St. Mary's Church, Fairford; Or, Our Set Is Complete

Our next church/town destination in the Cotswolds was St. Mary's Church in Fairford, a few miles east of Cirencester, another five-star parish church. An older church in Fairford was listed in the Domesday Book, but the present church was built only in the early 1500s, just barely Medieval, largely through the beneficence of the Tame family and the ongoing wool trade. The glory of this church is its windows--not that they are all that wonderful nor plentiful nor old--but that they are the only complete set to have survived both the reformation and the civil war, in all of England. No one knows why, although I would offer that the windows are almost entirely "educational," that is, depicting Biblical stories and events; one gets to a few popes and saints and kings and such only in the upper windows, which are difficult to see well. Nihil obstat. Of course, I took pix of all those in the lower register. But I'll post only a few, since there were many other items of interest in this church.

In the tower, bell-ringing apparatus

The great west window, a Judgment, early 16th

Hellish detail

The five-star churches, knowing their fame, always
provide ample interpretive information

Nave view

A bit of the elevation and ceiling

Some remaining original paint

Memorials, tombs

The great east window, Passion

In the quire, on the left of the tomb, old-style placards to guide you 
around the church

The misericords in this church were on full
display and appropriately profane (that is, not
sacred); woman bonking a dog for getting into
the food pot

Someone else about to get bonked

Do not sit on these railings

Another window, something about Mary; interested
me because of the use of the green

Interior corbel, typical of the period and Perpendicular

Abaft the altar

Outside again, another delicious hunky-punk

In the cemetery, Tiddles, the church cat, 1963-1980 

And a few views of the beautiful town; let us hope the tour buses
stay far away

Cirencester Town Scenes

During the interlude, our walk along Cirencester's main drag...

Official Medieval Wool Town Medallion

Also hares

The hare sculptures around town stem from
this local Roman mosaic 

Northeast side of church

St. John Baptist Parish Church, Cirencester

Cirencester is the largest town in the Cotwalds, and, though beautiful, is not one of the pretty little villages one associates with the region. But its parish church, another former abbey church, is the largest around and is sometimes referred to as the cathedral of the Cotswolds. We had planned a three church/town day, so got to Cirencester quite early. So early in fact we had to break our visit into two parts, to accommodate the three parishioners and vicar doing the 10AM mass. This turned out to be a good thing, as will be related anon. St. John the Baptist Cirencester dates from the 12th century, its chancel and St. Catherine chapel being the oldest bits, with the nave coming somewhat later and rebuilt twice by the 16th century. The south porch was originally part of the abbey, later the town hall, before being joined to the church in the 18th century. The style is mostly Perpendicular, with fan vaulting in both St. Catherine's chapel and the south porch. According to Sir Simon's ratings, it is a 5-banger, top shelf.

From the southwest, the great south porch in view

Over the south porch portal; a good start, I thought;
perhaps a Maori doing a haka?

Inside the porch, fan vaulting already

Nave view

Elevation and ceiling

Closer up of chancel, with its characteristic Cotswold
arch and windows

In our experience, only the biggies have their own Lego models;
this is definitely a biggie

We were just getting to the fan-vaulted St. Catherine's

chapel when the service began and we exited to see a

bit of the town's main street

When we returned, the mass was over, the parishioners gone, and
the young organist had begun practicing...we've had this experience
many times, our visit to a church or cathedral accompanied by organ
or choir, or even a symphony and chorus in rehearsal...but this was
special, because, well, it was almost Jubilee week, and among the
pieces played was Walton's 1937 Crown Imperial coronation march, one
of the more stirring examples of the genre; a recent arrangement for
organ is here; and the original symphonic version, in a performance
conducted by Walton himself is here; the latter features a touching
balcony photograph of the Royal family, with an 11-year-old Elizabeth
looking excitedly to her father, George VI

The pulpit is pre-Reformation; the hourglass 
above it to the left runs for 57 minutes...sermons
were long in those day

Back now in St. Catherine's chapel, with its fan
vaulting

Fresco fragment, St. Christopher carrying Baby J

I counted four organs in this church; this is one of
the older ones

East window; original lost, fragments from 14th
century

In the quire

St. John Baptist is famous for its many lavish tombs and memorials;
this one noteworthy, we thought, since the lady is wearing a bonnet

More poetry/sculpture; click to enlarge

Up high near the ceiling, the cat, the rat, and the hog

Up high you can see the former nave roof line

Thus; the nave was enlarged in the early 1500s

The Boleyn Cup; given by Anne to her daughter
Elizabeth, who gave it to a Dr. Masters, who treated
members of her court on her several visits to the
Cotswolds; and then to the church

Jubilee Update (#1,267)

Today June 5th, we bid farewell to Britain again, taking the Chunnel to Paris, but savoring a great month of travel on the Island in a perfect time of the year, and a perfect year. The blog is a couple weeks behind, as always, but I'll catch up. We've been in London the past eleven days.

What did we do for the Jubilee? you ask. We thought about venturing to the Mall and the Trooping of the Colors. But we didn't. Instead we mingled with the crowds in the Strand, before touring the Courtauld Gallery. The pageantry has been coming on for weeks, and our walks in central London have been in a sea of red, white, and blue, and the jubilation of a people united, at least for these few days. Oh yes, we watched it all on TV, had fish and chips and mushy peas, coronation chicken, scones and clotted cream, British ale, and watched an entire season of The Crown. We love Britain. But then we also love France, and Italy, and Spain, and...