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.
