@stroudstory.bsky.social
Writer, speaker, storyteller, folklorist and museum curator. Arts and Crafts Movement lover. William Morris fangirl. Church crawler.
@stroudstory.bsky.socialHe was probably the last court jester, employed by the Earls of Suffolk at Berkeley Castle next door to the church. Did he fall to his death in 1725, aged 60 - or was he pushed?
@stroudstory.bsky.socialDay 11, Humour - 'Here lies the Earl of Suffolk's fool, Men call'd him Dicky Pearce; His folly serv'd to make folks laugh, When wit and mirth were scarce. Poor Dick, alas! is dead and gone. What signifies to cry?' #31daysofGraves Berkeley #Gloucestershire ⬇️
@stroudstory.bsky.socialOutrageous beauty for #StainedGlassOnSunday from the Visitation window by Margaret Rope, c. 1910, an angel plays while the sheep graze: with their lambs, echoing the Lamb of God in Mary's womb, surrounded by Marian flowers - in Shrewsbury Cathedral RC, #Shropshire #ArtsandCrafts
@stroudstory.bsky.socialThis one's a bit of a stretch for day 10, missing, but all those people who died far from home, and their bodies never sent home in #WWI, well, I think it will do. #StainedGlass by Margaret Rope, Shrewsbury RC Cathedral, #Shropshire, for #31DaysOfGraves
@stroudstory.bsky.socialFor day 9, lettering, here is not Robin but Richard of Sherwood! Seen in Halam, #Nottinghamshire, earlier this year, satisfyingly serifed! #31DaysOfGraves
@stroudstory.bsky.socialYes, essentially. By the 20s this was changing, especially because of the many WWI windows, but purely secular imagery was new. The donor cites the golfers window at Wallasey, also 20s I think, but that had been controversial, too.
@stroudstory.bsky.socialIt is a storm in a teacup, isn't it? But it cost the family quite a bit of extra money to change the piece.
@stroudstory.bsky.socialWho else could it be for #31DaysOfGraves, day 8, animal, than the surviving Aldworth lion? He's been guarding his knight, possibly John d. 1328, of the de la Beche family, for nearly seven centuries and deserves some recognition and love! #Berkshire giants and their #tinylions...
@stroudstory.bsky.socialBut it was insisted that it be unmade, and this was the consequence - the coach alone without coachmen or horses. The surviving letters in the faculty are very heated, and tje artist never made any glass in the diocese again.
@stroudstory.bsky.socialCarriages, and had kept a mail coach, in which he would give rides to villagers etc. The Chancellor of the Diocese, who would grant the faculty to do the work, refused, saying it was totally unsuitable, and made a number of other criticisms! Unfortunately, the piece had already been made!
@stroudstory.bsky.socialSorry, just spotted this! It doesn't appear controversial today, because we're used to non-military secular imagery on memorials, but this was much more unusual then. The donor, the family of the deceased, arranged for the mail coach, with horses, coachman etc., because their father had loved ...
@stroudstory.bsky.socialThat's a brilliant job, would've loved that! I did data entry and educational visits for York Cemetery at the very beginning of my career, but have subsequently been locked away in museums!
@stroudstory.bsky.socialEven though I live in Gloucestershire and am from East Anglia, it's #York Cemetery that is my home cemetery: volunteering there in the 90s got me into cemeteries and my heritage career! Slightly (!) more recent image for day 7, #31DaysOfGraves, with my favourite avenging angel!
@stroudstory.bsky.socialOoh, like dat!
@stroudstory.bsky.socialBeautiful weather at #Stroud Cemetery at the weekend for #31DaysOfGraves, taken during a tour about the cemetery designer, Robert Marnock, and how he used the surrounding landscape in his designs. There's more tree cover now, but Marnock loved trees.
@stroudstory.bsky.socialAm now sharing across the two, a little lazy, but nice to reach my bluesky friends, too.
@stroudstory.bsky.socialFor #31DaysOfGraves day 5 - realised that this is here now, so apologies the first few days are on x! Vehicle - the hugely controversial mail coach on this 1927 memorial #stainedglass by Karl Parsons in Bibury, #Gloucestershire, was not allowed at first - this is the seriously odd compromise!
@stroudstory.bsky.socialProbably my favourite #StFrancis window, by Edward Payne at Didbrook, #Gloucestershire, 1962, showing the saint preaching to a parliament of birds. Lots of loving detail of bird life, including a handsome #OwlishMonday for tomorrow! #StainedGlassSunday
@stroudstory.bsky.socialArgh!
@stroudstory.bsky.socialTewkesbury #AdoorableThursday doors! This little vid bombed on instagram, so I'm trying it on here - oh well! Maybe I'm trying too hard! #Gloucestershire #olddoors #newdoors
