Sunday 11 March 2012

Holy Pre-Raphaelite!

I do love a little field trip, and so today we visited St Michael and All Angels church in the picturesque New Forest town of Lyndhurst...


La de dah, it's all very special, and you get the occasional pony trotting down the road.  It is extraordinarily beautiful and always full of traffic, and home to a rather extraordinary church, St Michael and All Angels (just seen in the background, above).


St Michael and All Angels is at the top of a little man-made hill, and probably the third incarnation of a church on the site.  When the pretty Georgian chapel became too small and leaky, a competition was held to design a new building.  A vicar's son, William White (nephew of the naturalist, Gilbert) won, and his design was built between 1858-68.  It is a Victorian wonderland, filled with beautiful design and moving detail and has an unexpected link to the Victorian art and literature world, other than the designers of the interior.  To enter the church, you have to go through one of the beautifully decorated doorways...

The carved figures around the West Doorway
Jeremiah in chains from the Old Testament













The West Doorway is particularly splendid, as it is a heavily decorated carved arch, filled with foliage and carved figures.  The West Door was given to the church by Le Chavalier de Chatelain in memory of his wife, Clara, who is buried in the churchyard.  He is best known for translating Shakespeare into French for a Victorian audience.  Come on inside then....

That sound is Mrs Walker hyperventilating at the Victorian wonderful-ness
What strikes you as you enter is the incredible, airy space, reaching up in huge gothic arches.  Coloured bricks make decorative stripes and the light is multi-coloured as it is stained on entry through huge windows.  It is gorgeous, and I immediately wanted to scamper down the aisle and have a closer look at that wonderful window...

The East window by Burne-Jones and Morris
Where to start?  Well, it was punishingly bright today and the light coming through the window was incredible, bleaching out the colour, so the picture above isn't actually mine, as I couldn't get a decent view of the window.  The beautiful windows represent the New Jerusalem from the book of the Revelation of John, with a delicate rendering of the gates of Heaven.  The light was perfect to see the amazing fresco beneath the window behind the Altar...

Fresco with stained-glass light
This was painted in 1862 by Frederick, Lord Leighton, for the grand total of £27 (the cost of the materials).  The Bishop thought it was an unsuitable subject, but the locals loved it and so it stayed.  It shows the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, with Christ as the celestial bridegroom.  The five wise girls were allegedly modelled on the daughters of local gentry, while those foolish virgins were modelled on local bumpkins.  I do hope that's true because it is marvellously Victorian...

Around the corner from the marvellous fresco is a splendid painting of Madonna and Child...


This was by a friend of Burne-Jones, known only as Mrs Glover and the angel on the right, with the red hair, is rumoured to be Ellen Terry.  I particularly loved the spindly trellis against the golden background, gorgeously backlighting the angels.

Turning around, the other windows are by Morris and Co (south transept) and Charles Eamer Kempe (west window) with his little wheat sheaf 'signature'.  I think I need to now see other Kempe windows to spot the wheat sheaves.

Saints by Burne-Jones, Angels by Rossetti
 The four main scenes of the south window show Joshua, Elijah, St Stephen and St Peter having their prayers answered.  Burne-Jones did the main scenes, patterned areas are by Philip Webb, angels are by Rossetti and the overall design and colour scheme was devised by Morris. 

Detail of west window by Charles Kemp

Kempe's window is from 1903 and was designed for the Aitchison family.  In design it shows a shift from the Pre-Raphaelite style to a more Arts and Craft Aesthetic.

All through the church are tiny angels and figures in wood or stone...

Here's an angel...
And another couple...


















They are all over the place, and are all different. Some are down low, just above head height, and some are right up in the pointed arches.  Every where you look there are decorative touches, so that you always feel you are being watched, beneficently, by little figures hovering above you.

This wouldn't be one of my outings without something to make you bite your knuckle at the quiet pathos of it all, and here's today's moment of bittersweet.  In the graveyard, there is a fairly large, yet plain, grave, well stocked with flowers and well visited.  It is the grave of Mrs Reginald Hargreaves, who spent a large part of her adult life in Lyndhurst.  The Great War Memorial inside the church holds the names of her two sons, Alan and Leopold, who died within a week of each other.  While she preferred to be remembered as Mrs Hargreaves, living her married life in assumed anonymity, we can't help but remember this grieving mother as Alice Liddell, some time resident of Wonderland...











I do urge you to go down to the New Forest if you can, it's gorgeous and this is an absolute gem of a church with some stunning works inside.  How often do you get to see the grave of one of the most famous characters in children's fiction? 

Really, that sort of thing happens once a month at the most...

3 comments:

  1. What a rare and beautiful church. Oh I wish I could come see it in person but your photos are so very lovely. Thank you!

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  2. Just incredible - great trip.

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  3. I do like getting everyone in the virtual charabanc and having an away-day...I think it probably makes me concentrate on absolutely everything as I can't wait to share it with you all. I'm glad you enjoy it :)

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Many thanks for your comment. I shall post it up shortly! Kx