Wednesday 30 June 2010

Hagioscope

Her Indoors's Summer School has begun again, and this year, she is holding it in a lovely village hall in the shadow of this church, right on the edge of the Wiltshire/Somerset border. The main core of the church is 12th century, as is most of it's tower, shown above. It was heavily improved in the 17th century and 19th century, mainly by the local family of Long. You can see what the Longs' thought of themselves by the incredible portico tomb below...


You could use this memorial to Thomas Long to make a fine doorway in Ephesus or London, but right now, it is the site for the children's sunday school, which is explains all the soft toys on the tablet. You would have thought that part of the spiritual education for these kids would be respect for the dead - let alone dead of such obvious importance. This little room is the 'Long Chapel', tacked on in the 1600s or earlier.


When they were carrying out some renovations in the 19th century, they found a bricked in 'Hagioscope' (shown above) in the wall of the chapel, and this was made so that the Long family could get a good view of the altar and priest, without having to leave their chapel and join the rustics outside. They had their own separate entrance too. So much for everyone equal in the eyes of God.


This last photo is for the benefit of Cro, who is currently building a little tower at his pad in France - I thought it might inspire. It is in the back garden of a house in Corsham, and this photo was taken from the public car-park, hence the shutters. The large house on the High Street was once the residence of Sir Michael Tippet, the composer. I spoke to the owner recently, and she says they just use it as a store room, not even a guest lodge - what a waste. I suppose it is about 1750 in date.

9 comments:

  1. The top picture of the building is awesome especially when you consider it being built without any of the modern day equipment Looks like some kind of sandstone. I noticed the two ravens on the top. The memorial to Thomas Long is beautiful - looks like it was done in marble. I think it's a pity that they didn't think to put the kids toys in a box. As for all of us being equal in the sight of God, that's true even for chalk and cheese like us. I am neither a methodist nor a preacher. For your info I used to work in environmental health.

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  2. Hello Molly, nice to see you. The stone of the church is a local limestone - a type of Bath stone in fact, because all the hills are made from it for miles. The portico memorial is very expensive marble - probably even more expensive then than now, in real terms. There are ravens around here, but that is a carrion crow. Environmental Health, eh? I hope it wasn't you that closed down my lucrative sausage factory in Builth Wells.

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  3. P.S. Apart from the occasional disc cutter, the tools used in the building of towers like that are the same now as 1000 years ago - I use them every day. Many of my chisels are 18th century, as are my dividers.

    P.P.S - re the kids toys, the Warden is driven mad by the flipping Sunday School, and she thinks (rightly in my view) that they should treat it like the chapel it really is and clear it out every week.

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  4. No I wasn't in such an exalted job as that. I was Admin Assistant and used to have to run around like the proverbial blue fly and file and do returns and type notices etc. They were a great bunch to work with the staff in our department I mean and we had some good laughs all in all. They re-organised in 1996 and everybody I talk to now say they hate it there - that's progress!

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  5. Blue what fly? (oh all right, I won't start). It's the same story everywhere with regards to 'management'. Let's hope the cut-backs will kill them off in our lifetime.

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  6. Tom. It's the spitting image of my tower (in my mind's eye). I'd love to do a roof like that, but will do the standard job; which IS very sexy, with a slight sweep towards the bottom.

    I'm not a 'big house' person; my dream would be to own a dozen or so beautiful small buildings in fabulous locations around the world, starting with the one above.

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  7. p.s. If you imagine an iron gate in the wall, with the wall connecting to the house, that is pretty much the impression our tower will give. Sadly, if I'd done it in stone it would have cost a fortune!

    Dammit, that's a beautiful tower!

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  8. p.p.s. All Christians are equal, but some are more equal than others.

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  9. Sorry Tom - this one's for Cro p.p.p.s - All men are equal - the women don't even get a look in!

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