Patrington's St. Patrick Church, 2

Continuing our visit to St. Patrick's church, Patrington, East Riding of Yorkshire...with special insights...

Helpful model...

Children's area--a fixture in these churches, no matter how famous, historic, etc.

In the crossing, looking into the north transept; originally, the transepts had aisles
and even small chapels

Vicki studying something in the south transept, where a small Lady Chapel remains

Quire and chancel; the reredos is modern, constructed in 1936 to mark the coronation
of King George VI

Sedilia; priestly comfy chairs

Abaft the beam...what is wrong with this picture? Read on...

So here I am at the back of the nave, trying to line things up in the nave and chancel

Thus...only...they don't line up...

Notice that while the nave seems to point to 90 degrees
(for example), the chancel is 2 or 3 degrees off that...on a
somewhat different heading

Seriously, the wooden cross is in the middle of the altar, but
appears here to be seriously off; we have seen two churches
previously that had this sort of directional issue--the Saint-
Corentin Cathedral in Quimper, Brittany, and the St. John
of the Market church in Troyes--in both cases there are
reasons for the change of direction, but no one seems to have
noticed at St. Patrick's

Oh well

It's a splendid, wonderful parish church, as good as the critics all say, 5 stars

The octagonal base of the steeple, delicately buttressed

Patrington's St. Patrick Church, 1

The East Riding of Yorkshire's river Humber issues in a broad estuary, one of the east side's largest, the northernmost bit of which is a peninsula, the Holderness. Patrington is a small town out on the peninsula. Getting there would be no problem, but finding a place to over-night might have been. We drove right into the town and the empty church parking lot; and resolved to stay there, despite a sign that said there was a 4 hour limit. It was late Sunday afternoon, and the church was closed. Out on a reconnaissance, I accosted a policeman and asked whether there'd be a problem. He said no one enforced the limit and that town folk parked there all the time. We would be fine. After a quiet, if somewhat windy evening, we explored the church the next day. It is a fine 5-star, almost entirely Decorated, begun about 1300, first the transepts, then the tower, chancel and nave, and largely finished before the Black Death halted finishing touches for the next few generations. (Losing a third or a half of the population will do that to you). The steeple rises from a buttressed octagonal base to a height of more than 180 feet. All the critics praise St. Patrick's for its balance, harmony, etc. We enjoyed this church more than most--it was nice to see a purpose-built parish church, not a transformed abbey or collegiate church--but I have a small problem with the balance and harmony bit, to be explained in the next post.

St. Patrick's, "Queen of the Holderness"

My reconnaissance included watching an innings [sic] or so of a local cricket match

See my previous post http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/08/not-cricket.html,
for insights into this, um, interesting sport

In the churchyard, a felled ancient ash has been transformed

Many of the gargoyles and other grotesques were of this interesting dynamic duo
nature

Interesting windows, almost all transparent, but the tracery
revealing of the style

12-sided font, intricately carved

Nave view: what is wrong with this picture? We'll see in the next post...

Or maybe it's just me

Corbels and such all over

Perhaps not the original roofing

Richly carved balcony leading to...

More beautifully carved stairs up to the crossing and tower

Still processing this one; more wrestling match?

Ditto?

Bestiary wrestling?

And another puzzler

To be continued...

Beverley St. Mary's Church

St. Mary's is a "daughter" church of the Beverley Minster, similar vintage and style...that is (after a few earlier starts), Decorated, mostly, with a similar history of collapses and other mishaps. St. Mary's is a four-star church, in Jenkins' rating, but also a Grade 1 listing, nationally, as are all these old churches we are visiting. Beverley was one of the wealthiest Medieval wool towns in the East of England, and evidently could well afford two major churches. St. Mary's catered largely to the merchant crowd, I've read. Our visit was delayed by baptisms going on that Sunday afternoon, so we had ample time to examine the exterior. The carvery, so to speak, inside the church, the capitals, the corbels, misericords, and bosses, are its main interest, however.

The flying buttresses are a Victorian addition

Another Green Woman? Too eroded to tell

Nave

Elevation

600! 

In the nave; click to enlarge

From the church website

After the tower collapsed, during Evensong, April 29th, 1520, there was another
major rebuilding effort, a major funder of which was the minstrels' guild, their
contribution memorialized in this famous corbel

Helpful model

Working model of a Medieval "human wheel" and crane
system for lifting the huge blocks and everything else into
place

Chancel ceiling; more bosses; and paintings

Can't tell the players without a program

Perhaps St. Mary's most famous feature...said to have been
the source of Lewis Carroll's famous rabbit...also disputed,
even locally

Finally, St. Mary's has a fine collection of misericords...

Huh?! An oliphant! Neat church!