Churches - Crumbling Heritage

[Megas]

I have an interest in old churches, especially those little churches and chapels that are off the beaten track and perhaps now rarely used. It's amazing that we see medieval archaeology and stare into the ground at what remained of long lost buildings imagining what they must have been like. We visit crumbling castles and imagine what they must have been like but with a church or chapel, we have standing medieval buildings with all the adornments, right here and now. I was on a business trip recently and saw a wooden sign and arrow that said 'Historical screen' and guessed it was a rood screen in a church or chapel. After a detour and a drive down various tracks there was the church next to a farm, not very big and a bit neglected. I opened the door and was astounded to see a complete, full height medieval rood screen, still with some of its original paintwork. A quick scour of the church also revealed 3 13th century green men carved into the stonework either side of the rood screen. Worryingly this church had seen better days and it's last congregation was many moons ago as the floor tiles had a white powder on them that I associated with damp and mould. Thankfully the remote location of this church meant it had not been vandalised.

It got me thinking, here was a near perfect medieval rood screen in a dilapidated church with no protection at all. What will happen to it and the thousands of other crumbling medieval churches and chapels and their trappings? Are churches and chapels listed? Does anyone know?. If not, it is a disgrace that what was recently living history is just being left to the elements and worse.

[AlanS]

Interesting story.

Of course, our focus here is on the pre-Roman, so it's a bit off-topic, but I've been known to poke around in old churches myself over the past few years, though I'm far from an expert on medieval architectural styles. I'd be interested to know where that rood screen was - do you have any photos of the Green Man images you could share?

Many church buildings are at least Grade II listed, if not higher, protection of buildings coming under a different scheme from the scheduled monuments we know and love. I'd guess your first stop would be someone like the churches Conservation Trust - http://www.visitchurches.org.uk/ or there are some good links to similar organisations here: http://nationalchurchestrust.org/footer ... hapels.php

Hope that helps.

[Megas]

Thanks for the info Alan. I was coming back from a conference in Cardiff and my Sat Nav took me cross country when I came across the sign for the screen at a place called llangwm.

This is it here. Stunning, full height with loft.









It hard to believe that something so old, so delicate and so beautiful is left exposed in an unlocked, little used damp and degrading church. It is interesting to see that churches are listed but what about their contents?

The 3 green men where on either side of the main arch with 2 one side and one on the other. A little sign dated them to the 13th century.

[AlanS]

Lovely stuff! I'll bet there's a fair few like that tucked away in the backwaters in places like that.

I don't know if you use Facebook, but there's a 'Company of the Green Man' group on there, and also on Flickr who would be interested in those photos. See http://www.flickr.com/people/thecompanyofthegreenman/ and http://thecompanyofthegreenman.wordpress.com/about/ for more details.

[Megas]

Thanks

I would love to know the definitive answer to the Green Man icon but there seems to be lots of theories that are very contrasting. It's strange that the reason behind such a powerful image that was obviously was so important to people at a distant point in time has been forgotten. Does anyone on here know THE answer?

[AlanS]

I doubt there is a single 'definitive' answer to the Green Man enigma, but that's what makes it so fascinating, isn't it?

We'll have the mods on our backs in a minute for being off topic

[juamei]

Our (well the missus') church is stuffed full of saved heritage from closed / abandoned churches. Not unusual to go into the priests house and see half a wooden screen in the hallway...