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.
