Medieval History
Quite a good number of medieval pulpits survive in English parish churches. I suppose that is not surprising really given that this was an element of medieval church furnishing that wasn't controversial to the reformers. Here are just a selection of fifteenth century pulpits from as far separated as Norfolk, Gloucestershire and Somerset. They are all of the wineglass type, where the platform is supported on a coved central shaft. They are perhaps not the finest selection, but they represent the general type in both wood and stone.
South Creake, Norfolk. A tracered pulpit, with significant remains of polychromy.
North Cerney, Gloucestershire. There are a good number of stone wineglass pulpits in the Cotswolds. All are pretty similar, with traceried panels. The second example is at Chedworth, a few miles away from North Cerney.
Chedworth, Gloucestershire
East Hagbourne, Berkshire. This late example has been altered in the nineteenth century.
Long Sutton, Somerset. A magnificent tall pulpit, all of a piece with the rood and parclose screens. The sides of the pulpit are decorated with polychromed tabernacle work. The original figures have been lost and replaced with the present nineteenth century apostles.
- Medieval Wineglass Pulpit
Burnham Norton church close to the north coast of Norfolk has amongst its treasures a medieval wineglass pulpit. Perhaps this was used for the proclamation of the Gospel as well as for preaching and for 'bidding the beads'! The pulpit...
- Looking Down (at Medieval Floors)
Quite often when we visit church buildings we are so busy looking up at the soaring architecture and the fine roofs, that we sometimes forget to look at the floors. St Nicholas, Salthouse on the north Norfolk coast, has a floor that...
- A Remarkable Survival
South Cerney Christ, originally uploaded by Aidan McRae Thomson.This beautiful Romanesque polychromed head and foot, is all that remains of a rood dating from c.1130. The fragments were found in 1913 walled up behind the respond of a nave arcade at South...
- North Cerney, Gloucestershire - Part 1
If I was a country parson living in, dare I say it, the good-old-days of the Church of England, when there was one priest per parish. The one parish I would love to serve would be North Cerney in the Cotswolds near Cirencester. In my mind the church in...
- The Palm Sunday Cross
Ampney Crucis, Gloucestershire, originally uploaded by Vitrearum.Quite a number of medieval stone crosses survive in our churchyards, when I say survive, very few are as complete as the fifteenth century example at Ampney Crucis in Gloucestershire which...
Medieval History
Medieval pulpits
Quite a good number of medieval pulpits survive in English parish churches. I suppose that is not surprising really given that this was an element of medieval church furnishing that wasn't controversial to the reformers. Here are just a selection of fifteenth century pulpits from as far separated as Norfolk, Gloucestershire and Somerset. They are all of the wineglass type, where the platform is supported on a coved central shaft. They are perhaps not the finest selection, but they represent the general type in both wood and stone.
South Creake, Norfolk. A tracered pulpit, with significant remains of polychromy.
North Cerney, Gloucestershire. There are a good number of stone wineglass pulpits in the Cotswolds. All are pretty similar, with traceried panels. The second example is at Chedworth, a few miles away from North Cerney.
Chedworth, Gloucestershire
East Hagbourne, Berkshire. This late example has been altered in the nineteenth century.
Long Sutton, Somerset. A magnificent tall pulpit, all of a piece with the rood and parclose screens. The sides of the pulpit are decorated with polychromed tabernacle work. The original figures have been lost and replaced with the present nineteenth century apostles.
- Medieval Wineglass Pulpit
Burnham Norton church close to the north coast of Norfolk has amongst its treasures a medieval wineglass pulpit. Perhaps this was used for the proclamation of the Gospel as well as for preaching and for 'bidding the beads'! The pulpit...
- Looking Down (at Medieval Floors)
Quite often when we visit church buildings we are so busy looking up at the soaring architecture and the fine roofs, that we sometimes forget to look at the floors. St Nicholas, Salthouse on the north Norfolk coast, has a floor that...
- A Remarkable Survival
South Cerney Christ, originally uploaded by Aidan McRae Thomson.This beautiful Romanesque polychromed head and foot, is all that remains of a rood dating from c.1130. The fragments were found in 1913 walled up behind the respond of a nave arcade at South...
- North Cerney, Gloucestershire - Part 1
If I was a country parson living in, dare I say it, the good-old-days of the Church of England, when there was one priest per parish. The one parish I would love to serve would be North Cerney in the Cotswolds near Cirencester. In my mind the church in...
- The Palm Sunday Cross
Ampney Crucis, Gloucestershire, originally uploaded by Vitrearum.Quite a number of medieval stone crosses survive in our churchyards, when I say survive, very few are as complete as the fifteenth century example at Ampney Crucis in Gloucestershire which...