Medieval Carvings in St Mary's

Part 1 - 13th Century Faces in the Aisles

By Neil Fortey

Medieval Carvings in St Mary's
This is a view of the south aisle taken looking eastwards.
This is a view of the south aisle taken looking eastwards.
This benign face looks down at you when you walk through the south door into the church.
This benign face looks down at you when you walk through the south door into the church.
On the join of the arch with the section of wall separating the aisle from the south transept. A bishop glancing to his left, where the arch meets the south wall by the doorway.
On the join of the arch with the section of wall separating the aisle from the south transept. A bishop glancing to his left, where the arch meets the south wall by the doorway.
A boy's face raised in rhapsody.
A boy's face raised in rhapsody.
A  woman's face, gazing upwards but in a state of torment.
A woman's face, gazing upwards but in a state of torment.
A face contorted by agony, perhaps a case of severe tooth ache.
A face contorted by agony, perhaps a case of severe tooth ache.
This little carving juts out from the junction of the westermost pillar of the south aisle with the wall. Is it a kind of bird, or a dog? What do you think it represents?
This little carving juts out from the junction of the westermost pillar of the south aisle with the wall. Is it a kind of bird, or a dog? What do you think it represents?
This face is on the west-facing side of the wall separating the south transept from the aisle. A man's face, gazing upwards reverentially, his mouth gaping, and a strange straplike feature on his chin. What is it intended to show?
This face is on the west-facing side of the wall separating the south transept from the aisle. A man's face, gazing upwards reverentially, his mouth gaping, and a strange straplike feature on his chin. What is it intended to show?
A view of the north aisle looking eastwards, showing the arch which crosses the eastern end of the aisle.
A view of the north aisle looking eastwards, showing the arch which crosses the eastern end of the aisle.
The face of 'the liar' tormented by the two-headed serpent.
The face of 'the liar' tormented by the two-headed serpent.
A second picture of 'the liar'.
A second picture of 'the liar'.
The plump demonic face.
The plump demonic face.
The face of a bear-like creature.
The face of a bear-like creature.

Intoduction

St Mary’s parish church in Bottesford contains an impressive number of medieval stone carvings, both inside and outside. They were made by anonymous mason/artists. When we look at them we ought to ask ourselves what they signify. Are they allegorical representations of good and evil, of torment or of ecstasy? Are some of them depictions of real people, such as kings, bishops and more humble villagers?

Architectural criteria can be used to place the carvings in groups associated with major stages in the building of the church. This page is given over to the earliest of these groups. These are the carvings that appear to have been installed in the aisles when they were being built. They are located in the south and north aisles, at the “springers” (tops of columns where arches meet) and where arches meet the walls.

The ages of these stages and their groups of carvings are open to debate. I have used my preferred version of events, which is based on the notion that the tower and spire at St Mary’s were built at about the same time as those at nearby St Wulfram’s in Grantham, in the early years of the 14th Century (rather than early 15th Century as has been proposed hitherto). The aisles appear to meĀ  to be older than the tower. If correct, this implies that the aisle and their carvings probably date from the later part of the 13th Century. The clerestory, on the other hand, is regarded as later, dating from the early to mid 15th Century, and the carvings on the nave arcades as later still, from the 15th or, more probably, early 16th Century. These dates make sense with regard to the general pattern of late medieval history, but more research is needed to confirm or refute them.

Photography The photographs were taken in the poorly lit interior of the church, using only the natural light coming through the windows. Exposure times were therefore long, and the colours come out a bit variably, more so than the stones themselves. Nevertheless, when you bear in mind that some of the faces are difficult to see at all with the naked eye, the results are not too bad. The camera was a Panasonic Lumix G1 with a 45-125 mm lens and a 100-300 mm lens. Images were captured in RW2 image format and converted into TIFF and JPG on a PC.


South Aisle

These carvings look down from the dark spaces of the south aisle, peaceful, ecstatic or agonised. Four of them are mounted in the springers of the arcade of arches separating the aisle from the nave, starting at the eastern end. One further face, that of strange bird or dog-like creature, is on the junction of the westernmost of these arches with the western wall of the aisle.

There are two additional carvings, mounted on the opposite sides of the southern junction of the arch that crosses the eastern end of the aisle and meets the short section of wall separating it from the south transept. On the western side is that of a bishop’s face, while on the opposite side, looking into the south transept, is the face of a man with distorted mouth and a strap-like object on his chin.


North Aisle

In the north aisle there are three carvings, mounted on the junctions of north-south arch that crosses the eastern end of the aisle to meet the short stretch of wall that separates the aisle from the north transept. On the northern side of this arch is the superbly detailed carving, allegedly an allegory of a liar, the face mounted by a two-headed serpent which is biting the man’s tongue and his left eye. The other two are on the junction at the southern end of the arch. One, facing east, shows the face of a plump figure, the head surmounted by what may be stumps of horns. The, facing west into the aisle, is of a bear-like creature.

This page was added on 24/09/2012.

Comments about this page

  • Just wondering if the last image from the South Transept depicts someone in some form of scolds bridle. It looks as though there is a collar around the neck of the figure that could be supporting the piece that goes up the chin to what might be a bit placed in the mouth. There are other examples of bridles depicted in churches in the region (eg., Little Ponton, near Grantham)

    By David Middleton (25/09/2012)
  • Thanks for this observation. I think you are probably right. Neil

    By Neil Fortey (25/09/2012)

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