A Medieval Effigy and Grave Slabs at All Saints Church, Batley, West Yorkshire (original) (raw)

Medieval Grave Slabs Covers and Wall Paintings at Holy Trinity Church, Wensley, North Yorkshire

Research Project on Medieval Grave Slabs Covers in Northern England, 2023

This research report details the medieval grave slab covers and wall paintings at Holy Trinity Church, Wensley in North Yorkshire. One fragment of a grave slab cover is built into the interior north wall of the north aisle an intact slab stands against the west end wall of the north aisle near the north door and a large fragment of one is situated resting against the outside south wall of the south aisle. The medieval wall paintings depicted two separate scenes ‘The Three Living and The Three Dead’ and ‘A Legend in the Life of Saint Eloi’ The report also includes a brief history of the church which is noted for its magnificent artwork in wood carvings and brass memorial plaques.

Interpreting Medieval Effigies: The evidence from Yorkshire to 1400

2019

The published book contains the main text. The Appendices, which are cross-referenced throughout the txt, are available to download (free) from the publisher's website. The link is https://books.casematepublishers.com/Interpreting\_Medieval\_Effigies\_Online\_Appendices.pdf

A Unique Norman Font and a Medieval Cross Grave Slab Cover in Whitechapel Church, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire

Yorkshire History Quarterly, Vol. 15 Issue No. 3 Winter, 2011

This article gives a brief history of the Whitechapel Church in Cleckheaton which is a very unusual church building. It dates back to the early 12th century, the evidence for this is the Norman font in the church which dates to not later than 1120 and it is still in use today for baptism and a medieval grave cover in the south porch. The Norman Font is considered unique due to the carved figures one is of a carved exhibitionist figure called a Sheela Na Gig figure. This type of figure is described in some detail with its origin and meaning. The medieval cross grave slab cover has a circular head and probably dates to the 12th century.

Early secular effigies in England The th

List of plates VII I. Preliminary remarks ι i.i State of research and points of departure ι 1.2 Materials used 1.3 Some remarks on the persons commemorated. Their social status. The outlook on life 2. The tomb 2.1 Its place inside the church. Tomb chests and recesses. 2.2 The slab and other accessories 2.3 Foot support 2.4 Head support 2.4.1 Introduction 2.4.2 From the absence of the cushion to the use of the single and the double cushion 2.4.3 The double cushion with attendant angels ... 3. Costume 3.1 Introduction 3.2 The costume on lady effigies 3.2 The costume on civilian effigies 3.4 The costume and armour on military effigies .... 3.4.1 Head-coverings 3.4.2 The hauberk and the representation of mail. Leg defences and other pieces of armour .... 3.4.2 The surcoat 3.4.4 The sword, sword-belt and the shield 4. Attitude 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The hands 4.2.1 The west-country school. Mid-thirteenth century 4.2.2 The early sword-handling knightly effigies ... 4.2.3 The London workshops up to the late thir teenth century and their influence 4.2.4 The later sword-handling type of knightly effigy VI CONTENTS 4.2.5 Effigies with their hands joined in prayer. Some other divergent attitudes 99 4.3 The legs 103 4.3.1 Introduction 103 4.3.2 The straight-legged attitude 103 4.3.3 The early cross-legged attitude 4.3.4 The cross-legged effigies of the second half of the thirteenth century 4.3.5 The lively martial attitude 4.3.6 The origin and meaning of the crossed legs.. .

Early secular effigies in England: The thirteenth century

1980

List of plates VII I. Preliminary remarks ι i.i State of research and points of departure ι 1.2 Materials used 1.3 Some remarks on the persons commemorated. Their social status. The outlook on life 2. The tomb 2.1 Its place inside the church. Tomb chests and recesses. 2.2 The slab and other accessories 2.3 Foot support 2.4 Head support 2.4.1 Introduction 2.4.2 From the absence of the cushion to the use of the single and the double cushion 2.4.3 The double cushion with attendant angels ... 3. Costume 3.1 Introduction 3.2 The costume on lady effigies 3.2 The costume on civilian effigies 3.4 The costume and armour on military effigies .... 3.4.1 Head-coverings 3.4.2 The hauberk and the representation of mail. Leg defences and other pieces of armour .... 3.4.2 The surcoat 3.4.4 The sword, sword-belt and the shield 4. Attitude 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The hands 4.2.1 The west-country school. Mid-thirteenth century 4.2.2 The early sword-handling knightly effigies ... 4.2.3 The London workshops up to the late thir teenth century and their influence 4.2.4 The later sword-handling type of knightly effigy VI CONTENTS 4.2.5 Effigies with their hands joined in prayer. Some other divergent attitudes 99 4.3 The legs 4.3.1 Introduction 103 4.3.2 The straight-legged attitude 103 4.3.3 The early cross-legged attitude 4.3.4 The cross-legged effigies of the second half of the thirteenth century 4.3.5 The lively martial attitude 4.3.6 The origin and meaning of the crossed legs.. .

Medieval cross slabs in North Yorkshire: chronology, distribution, and social implications

Yorkshire Archaeological Journal 79, 2007

While the study of burial, especially in terms of the excavation of burial grounds and skeletal remains, has long been an important tenet of medieval archaeology, the modern archaeological study of the funerary monuments which marked those burials has been comparatively infrequent. Commemorative sculpture has of course drawn considerable interest since antiquarian times, particularly those examples which are effigial, inscribed, or in the case of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian sculpture, somewhat exotic. However, systematic and theoretically informed archaeological study has been more rare. Previous approaches have often resulted in a preoccupation with more impressive examples of sculpture, to the detriment of less elaborate pieces, and have fostered a disregard for the wider context of the monuments. Jonathan

Excavation of a pre-Conquest Cemetery at Addingham, West Yorkshire

Medieval Archaeology, 1996

EXCAVATIONS at Addingkam in Whaifed11k uncovered part of a cemetery which, on the tlJidmce ofradwcarbon ana{ysis, can be daud to the 8th to 10th centuries A.D. At that ptriod Addingham was an estAle oflht archbishops oIYor!, and it was to here tluJtArchbishop Wuiflure jied in 867 to escape the Da11lS. A wlQl i.if55 grlllN!S were investigated, yielding the rtmains of perhaps 80 indWiduals. OfJhese, about 40 wert undisturbed primary inlmnents; the rut had hun reburUd in whole or part, !Laving some graDeS empty and olhus containing several individuals. lAter flatuns in.clutkd a ditdl and a drying kiln whit:h belonged to a post-Conquest manorial complex. Further delaiis on the 16yout and com/xmenls ofthe seukmmt Juwe bun gkanedflom earthwork survey, gtojJhysical prospection and documentary research, as well as from earlier excavations which until now remained unpuhlishLd. ADDINGHAl\I 155 Addingham written by Henry johnston, brother of the antiquarian Nathaniel johnston, who visited the place in july 166g. He recorded that 'the maner house stood neer the church, upon Wharfe Brow, and the land being warne away by the River, the Hall fell, so that there is nothing now remaining ofit'.l9 The old 'parsonage house', which formerly adjoined the W. end of the present rectory barn, seems also to have suffered from erosion of the river bank; it is sketched (with prominent cracks in its walling) on a plan of 1808 showing its proposed replacement on a site to the SE.20 Johnston's observations in the church and churchyard are also ofinrerest. In both places were 'severall stones with crosses upon them, but wore of, though they be on very hard stone'. He noted and illustrated the Norman chevron-decorated voussoirs, then built into the church porch, and finally, he described and sketched two stones in the churchyard, 'placed about 2 yards asonder. one of them to the eastard, a flat stone and rough. and the other allmost halfe round with a hole in the midst ... a quater of a yard deepe'.2l The socket stone, probably a cross base, remains in situ; it has one well-dressed flat face with spirals carved in it, possibly the result of re-use. The socket itself is very worn and rounded, as if used for a water trough, but in its unworn state it would have been an appropriate size to house the extant cross shaft. It was investigated in Ig74 by Mrs May Pickles, and was found to be set o.6lm into the ground; some sherds of Igth-century pottery were recovered from close to the base of the stone, but these must be the result of soil disturbance, in view of johnston's testimony. The other stone described by Johnston, the flat stone c. 2.8m to the E., measuring 1.16m by o.95ill by o.15m 'with some signs of rough dressing' was removed before I974;22 its present location is unknown. Finally, there are some valuable records relating to the westward extension of the churchyard in the Igth century. The plan for the purchase of part of Church Orchard shows the pre-existing W. wall of the burial ground. 23 The wall ran approximately on the course of the earthwork bank (Fig. 2). Allowing for probable riverbank erosion on the N. side of the church, and for the conversion of a curvilinear bank to a largely polygonal wall line, the pre-1869 burial ground was oval in shape. Churchyards of this shape have been considered to be candidates for early ecclesiastical sites. It is, therefore, even more interesting to read a report that many human bones were discovered when the churchyard was extended in 1869: that is, the remains were, presumably, discovered outside the western end of the oval churchyard. 24 Such a report might seem questionable were it not for the discovery, in Ig8g, of pre-Conquest burials even further to the W. A former sexton has reported finding skeletons aligned N.-S. rather than E.-W., though whether these were within the oval or in the extension remains unknown. 2 !' > THE 1971-75 EXCAVATIONS: A SUMMARY REPORT By STUART WRATHl\IELL The gravel ridge occupied by the medieval manor, church and parsonage house ends in a steep slope c. 35m E. of the present Rectory (Fig. 2; PI. V,A). In '9'