Tuesday 1 July 2008

Wiggonholt

Wiggonholt church is on a lane to nowhere, but it is known and loved by the many people who see it prettily perched on the hill above the Wild Brooks nature reserve.
It could hardly be simpler, four walls and a roof with a small bell turret. The materials are elemental. The random stone blocks of the walls are barely faced, and even the corner stones are all different sizes. The roof is of mighty slates, decreasing in size from the eaves to the ridge. The bell turret is hung with plain wooden shingles.
The walls date back to the 12th or 13th century – it is impossible to date them precisely – but the character of the church is now early Tudor. The side and west windows are rectangular, with cusped tracery, and the east window is a pointed arch divided into three lights with perpendicular tracery.
The interior is almost puritanically plain, with hardly any decoration or monuments except for a pair of Commandment boards on the east wall and matching Creed and Lord’s Prayer boards on the west wall. The only splashes of colour are provided by the stained glass windows.
The east window is by the noted Victorian firm of Powell & Sons, made in 1859. It has an unusually plain diamonds design, with just one picture (Christ walking on the water) instead of the usual array of saints and stories. Whether the donor had simple tastes or just wanted to economise is not known.