Welcome to my tour of All Saints North Street, more stained glass treats await! Last week we looked at the nave and south aisle of the church, with its 15th century angels and glass. This week we will look at the chancel and north aisle.
The chancel is quite long, but this is the “business end”.. Remnants of stone fittings remain from pre-Reformation times, but the screens are modern. The window was made around 1410 and it is worth looking at more closely, though it wasn’t originally in this position - the window in the Lady Chapel with its central crucifixion scene was here, as would be normal behind the high altar.
In the centre is an image of St Anne, teaching Mary to read. The words on the book are the beginning of Psalm 142 (143) - Domine exaudi orationem meam. On the right of Our Lady is St Christopher, carrying the child Jesus through the river - it’s a classic image and was found in every church in the country at one time. It was traditional for the image of St Cristopher to be on the north side of the church, visible from or near the door so this window could have been in the north aisle originally. On the left is St John the Baptist. At the bottom middle, unfortunately hidden by the crucifix, is an image of the Trinity and either side of that the members of the Blackburn family, who gave the window. The women of the Blackburn family are reading; one from Psalm 6 - Domine ne in furore tuo arguas me - and the other from Psalm 50 (51) - Domine labia mea aperies. In this window, therefore, three women are reading the scriptures, not counting St Anne who must be able to read as she is teaching Our Lady. It’s rather unusual to see so many women pictured reading. The Blackburns were not aristocracy but what we would now call solid middle class, being merchants. They would have had their own psalters and prayer books, as pictured here.
Above the chancel is a similar roof to the south aisle, with angels but in this area they have repainted the angels. Angels above the altar are a familiar theme as it reflects both the angels depicted on and around the Ark of the Covenant and also the angels in the Book of Apocalypse/Revelation around the altar in heaven. The Mass said here in medieval times also had explicit references to angels around the altar, taking the prayers of the people to God.
Would the ceiling have been plain? Possibly not. It was common for ceilings over chancels to be painted like the sky - blue with stars. But to my mind the large panels just above the angels are a perfect size and position for painting larger scenes; often scenes from the life of Jesus were positioned around the altar. We’ll probably never know.
This is one of the angels; when I first saw them my immediate thought was that they were garish, gaudy even. But I’ve changed my mind on that. Worship in the medieval period was much more physical and engaged all the senses. Today people tend to view religion as a set of intellectual beliefs, and worship is conducted as a mental exercise, where you read and ponder the written word or listen to spoken words. Our churches are bare and devoid of decoration because of this focus, which arose after the Reformation under Protestant influence. This means, in my experience, that anything not specifically mentioned in the worship service can easily slip into the background and be forgotten.
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