. As ever, it was a rewarding experience.
Entry is, unusually, via the north or secondary door, not the usual porch.
The guy I got the key from, a Mr Pickles, said something along the lines of ‘there’s not much to see’. Well, there another of those Fenland Angel Beam roofs, some nice stained glass, an interesting funerary monument, and sundry other bits n’ bats.
Look at my pics closely, and you’ll see there are some decrepit areas; flaking paint, crumbling masonry. These old buildings are showing their rage, I guess. A reminder to me of my desire to join the CCT.
The main lights of the large altar end window (east facing?) are beautiful. Rather akin to stuff at Ely Cathedral, in style and colour palette. Even the plainer glass windows are beautiful.
So, yet another satisfying church visit. Oh, and it was raining. Heavily enough that it made being in the church both cosy, and sonically soothing.
I watched this tonight. I started watching Kalifornia, with Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, David Duchovny, etc. But it looked like a steaming pile of poop. So I stopped, and watched this instead.
This looks and feels pretty low budget. But it has Chris ‘Doc Emmett’ Lloyd, of Back To The Future fame, in a starring role. It’s massively unlike most mainstream fare. And that’s a very good thing.
The IMDB plot synopsis succinctly sums up the basic idea: ‘In a small Midwestern town, a troubled teen with homicidal tendencies must hunt down and destroy a supernatural killer while keeping his own inner demons at bay.’
I’m not going to bother delving any further. Suffice to say, John Cleaver (Max Records), our central young dude, is struggling with sociopathic tendencies and ‘dark thoughts’, living a fairly dysfunctional life in a nowhere Hicksville US town. And a serial-killer is preying on local folk.
There’s a dark humour at work here. And it’s also refreshingly ‘kitchen sink’, as opposed to Hollywood gloss. Apparently it’s based on a book. And I’ve read that it’s a quite faithful adaptation. I have no knowledge on that score.
The final surprise is a pretty whopping one. And takes the movie quite abruptly into territory I normally avoid like the plague. But in case anyone doesn’t know, I won’t spoil things.
Where this steers closer to other modern movies is in the several ‘sudden left turns’ aspect. Expectations are set up, only to be deftly switcheroo’ed.
This wasn’t quite what I was looking for. Nor quite what I expected. But I did think it was worth seeing. I’m still not sure what I make of it. Other than it’s refreshingly unlike most movies.
We had a picnic lunch, in the car, sat outside St Wendreda’s, today. Brie, baguette, cream of tomato soup, coffee, etc. Simple pleasures!
But no trip to York to watch The Sealed Knot re-enacting Marston Moor, alas!
Teresa was, as ever, overjoyed that I was taking snaps. Oh, well. Can’t win ‘em all, I guess?
After a very pleasant lunch, only slightly totally ruined by the spirit of ‘bonhomie’, I decided I’d go and take another look at St Wendreda’s famed angels.
Where are all the gravestones?
So… what’s with the scattered funerary monuments? And where are all the usual graves/gravestones? Some of the stones are on the periphery of the church site. It looks and feels like they’ve been moved. Why?
And across a road at the back of the church, there’s a more normal looking graveyard. I’ll have to go check that out.
Having walked around the church, and pondered the absence of graves, or at least gravestones, we reached the entrance.
Once under the arch, and through the porch, into the church we go…
It’s worth re-visiting these churches, I’m discovering. Often you’ll see something you missed before. Or else you can just just concentrate on one aspect of the place, with that little more time/interest.
The obligatory old chest, and old chair.
Ok, here cum the money shots…
I decided to lay down, on my back, in the middle of the church, to take most (but not all) of these shots. Really I need a much better camera, that can really zoom in. But I’ve tried to do my best, with what I have!
And a few more sundry images, to finish…
Walking back to the car we came across a rather nice old metal turnstile gate. Still working!
Last night I cooked a paella. Perhaps foolhardy, having a Spaniard staying with us!? I kept it trad’, except for one or two things: I added chorizo, and the artichokes weren’t raw/fresh, but bottled (all I could get/less hassle!).
Antonio did a delicious salad, to go with it, with mango, walnuts, and balsamic vinegar. I’m not sure that his salad wasn’t tastier than my paella. Well, never mind. For dessert we had tiramisu.
Great poster!
After dinner we watched The Bridge at Remagen, on Amazon Prime. I have it on DVD, but it’s faulty! The old 1969 poster is sooo much better than the more modern packaging. My DVD, alas, uses the latter.
Hmmm… ok, but less good.
The foodie pics at the top of this post are the leftover paella and salad, which we just had for our Sunday lunch. Antonio is now off visiting Dad and Claire, with the girls. And after that, he’ll be in Spain till 5th June.
I’m still seething over what happened at Morrisons a couple of weeks ago, and the further blows life sees fit to rain upon me. And that’s making booking work with Amazon – easily and always the worst part of the job, by a margin – very dispiriting.
Looks like we’ll be missing this…
I’d planned to take us hup nurth, leek, to the above. The idea was to go today. But poor weather, total exhaustion, and the desolation of penury – oh, and Teresa would prefer to stay home! – all mitigate against that.
There’s a slim chance – if I could book a nice fat juicy shift today, for example – that we might be able to go tomorrow. But the odds are, alas, about 100-1 against. Hey ho!
I was doing my delivery rounds today. And what a fine day it turned into! And, as ever, various things caught my eye.
Fenland road names can be such fun.
My final delivery of the afternoon was in the village of Southery, near Downham Market. My work done, I went and found the village church. Yet another bloomin’ unimaginative St. Mary’s.
The church was shut. But, not one to be deterred, I rang the churchwardens, and a guy came out with a key and unlocked it for me. Fab!
This 19th Century church isn’t as interesting to me, overall, as the kinds of church that are built on and integrate much older buildings.
Perhaps the chief attraction here is the stained glass? And, amongst the folk depicted in the windows, an unusual sight, my namesake, St Sebastian!
Whereas some Fenland churches – such as St Wendreda’s, where we live (March) – have fabulous wooden angels in their roofs, here we find a pair carved into the supports of an arch.
Also of interest are the 12 ‘stations of the cross’ roundels. And numerous written ‘inscriptions’ (inc. the one in the porch that lists the folk who worked on it).
I also found out whilst here, that there was another older church, at a site not too far away. But that it had fallen into disuse and ruin, and is now fenced off. This picqued my interest!
I wandered around the entire old church site. There’s an extensive graveyard here. But access to the old ruins is prevented by a metal fence. Even the wrought iron gate admitting one to the site/graveyard has been made inaccessible.
Careful study of these pics – it’s much easier to see when you’re there – reveals that the structure of what remains standing is visible, in veiled outline. Albeit entirely clad in greenery now.
But, it turns out that hidden under all this rampant growth is a mostly brickwork disappointment. I’ll come back to this in a bit more detail later.
Sunglasses required.
When I got home I took Teresa to the chemist. We passed this amazingly vivid (livid!?) bush, en route.
Overwhelming!
That kind of shocking pink wouldn’t have appealed to me in years past. But I love it now. Nature’s fecundity, albeit here under human guidance, is a wonderful thing.
Tesco used book buy, £1.
I bought the above at Tesco. From their little second hand book library. I initially thought it was a non-fiction history book. But I now realise it is in fact historical fiction.
Never mind! It’s Napoleonic, and set in 1812, against the backdrop of Napoleon’s Russian debacle. One of my particular favourite eras of history. So I shall read away, and hope it lives up to the book jacket hype.
I did say, up above at some point, that I’d say more about the slight disappointment at finding the ruins of the older church completely covered and sealed off by fences.
One would like to think that under it all lies a medieval gothic wonder, or something even older. But, as the two pics above (which I found here) attest, much of this ‘older’ church is a much later red-brick repair.
Anyway, as ever, a trip to a church – or churches? – proves to be deeply interesting, and richly rewarding. Even when neither church is top drawer.
At the end of my delivery shift this afternoon, as I left the final drop, a gaggle of geese were crossing the country lane I was driving back up.
It looked like a primary school crossing. Only missing a lollipop lady. The geese and their furry little goslings were very cute to see.
And a little later, I spotted the two horses, pictured above. The black and white one was originally stood sideways on, and looked more impressive that way. But by the time I’d got my phone trained on him, he was facing me.
Much more annoying than that, however, was missing a potentially fab snap of said horse with a heron flying up and out of the river, at the same spot. My reflexes just weren’t quick enough. Dang it!
Next, the tower of St Mary’s. A truly magnificent space. With some very ‘gnarly’ exterior stonework.
I could linger in or under that tower for ages. And indeed, I did just that.
As the above panorama shows. There’s a lot to take in. The modern stained-glass is noteworthy for being both very clearly modern, and yet actually really very good. Not a combo I’m used to.
What we have here is a textbook example of an embarrassment of riches. Every which way the eye doth turn, it’s belaboured by rich craftsmanship and beauty. An intoxicating and overwhelming experience.
Pause for breath…
Elvis exits the building.
I love the above panoramic view of both churches.
It had just about stopped raining when I left, and was merely dripping. The green stuff growing on the trunk of the tree, above, seemed to capture a perfect feeling of the dank, dark, rich greenery.
A final parting shot…
As I’ve said here before, one church visit whilst out and about is good. Two is great. Three? Well, I feel blessed.
I’ve read online that ‘twin’ churches, on the same spot, aren’t quite as unusual as one might think. Indeed, there are – so this website said – several more such pairings in Cambs alone. But, despite this, to my less experienced churchical sensibilities it still seems a bit unusual.
It also said that given the position of this church, it’s likelier the older site of the two. Even though the bulk of the fabric of Syriac’s is newer (Victorian; witness the interior!).
There’s something of an irony here, inasmuch as it’s the newer (albeit older looking) St Mary’s that remains an active ‘house of worship’. Syriac is a CCT property, and is currently mostly empty.
Looks like it’d be a great venue for cultural shenanigans. From music (quiet!), to art, maybe even drama? Prob’ comes a cropper on all that modern health & safety bollocks, nowadays. What a waste…
St Mary The Virgin was the first of three churches I visited today. When I arrived it was pouring down with rain. And the church was locked. I took most of the pics in the first gallery wandering around outside, getting very wet.
But a notice in the porch directed me to a nearby key-holder, and I was soon back, to snoop and snap around the interior. I’m no expert on church architecture. I just love wandering around, and soaking up whatever appeals to my eye or mind.
As with almost all old churches, the more you look, the more you find, and longer you linger, the more you see. Here we have a couple of fragments of an old wall painting. A font supported by stone angels. And some wooden rafter-angels.
There also lots of little heads, and heraldic stuff. Some of the heads are on windows, outside. Some are in the interior stonework. And, as in most churches, there’s the evidence of multiple layers of building, repairs, additions, subtractions, and suchlike.
Even, as here, when there’s no really nice fancy stained glass, I still love the windows. And overall I simply find these places endlessly fascinating.
