Woolly says – It’s been years since I’ve had a chance to get out to see something new, Handsome Jack, Jo and I have been busy little bees, a bit more about that shortly.
But with the rain taking a break for the day and just the freezing temperatures to combat we headed off in a wintery sunshine to a small place that has quite a history.
The human is not a fan of single track country lanes but bravely navigated the potholes and oncoming tractors arriving at our destination with barely a swear word in use.
St Mary’s Church in Kempley is a former parish church in the Forest of Dean district of Gloucestershire. The small Norman church is now remote from the village it once served when the village was moved to higher ground to avoid flooding.
It has some of the best preserved medieval wall paintings in Britain. Those in the barrel-vaulted chancel, which is painted throughout, including the ceiling, are particularly rare, dating from the early 12th century. The chancel has the most complete set of Romanesque frescoes in northern Europe, including the Christ in Majesty painting created in about 1120. On the walls of the nave are further images, including a wheel of life, showing the life cycle of man. The nave paintings are worked in tempera painted on dry lime mortar, unlike those in the chancel which are true frescoes.
The paintings, having been covered with whitewash, were rediscovered in 1872 during preparation for renovations. On the advice of the architect, John Henry Middleton, the renovation plans were dropped and the paintings uncovered and conserved.
In 1999 Francis P. Kelly at English Heritage initiated a dendrochronology test on the oak roof of the church, finding that the roof was the oldest medieval roof in Britain ever tested, dating back to 1120–1150.
Having parked in a small layby we crossed the muddy lane and headed into the grounds through a line of yew trees, it almost gave a further surprise element to what was about to come as we rounded a corner and found ourselves staring at a pink church!
Entering the oak porchway the relatively small wooden door creaked open allowing us to the magical frescoes for the first time, they were glorious.
Inside the wooden ceiling looked incredibly well preserved with the flag stoned floor providing memorials dating back to the 1400’s.
Gazing up at the walls we could see where paintings were peeking out from behind the whitewash before turning our attention to the walls that had been fully restored to the former Norman glory.
With muted tones of browns, coppers and gold the alter was amazing.
A flat mirror allowed us to take in further details of the angelic ceiling above us.
Tiny panes of stained glass were recessed into the thick walls with a red and white chequered pattern surrounding them.
We sat for a while enjoying the rare gem that was nearly on our doorstep before heading back outside into the now warming sunshine to wander round the small graveyard.
Having wandered round the exterior a couple of times we finally headed back to the car with the hope that we could stop in the small village of Dymock which held a number of claims to fame. As we drove the short distance the human filled me in on how in March 1994 fields near the village were found to contain the remains of two of the victims of serial killer Fred West and some of his other notorious murders that had filled the newspapers at the time.
Dymock was tiny, known for the Dymock Red, a cider apple, and Stinking Bishop cheese. It had given its name to a school of Romanesque sculpture first described in the book The Dymock School of Sculpture by Eric Gethyn Jones (1979). And had been the home of the Dymock poets from the period 1911–1914. The homes of Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, Lascelles Abercrombie and the American born Robert Frost.
Sadly although Jo tried every small nook and cranny to find somewhere to put the car it would have involved blocking either the road itself of someone’s home so we passed through as I wondered if she would allow me to have some stinking bishop to sample, I’m sure it wouldn’t smell that bad!
With no way of seeing more we headed towards one of our favourite small villages, Newent, for a spot of lunch and to enjoy just being instead of doing.
So, what have we been up to? Well having moved our whole home in mid November we spent the rest of the month getting it sorted before the Christmas preparations began. It had been a stressful move in a number of ways particularly when it came to the lane that we now live off being rather narrow and our home being a bit wide but she had made it which meant for the first time in four years we had all of our belongings in the same place in the same country although rather a lot were still in boxes on the farm.
Christmas had been wonderful in our new setting with the view across the Wye Valley giving us a chance to see family and open lots and lots of presents.
As the Christmas tree was removed so the decorating started, it won’t take long said the human, with a paint brush being thrust into my paws I seemed to spend the next few decades painting everything in sight turquoise. With the painting nearly complete the log burner came in closely followed by the boxes and items we had brought back from Turkey.
With no where to put some things the shed rapidly filled to capacity and with the spare bedroom looking more like a storage yard we are nearly there on making our home cosy and comfy, just the kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms to paint and plans for our years adventures to sort out, shouldn’t take long….I hope.