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All Saints, Waldershare
May. 14th, 2021 08:57 amWe were on the way to Barfrestone when we saw a fingerpost pointing down a side road to an "historic church" so we turned off and followed it until we came to another fingerpost which had nothing on it except an icon of a spire- and it took us down a dirt track that looked like a private drive and there was the church, hidden away at the edge of a wood...
All Saints, Waldershare.
There's hardly any such thing as a village of Waldershare- just a few houses- and the church is redundant and in the care of The Churches Conservation Trust. It's an undistinguished building- ancient but largely rebuilt by the Victorians- and it would hardly be worth a visit, except that...
On either side of the chancel are two brick-built mortuary chapels- and they contain two of the oddest monuments I've ever come across.
The older of the two dates from the very end of the 17th century and commemorates members of the Bertie family. It takes the form of a tomb chest surmounted by the recumbent effigies of a man and woman in the fashions of their time- which in the man's case means a silly wig- lying side by side, not peacefully, but awkwardly, twistedly, as if having a hard time getting to sleep. They are tubby, with double chins- and they're holding hands. The antiquarian Edward Hasted said they were "made all out of proportion and conspicuously absurd". That's not untrue. They're also rather touching.
The other monument is enormous. Four life-sized female figures- mourners or allegories (I'm not sure which)- surround a pile of of epitaphs, armorial bearings and cherubs so tall it all but scrapes the ceiling. It dates from 1712 and memorialises the Furness family who once owned Waldershare Park.
It is signed by Thomas Green of Camberwell. He was rather good, I think....
All Saints, Waldershare.
There's hardly any such thing as a village of Waldershare- just a few houses- and the church is redundant and in the care of The Churches Conservation Trust. It's an undistinguished building- ancient but largely rebuilt by the Victorians- and it would hardly be worth a visit, except that...
On either side of the chancel are two brick-built mortuary chapels- and they contain two of the oddest monuments I've ever come across.
The older of the two dates from the very end of the 17th century and commemorates members of the Bertie family. It takes the form of a tomb chest surmounted by the recumbent effigies of a man and woman in the fashions of their time- which in the man's case means a silly wig- lying side by side, not peacefully, but awkwardly, twistedly, as if having a hard time getting to sleep. They are tubby, with double chins- and they're holding hands. The antiquarian Edward Hasted said they were "made all out of proportion and conspicuously absurd". That's not untrue. They're also rather touching.
The other monument is enormous. Four life-sized female figures- mourners or allegories (I'm not sure which)- surround a pile of of epitaphs, armorial bearings and cherubs so tall it all but scrapes the ceiling. It dates from 1712 and memorialises the Furness family who once owned Waldershare Park.
It is signed by Thomas Green of Camberwell. He was rather good, I think....
