Our final visit to All Saints North Street is focussed on the Lady Chapel. Among other things, it contains these very shocked people.
You’ll see why in a minute. The Lady Chapel is (as is often the case in a medieval church) to the left of the chancel. Between my two visits it got a bit of a makeover following some excavation work and looked like this. What remains of the medieval period are the 1330s reticulated tracery windows, the 15th century ceiling and some remnants of earlier features in the walls.
It isn’t screened off from the aisle, as it would have been centuries ago, and the screen between the chapel and the chancel is only 100 years old. But the church has made an effort to try to replicate what was here long ago. We’ll start with the window on the left, which is where the shocked people are located.
This window is unique, made in the early 15th century and may possibly have been made by the same man (or workshop) who made the great east window of York Minster. I wrote a little about that window here. Both of these windows are focussed on the Apocalypse; in the Minster, the window depicts the book of Apocalypse/Revelation. But here, the much smaller window depicts the end of the world based on a poem of around 1340 called “The Pricke of Conscience.” And that’s what makes this window so unique; the text of the poem is incorporated into the window though some bits have been lost.
The events take place over 15 days:
Bottom (Row 1) left: the sea floods; Bottom middle: the sea recedes, exposing the sea bed; Bottom right: the sea returns to its normal level.
Row 2 left: a fish leaps out of the sea roaring; middle: the sea catches fire; right: fruit drops off the trees.
Row 3 left: earthquakes destroy buildings; middle: rocks and stones are consumed by fire; right: people take refuge in caves.
Row 4 left: only the featureless earth and red sky remain; middle: people come out of the caves praying; right: the graves are opened.
Row 5 left: the stars fall from heaven; middle: all living people die; right: the whole world goes up in flames.
Here’s a close-up of one of the panels,
This is in row 1, the second day, when the sea recedes. Above it you can just see the fifth day, when the sea catches fire. I wish I had taken higher quality photos when I visited so I could show you more - perhaps next time.
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