St Mary's Church, Kempley
St Mary's Church in Kempley in Gloucestershire is no longer a place of worship, but is preserved in the care of the Friends of Kempley Church and owned by English Heritage. It stands apart from the village and retains some remarkable examples of mediæval art.
The church has the oldest timber roof of any building in Britain. Within, it contains some of the best preserved mediæval wall paintings in Britain, which remained undisturbed beneath Reformation-era whitewash until uncovered in the 20th century. Those in the chancel are particularly rare, dating from the early 12th century, and are the most complete set of Romanesque frescos in northern Europe.
The church consists of a stone chancel and nave and a squat west tower. Much of the fabric dates from the 12th century, with the tower added in the 13th century. There is also a timber-framed south porch.
History
The church was probably built by Hugh de Lacy, one of the great magnates of early twelfth century England and the founder of Llanthony Priory in Monmouthshire. He might have commissioned paintings in the chancel as a memorial to his father, Walter de Lacy, a Norman baron and veteran of the Battle of Hastings.
The village stood in a vulnerable position in the unquiet times of the 13th century and the Welsh wars of Edward I, which may have prompted the building of the strong west tower, and the village moved to higher ground two miles away.
At the Reformation in the 16th century, wall paintings in churches were condemned for encouraging idolatry and were erased or whitewashed, as happened at Kempley. In the 20th century when the whitewash was removed the mediæval paintings were rediscovered: they have since been cleaned and conserved.
Wall paintings
The subject of the paintings in the chancel seems to be the Last Judgement. In the centre of the barrel-vaulted ceiling Christ sits upon a rainbow, adored by winged angels (seraphim); on either side of him stand the 12 apostles, with the Virgin Mary and St Peter closest to the chancel arch.
Above the windows are representations of the heavenly Jerusalem, and between the windows and the east wall there are two figures with the hats and staffs of lay pilgrims. These are almost certainly Hugh and Walter de Lacy. The identity of the bishops painted on either side of the east window is not known, but they may be early popes.
The nave of the church has later paintings, probably of the 14th century. These are worked in tempera painted on dry lime mortar unlike those in the chancel which are frescoes (painted directly onto wet plaster). This was the place where the layfolk of the village gathered, and these opaitings portray for them the Wheel of Life and St Anthony and the Devil.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about St Mary's Church, Kempley) |
References
- St Mary's Church, Kempley: History and research - English Heritage