Hunting the Green Man - Essex part 2

Today we made an early start, armed with another list of six Essex churches to visit in our quest for the Green Man, with information taken from the CotGM web site gazetteer.

Matching St Mary: 'South wall corbel end'

The head is inside, on the east side of the South door. It's partner on the other side of the door is a double 'face-puller', another favourite motif of mine. I wouldn't say this Green Man is a classic, again only 2 oak leaves coming from the mouth, no other foliage in evidence. Also, the inside of the church has been heavily whitewashed, obscuring any possible finer details. The figure is mentioned in passing in the church guide, but no mention of its 'green' credentials at all.

White Roding St Martin: 'Horned god corbel, end of chancel on Southside'

Sadly, the church was locked, no access, so nothing to report. I was looking forward to meeting a 'horned god' in church too!

High Easter St Mary: 'Above door'

I could see nothing that looked remotely like a green man, either externally or internally above any of the doors. The roof supports are finely carved, but it was very dark that high up, and no details could be seen. There were some faces, but these could have been cherubim or angels - certainly no foliage was in evidence. Externally there were some heads on the high windows of the tower which looked suspicious, but use of a zoom lens showed these to be leonine beasts rather than the Green Man.

The West door of the tower is a possible candidate for the location as the church guide states: "..a fine doorway with a pointed arch beneath a rectangular frame, the spandrels being carved with two men (?) (sic) on the north and a winged animal on the south; a much eroded bust of an angel holding a shield is at the apex. the hood-mould and string course over are carved with animal heads, Fleur de Lys and other motifs."

It's always possible that one or more of the 'animal heads' has been misinterpreted as a Green Man, as they are very eroded.

Great Canfield St Mary: 'South Porch'

The church itself was locked, but there was access to the porch. The South door of the church has some fine Norman carving. On the left is a bearded figure with two birds, on the right is another face, with a serpentine beard, definitely neither are a Green Man. I saw no other external carvings but could not gain access to inside the church.

Behind the church is some 'waste land' - a break in the church boundary shows a used path leading down into a dip. On closer inspection, the dip is a moat for an old Motte and Bailey Norman stronghold - the outline can be clearly seen on Google Earth satellite imagery.

Update: the heads pictured above apparently depict Norse mythology, as described here.

Little Dunmow St Mary: 'Interior (unconfirmed)'

The church was locked, but keyholders were listed and I gained entry. An interesting church, originally the Lady Chapel of a much larger abbey on the site of which little/no trace remains. There is a tomb to Matilda Fitzwater, who may or may not have been the Maid Marian of Robin Hood fame, Robin Hood himself having Green Man connections of course :-) There are some carved heads on the South windows, but as always on a sunny day, it's difficult to take meaningful pictures of these when facing into the sun. I noted one bestial head, and a bearded figure with long hair, but no foliage at all. Below the South windows are some stone panels with fine carvings of beasts and suchlike. Again, these were examined, but no trace of a GM anywhere that I could see.

Could either of the central figures above bee considered as Green Men? I don't think so.

Great Dunmow St Mary: 'North Wall'

Another locked church but keyholders were listed and I gained entry. The exterior of this church is emblazoned with small portrait heads on all windows except a couple on the North side, and all external drainpipes (dated 1907) have large gargoyle heads. All that is, apart from one on the north wall of the tower, which is a classic Green Man.

The CotGM gazetteer states this is C14, but I don't see how it would have survived on an external wall for all that time in such fine condition. The design is almost identical to some 'modern' GM plaques I've seen available in garden centres and the like. I spoke to the keyholder, but he was unaware of the Green Man at all, let alone the fact that such a fine example was on the wall less than 50 yards from his house! With such a fine collection of heads on the outside, I was disappointed by the interior. Any possible heads seem to have been eroded or removed from the columns. I saw two locations that seemed to have a foliate border to them in 'classic' style matching the head outside, but there was no evidence that these had ever had faces on their fronts. The thick, ever present whitewash made making out any details at all extremely difficult.

So that's it, only 2 new photos for the collection, out of 6 churches visited. Not a good return for the trip, but hopefully the information given will help flesh out the gazetteer some more.

Next week we're off to Cornwall for a break. Doubtless I'll be hunting unlisted Green Men whilst down there, and I'll report any finds both here and to the CotGM web site for addition to the gazetteer.

See this trip on TravelSkoot.

Hunting the Green Man - Essex part 1

This week it's the turn of Essex, and another 6 churches have been lined up for examination. At the moment, I'm only interested in the churches that are on the current CotGM gazetteer. No doubt I'll check out churches not on the list at some future point. The current goal is confirmation of what's listed.

Shenfield St Mary's: 'Font'

The church was open when I arrived, and there is certainly a 'face' on the Font. Not what I would call a true GM, though the hair is certainly foliate. The font is made of Normandy stone and installed in 1390. In 1862 the font was removed to the churchyard. It was replaced by an Italian marble font in 1878. In 1895 the original font was purchased for use in Marsworth church in Bucks. In 1949 after much petitioning it was returned to Shenfield (Information taken from the church guide).

Doddinghurst All Saints: 'Font'

The church was locked, no access, so nothing to report. I've been here before, and it was locked then too, I may have to time a visit for the end of one of their services in future.

Mountnessing St Giles: 'Nave central pillar'

The church was locked, no access, so nothing to report. I've been here before, and it was locked then too. There is a phone number for a keyholder, but I got no reply when I called it. Again, a return visit after a service may be called for.

Margaretting St Margaret: 'Font, corbel ends nearest tower'

An interesting church, I had to collect and sign for a key the size of my hand, then cross a railway line to get access to the church! Two oak leaves coming from the mouth just about class these as Green Man corbels. I wouldn't class the font figure as a Green Man though as this was a classic 'tongue-poker' face.

Stock Harvard All Saints 'Tower bosses, and above Priest's door'

I couldn't get access inside the church as a service was in session (only 1 or 2 parishioners - literally! - Hardly seems worth the effort, but the priest was giving it some in all his finery :-)) The Green Man on the Priest's Door on the south side is a jolly little chap though! There is also an odd stone head (not a Green man) on the wall behind the tower. I'll return another day to check out the interior.

West Hanningfield St Mary & St Edward - was locked, no access, so nothing to report.

So 3 out of 3 wasn't bad. If nothing else, I've confirmed the details for those three. More to come in Essex...

See this trip on Travelskoot.

Hunting the Green Man - Buckinghamshire

Today we took a trip around Buckinghamshire, looking for the Green Man. As a base for research, we used the Company of the Green Man web site which has a fledgling gazetteer of sites. The idea was to confirm the gazetteer entries if possible, and to take photographs of the Green Man where found.

The plan was to hit as many churches as possible in a circular drive, but sadly a few churches on the list were locked, or in use so could not be accessed.

The sites that were accessible are as follows:

Stewkley St Michael: 'Numerous interior and exterior'

This is a fine old Norman church, and there are certainly several (difficult to photograph with my compact) heads on the external roof corbels, but none that I could qualify as a Green Man. There were a couple with beards, but no mouth, nose, eye or ear sprouts that I could see. Internally, the only heads I could see were the normal 'beak-head' figures typical of Norman archways. Again, none had sprouts in evidence, so cannot be considered Green Men. There was one figure with sprouts issuing from the mouth, on the outside left of the south door, but this is more animalistic, and the sprouts were plain, not floral. Would this count in your criteria? I'm not sure it does in mine.

Wing All Saints: 'Poppy Head tomb'

There is a poppy motif memorial inside, but no Green Man in evidence there. There are however a couple of roof bosses, way up high and difficult to photograph, and what looked suspiciously like a couple of Wild Woosers in the corners, but too dark to make out. In the chancel is a fine Poppy Head bench end with a wonderful Green Man face.

Ivinghoe St Mary: 'Chancel window stops'

I'll confess I didn't see this at all. What I did see were several Poppy Head bench ends with faces and floral motifs, but these were more akin to South Sea Island figures than to a Green Man - again, no sprouts, and very little 'vegetation' on the decoration so I can't count these I'm afraid.

So, of the three churches visited, I only found evidence of the Green Man in one of them. This information has been passed back to the CotGM web site, and I intend to cover more of their gazetteer entries throughout this year.

See this trip on Travelskoot.