St Peter and St Paul, Trottiscliffe

[poliphilo]

I'm mostly interested in medieval art (at least when I'm church crawling) so pulpits- which are usually post-Reformation- don't generally detain me- but the pulpit at Trottiscliffe (pronounced Trosley) took my breath away. If it seems out of place in such a humble building it's because it was originally commissioned for Westminster Abbey- where it stood until 1824. It dates from 1775 and is the work of Henry Keene. I don't know why the Abbey got rid of it but I'm guessing the Dean and Chapter wanted something gothickier. Or perhaps they just needed to make room for yet another voluminous marble monument to a national hero.

Here's the church interior with the pulpit on the right



And here's a close up of the sounding board with the palm tree pillar that supports it.



Most of the glass is Victorian, but the first window on the North wall has these very fine medieval fragments. The head of God the Father looks Flemish to me- and I don't think it belongs with the crucifixion it surmounts- which I'd say was considerably earlier.



Finally, the church exterior- with the ridge of the North Downs behind.

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Know this one.

A really lovely church.

We were in St Mary of charity, Faversham yesterday. Burial place of King Stephen as I think you know.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know St Mary of Charity from way back. Superb painted pillar!

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Yup- we were drooling over that yesterday!

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Yes, the God the Father head does rather stand out as not belonging alongside the medieval glass and those are lovely bits.

That palm tree pillar is magnificent!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I admire the way in which the bits of glass have been assembled so as to they hang together and make iconographical sense.

As for the pulpit, Westminster's loss is Trottiscliffe's gain.