Saturday, October 17, 2009

St Andrew, Chaddleworth, Berkshire

The interior is absolutely charming with much to see, helped by an ancient roof, many many memorials and a feel of being somewhat different to the norm. Apart from the chancel (which fits in much better inside) there is a feeling of gentle conservation rather than restoration. Georgian pulpit with inlay, two fonts (one a fluted column supporting a bowl, the other plain recut Norman with four attached shafts supporting the bowl). The chapels are raised up a few steps higher than the nave floor, one is open into the church and panelled, the other with a glazed screen - locked. Two other features caught my eye, firstly the tower arch which Pevsner doesn't pass comment on which has an ogee arch. In my years of churchcrawling whereas I have seen several doorways and tomb recesses with this type of arch, there are few other examples that spring to my mind of one so large as here. The other feature is really two, and that is the sets of Royal Arms which are near-identical, one undated and the other more damaged dated 1722. Why did they catch my eye? A really goofy lion (missing on the second set) and a Disney-cartoon lady unicorn who you can just see batting her eyelashes could she come to life!

No comments:

Post a Comment