Edington Priory Church, Wiltshire.
Being inside Edington Priory Church made me feel as if I were in a town, with different things to see round every corner. It was built from 1352 - 1361 by William of Edington, a local man who became Bishop of Winchester and who spent his money on this wonderful large church. There is a noticeable change of style from the chancel to the slightly later and plainer nave and west end, with periods of embellishment and restoration up to the twentieth century. It has plaster ceilings in three different styles, Jacobean woodwork in the screens, fine monuments and new fittings exquisitely blended in - I’m thinking in particular of the rows of lights below the gorgeous red and white ceiling that look as if they have been sprayed the same colour as the stonework (below right).
Edington Priory Church with monuments and plaster ceilings.
The gorgeous red and white ceiling pattern that is dated 1663 changes to a section of intricate 18th century fan vaulting, and then to a delicate Gothic white pattern in the chancel. Through the carved rood screen, then past a fine Jacobean communion rail in front of the altar, is a blue and gold reredos from the 1930s with figures carved by Christopher Webb (below right) an artist who is better known for his stained glass.
Edington Priory Church; looking through to the reredos with carving of the devotional poet George Herbert holding a mandolin..
Edington Priory Church; the Lady Chapel with 14th century stained glass.
The best stained glass is in the Lady Chapel (above), that is a rare fourteenth century crucifixion window restored in 1971 by the York Glaziers Trust. There are lovely photogenic details in every part of the building, like this small angel (below left) above your head in the chancel, see how the electric cable has also been sprayed stone colour. And being in a Wiltshire church, of course we have one of those kitchens with a sloping wooden cover, squeezed in between the tombs of two medieval knights that were formerly in Imber church and now lie in the south west corner at Edington (below right).
Edington Priory Church; stone angel, kitchen between the tombs of two medieval knights.
Left: St Mary’s Church, Garsington, Oxfordshire. Right: St Mary’s Church, Collingbourne Kingston, Wiltshire.
I last wrote about kitchens in churches on my blog in 2022, since then I’ve found and photographed about twenty more. Here is an update with six of the most extreme examples, starting with the kitchen in the south west corner of Garsington church that is watched over by Lady Ottoline Morrell in a carving by Eric Gill (above left). Only occasionally are the church kitchens hidden away - I know enough by now to guess that the doors seamlessly extending from the panelling of the organ in Collingbourne Kingston church (above right) would have a well equipped one inside including the drying dishcloth that features in many of my photos.
Left: Congleton United Reformed Church, Cheshire. Right: St Mary Magdalene Church, Hullavington, Wiltshire.
Sometimes the catering takes over the space with the monuments and stained glass just filling in the gaps between the sink - always with a dramatic hook shaped tap - the piles of chairs and the folding tables. In one of Europe’s oldest wooden churches at Marton (below right) I particularly enjoyed seeing an old school tea urn in front of a painting of Moses and some lovely fragments of glass in the windows. Best of all was the real play kitchen with the right kind of tap in Christ Church, Eastbourne (below right) that had been brought out for a children’s session as if to parody the whole idea of having a kitchen in a church.
Left: Church of St James & St Paul, Marton, Cheshire. Right: Christ Church, Eastbourne, Sussex.