St Cosmas and St Damian, Stretford

[poliphilo]

A church in a farmyard. A very small church, now redundant and in the care of the Historic Churches Conservation Trust. Phil Rickman's clerical sleuth Merrily Watkins visits it twice- once to clear up after Satanists and again to bless a girl who thinks she's being haunted.

There are two aisles of equal dimensions with a peculiar boxy shrine in the middle dedicated to the medical saints Cosmas and Damian- who are famous for miraculously grafting an Ethiopian's leg onto a Caucasian amputee.  Two pairs of medieval effigies are tucked in against the wall. It's a very dark in there.

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

That surviving rood screen is a real rarity!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I expect the iconoclasts got lost on their way to smash it up. Stretford is pretty remote.