Church Camping

Inside St Cuthbert’s church, Holmes Lacy, Herefordshire.

Church camping, otherwise known as champing, is an initiative by The Churches Conservation Trust where you can book to stay in one of the churches that they care for. We chose to champ in St. Cuthbert’s, Holme Lacy, in a bend on the river Wye near Hereford, a large church with magnificent marble monuments and a notable window by Henry Payne. You can see our sitting room above, half way along the south aisle, and our bedroom in the north aisle in front of a wooden screen and with a great view of the monuments and the aforementioned notable window.

Left: Monument to James Scudamore who died in 1668. Right: Tomb of Sibell and John Scudamore who died in 1571 with Henry Payne window in the background.

You’re not supposed to drag the camp beds around the church, otherwise I would have been tempted to sleep in the chancel with the Scudamores (above). It was fascinating to see these monuments and windows over a whole night and day as the light moved around the space which was light enough in the daytime (with no artificial lighting) and perfectly dark at night. We went to sleep and woke up discussing the mysterious Payne window (below), which shows the Archangel Michael with the scales of judgement, weighing souls.

East window by Henry Payne c.1920 and detail of right hand panel.

Detail of the Henry Payne window showing the weighing of souls.

There are some gorgeous details, particularly the tiny figures in the scales and in the angel’s drapery (above), but the design of the window is confusing. The angels seem to be jostling unnecessarily for space, with great big overlapping wings and behind, rising feet and heads popping up in unexpected places. The main problem is how dark the window appeared, there is a whole bank of trees in the churchyard outside blocking the early morning light.

In the north wall between our bedroom and the chancel is a great example of a medieval fragment window (below). Here you can also find gorgeous details, with heads and hands appearing unexpectedly. As we sat on our chairs in the evening with the light fading all around us, this one still glowed - its patchwork of colours and painted details perfectly illuminated as the stained glass windows along the east and south walls lost their colour to the darkness.

North chancel window made of fragments of medieval glass and detail.

Oxfordshire South ex Berkshire

Left, Oxfordshire now. Right, Oxfordshire then.

There is a corner of Oxfordshire bordered on its north and east edges by the River Thames that used to be Berkshire (as shown in the maps above) and that leads to confusion when using old guidebooks to local churches. Here are three in that area, all with great stained glass windows.

All Saints, North Moreton. The St Nicholas Window in Stapleton’s Chantry Chapel.

All Saints church in North Moreton has a complete window, the St Nicholas Window, of early fourteenth century glass in a beautiful and highly crafted chantry chapel built in 1299 at the behest of the Lord of the manor Miles de Stapleton. The top tracery of the window is interesting, being a very early example of a fishscale design, its glass is heraldic with yellow stars. The window is complete because it was effectively restored under the guidance of Charles Winston in the 1850s. Many of the heads had been vandalised and the pieces of glass that were inserted are obvious to spot but not intrusive, their muted colours were given a milky surface so they don’t jump out. You can see this approach on the empty shields in the top tracery and the scenes from the lives of Saints Nicholas and Paul (above centre). There are many marvellous parts of original glass painting, such as the miraculous draught of fishes at the bottom of the second column which illustrates scenes from the life of St Peter (above right).

Medieval glass is still in place in windows in the north and south aisles too, with a St Christopher (below left) a delicately painted crucifixion (below centre) and a grisaille cross (below right) in the kitchen area that’s right behind the south door.

North Moreton, medieval stained glass in the aisles and the kitchen.

St Andrew’s, East Hagbourne, 14th Century glass in the north aisle, and fragment windows.

The fourteenth century glass in St Andrew’s Church, East Hagbourne consists of two scenes, a nativity and a virgin and child (above left), and other fragments reset in to the tracery in combination with some really bright colours. The brightest and best on the north east corner is hidden away behind a curtain in the vestry (above right).

This church has a light but rich atmosphere, with yellowish windows in the other two east windows. I was particularly taken with the pierced screen at the bottom of the Perpendicular east window (below centre) and with the Lady Chapel where everything is well considered and harmonious. The stained glass is by Burlison and Grylls from 1939.

East Hagbourne, east window and detail, east window in the Lady Chapel.

St James, Radley. North aisle window, west window.

We went to is St James’, Radley mainly to see the four tree trunks that act as columns in the south aisle. It’s a small church and as extraordinary as it sounds with dark wood all around and a domestic feel emphasised, when we were there, by the sound of a ticking clock. The stained glass glows from every window, with arms and crowns on backgrounds of silver stained quarries. There are some older sections of glass, for example the angel between two royal coats-of-arms (above left) and the sixteenth century portrait of Henry VII up in the bell tower (above centre and right). But most of the glass is either very restored or else supplemented very skillfully by Thomas Willement in the 1840s.

The hand of the skillful rearranger of glass was evident in all three churches and a different approach was taken in each one. I normally go guidebookless so as not to get too annoyed by inaccurate descriptions of the stained glass process but there are a couple of things I’d like to point out.

1. When the original paint has come off the glass it hasn’t ‘faded’ although it may have come off due to a number of reasons. It may be, as in the North Moreton window, a newer piece of glass used as a replacement for a broken piece by the restorer.

2. Stained glass windows are nothing like jigsaws.

Radley, heraldic glass in the aisle windows.