Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
poliphilo: (bah)
[personal profile] poliphilo
St Mary's, Higham was Dickens's parish church. One of his daughters was married there. It sits at the end of a road that peters out into the North Kent marshes-  so isolated that the villagers built a second church in the 1860s, about a mile away on higher ground. It is now redundant and in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

This is the landscape of Great Expectations. One can imagine Magwitch shivering among the graves.

The south door dates from c.1400 and is studded with quaint little carved faces.





Date: 2015-10-20 11:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cmcmck.livejournal.com
Although 'Pip's parents' are buried in Cooling churchyard as you probably know.

Love those door details, but you know I would! :o)

Date: 2015-10-20 12:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com
Yes, we've been to Cooling.

I love the marshes. Can't think why, but I do...

Date: 2015-10-20 12:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cmcmck.livejournal.com
Oh so do I!

I suppose I was brought up with them and Dickens's descriptions of them as th' meshes.

Date: 2015-10-20 01:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com
I grew up in Croydon, so I had no contact with the marshes until adulthood.

I love Romney Marsh too.

Marshes are liminal.

Date: 2015-10-20 02:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cmcmck.livejournal.com
Romney Marsh is a magical and infinitely strange place.
Edited Date: 2015-10-20 03:15 pm (UTC)

Date: 2015-10-20 03:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] puddleshark.livejournal.com
I love that door. How amazing to have little medieval faces peering at you!

Date: 2015-10-20 03:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com
It's a wonderful door. I'm thinking it must originally have been painted- that way the faces would have stood out more.

Date: 2015-10-20 03:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pondhopper.livejournal.com
Is there any interpretation of the little faces or are they merely ornamental whimsy? That is a wonderful door!

Date: 2015-10-20 03:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com
I think the top face in the middle picture is a nun. It would make sense as the church once had a convent attached. On the other hand it could be someone in a shroud.

The other two are green men

Date: 2015-10-20 08:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pondhopper.livejournal.com
I realized they were probably Green Men after I commented but the nun is interesting.

Date: 2015-10-20 04:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] moodywho.livejournal.com
How wonderful!

Date: 2015-10-20 06:46 pm (UTC)
sovay: (PJ Harvey: crow)
From: [personal profile] sovay
This is the landscape of Great Expectations. One can imagine Magwitch shivering among the graves.

With the faces on the door looking at him.

Date: 2015-10-20 07:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com
I wonder what he'd have thought of them.

I think they're friendly little faces- but maybe they'd have worn a different aspect to a man on the run.

Profile

poliphilo: (Default)
poliphilo

June 2025

S M T W T F S
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Page generated Jun. 12th, 2025 06:16 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios