C18 cartouche gravestone

To my mind the design of gravestones hit a peak in the C18. In the C17, as gravestones grew in popularity, they exhibited a naivety of subject and execution. In the C19 mass production, Gothic influences and grandiosity overwhelmed the original and innovative designs that can still be seen. C20 gravestones are usually more modest, machine-made and make use of too wide a variety of stone. The C18 used a limited palette of (usually local) stone, ornament and lettering. The example above, at St Michael, Walford, Herefordshire, has the typical winged putto head and foliage arranged as a cartouche. Rising damp has obscured the lower lettering, but above it is crisp and shows interesting abbreviations. If you look carefully you can still discern parts of the faint, scratched, guide-lines to keep the lettering level and of the correct height.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

St Michael and All Angels, Walford, Herefordshire

The earliest parts of the church of St Michael and All Angels, Walford, Herefordshire, are Norman. However, the chancel, north chapel and most of the nearly detached tower date from the thirteenth century. The overall shape of the building is a delightful interlocking of volumes with the tower's verticality balancing the multiple forms and pitched roofs. It once had a spire but it was removed in 1813. I'd be interested to see how that added to or detracted from the building, especially given the fin-like low angle buttresses; it must have looked like a C20 rocket!

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Former Paraclete Chapel, Walford

A morning cycle ride took us past this former Paraclete Chapel near Walford, Herefordshire. It was the private chapel of a country estate and was built in 1905-6 by the noted architect, George Bodley. Today it is the concert hall of a company whose headquarters is located in a local country house. For the passer by the most notable feature is the topiary work in the area where one would expect to see gravestones.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100