For me one of the most beautiful forms of artistic expression there is is stained glass.
Wander round your local area and you will come across some stunning examples of stained glass. Most are in churches, some in private dwellings, some in schools: some modern, some ancient , some abstract, some telling a story, some just revelling in a juxtaposition of brilliant colours to form a glorious design. I love them all. Here are some of my favourites:
Kaleidoscopic!
Biblical
Parables
Illustrative
Tonal harmony
Muted colours
Simple lines
Bold Design Traditional
Sunlit
Mosaic-tastic!
Monochrome
Remembrance
Joy
Stained glass images reflect the artist’s skill, imagination and his desire to represent the human condition – the triumphs, the tribulations, the suffering and the celebration.
Hidden away in the Herefordshire countryside is Arthur’s Stone, a magnificent ancient burial chamber. I cannot better the information provided by the sign within its enclosure by English Heritage so here it is:
You can get up to the Stone by car from the village of Dorstone but we did it the hard way. Starting from the bridge at Bredwardine we crossed the road, with the Red Lion pub on our left. The narrow lane quickly becomes a steep hill. We passed some local houses whose gardens contained some attractive (and ferocious!) residents
Got any liquorice allsorts?
These aren’t actually that uncommon now around these parts
After wending our way up through some undeniably stunning countryside, we turned left down a smaller track which eventually comes out at a couple of houses and a stile into a field which is impossible steep!
Onward and upward ! We crossed another few fields and negotiated stiles and gates, saying hello to a lone horse and myriad sheep – to eventually reach our goal
Arthur’s Stone
There is something undeniably pleasing about the placement of the stones. Apparently this burial chamber has never been excavated so the many legends that surround it are pure conjecture. Whatever you may believe it is worth a visit – but take my advice – go by car!!
As a relative newbie to the bewildering world of bell ringing I was asked to write something about our winter outing to 4 churches in the Cheltenham area – all in urban settings and, for me, each one a challenge! Our itinerary listed the weights of the bells in each tower – just one more thing to get to grips with – but even I thought the second lot of weights looked odd – (0 – 2 – 7). But no, it was right.
Anyway, let’s start at the beginning. First stop – Cheltenham Minster Church of St. Mary in the middle of town with 12 bells. The technique it seems would involve holding your bell up, pausing and then pulling on that rope to keep in time with the rest – in other words, ring slower. I’ve got the theory – I just can’t put it into practice at will – yet! Hearing those who can is a great experience – there were a lot of ringers present – 30 or thereabouts, some from Holmer, Hereford, and some from Bodicote, Banbury, all at different stages of their development – so all levels of ability.
Of course it makes a lot more sense to video bell ringing as someone here is doing
Good to see the guard around the ladder leading up to the bell chamber – and those ear defenders – eh? what?
So on to Stop 2 – St. Christopher’s at Warden Hill, a little church masquerading as a house, built in the 1960s in the middle of a 1950s housing estate. So, as I mention above, our itinerary told us that the weight of these bells is (0-2-7) – in layman’s terms zero hundredweight, 2 quarters (that’s 56 lbs or 4 stone) and 7 lbs. The metric system is so much easier!! Anyway, given that the weights for the third tower were (16-1-2), you can see that this second ring of 6 bells were going to be tiny – and so they proved! The look of bemusement, bewilderment and general puzzlement is evident on the faces of the ringers in the next couple of photos.
To ring these bells successfully meant using only one hand on each stroke to avoid using too much force and break the stays – the action of the ringers, with alternate arms swinging rhythmically to gingerly grab the rope, reminded me of sailors climbing the rigging of a ship.
I decided I would be better off going downstairs to admire the stained glass. There were 10 triptych panels altogether along both sides of the nave, created by artist Tom Denny, who is also responsible for the beautiful Traherne window in Hereford Cathedral. Here at Warden Hill, the panels depict Jesus’s parables from the Bible with a reference to the book and chapter they are taken from.
Plain glass panel next to entrance
We stopped for lunch, which was a welcome break, and then resumed our ringing at St.Mark’s. Unfortunately, the church itself was closed. The set up in this tower was more like Withington, where the Holmer ringers regularly ring: so 8 bells with a longer draught – the rope is (and feels!) a lot longer. What they had here, which Withington doesn’t have, is a metal frame to guide the ropes. It was a bit of a squeeze with so many people but Dave and Karen made sure that everyone had a ring and personally I think I rang better in the afternoon than the morning – although both towers had 8 bells, 2 more than I have been used to, that is still closer to 6 than 12, so I felt on more familiar ground.
The fourth and last church (I was flagging by now!) at Charlton Kings was open and whilst we waited to be let into the tower we were treated to a brief impromptu concert – a male singer plus pianist were rehearsing for a performance. And this church boasted all the traditional features I like to see – wall hangings, statues, stained glass and the like.
The bell tower was also traditional – through the little hobbit door and up the winding stone spiral staircase till you’re dizzy!
But do you know what? There was another welcome sight – a pub directly opposite the church !!
