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My Visit to St. Mary's Church in Brook
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My Visit to St. Mary's Church in Brook
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Interior Views of St. Mary's Church
(Text in italics is quoted directly
from a 4-page pamphlet purchased at the church.) |
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| Church Exterior | Church Interior | Tower |
| Views from Church | Views of Brook | After Lunch |
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The interior view shows the altar in the chancel at the far end of the church and the wooden pews. The white wall separates the chancel from the sanctuary. A small organ is on the right, and an upright piano is located on the left. |
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The chancel has paintings on either side of a chalice hanging from the ceiling in front of the Early English Lancet windows. The arched opening to the sanctuary can be seen on either side of the picture in the foreground. In the chancel see where the rood beam was cut through at the reformation. Notice, too, the hole in the cross wall for access to the former rood-loft. |
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Lower down in the north wall of the chancel is an almond-shaped opening – a hagioscope, or squint. Like the one recorded in St. Peter’s, Westminster, there was probably an anchorite’s cell outside the north wall at this point. He could sit and watch the progress of the mass through the squint. The cell would have been demolished at the Reformation. |
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The church is famous for its wall-paintings. In the chancel they are all thirteenth century, and depict the Nativity, Ministry and passion of our Lord. They have been painted alternately black-on-white and white-on-black – quite effective. These pictures are close-ups of the chancel paintings. |
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The altar is a stone slab, mounted on two stone piers and covered with a cloth. At the Reformation (between 1547-1553) the original altar slab was dumped outside and buried in the churchyard. In 1966 it was rediscovered and disinterred and, in August 1986, it was reinstated in the chancel. Crosses on its four corners are still faintly discernible in a good light. This page contains a brief account of altars in the Church of England. This page contains a history of the altar of St. Mary’s Church, Brook. |
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These paintings in the Sanctuary are along the same wall as the organ. Paintings on the south wall of the nave are slightly larger [than those in the chancel] and done in red and white alternately. These apparently show incidents in a saint’s life. A key to all the subjects of the paintings is to be found in the red-backed booklet at the rear of the church. This has been prepared from notes by Professor Tristram and later experts who have cleaned and restored the wall-paintings. |
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These are the paintings on the north wall. The door to outside is in the lower left corner of the picture. Those [paintings] on the north wall of the nave are a palimpsest and very difficult to make out. Low down we may discern two fourteenth century figures, with two large seventeenth century texts above. |
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There were no stained glass windows in the church but this large window is located on the north side of the nave. Two small Norman windows in the north wall of the nave were replaced by a Decorated window in the fourteenth century. |
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On the outside you will notice two medieval heads on the hood moulding, one of a man and the other of a woman wearing a wimple. It is supposed that these heads represent the donors. |
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These paintings were in an alcove above the north door at the back of the church. Over the north door is a faded wall-painting of St. Christopher. The piscine and sedile are both of the thirteenth century. |
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The church has lovely wooden pews and a tile floor down the main aisle. In the sanctuary, notice the fourteenth century floor tiling, still intact and in coherent patterns. |
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The organ is small, but beautifully constructed. |
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| Church Exterior | Church Interior | Tower |
| Views from Church | Views of Brook | After Lunch |
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