St Mary's Church, Kempley (England)
Tour of St Mary's Church, Kempley - 18/10/17
Music by Josquin Des Prez
St Mary's Church, Kempley has in its chancel the most complete set of Romanesque frescos in northern Europe, including the Christ in Majesty painting created in about 1120. On the walls of the nave are further images, including a wheel of life, showing the life cycle of man. These are worked in tempera painted on dry lime mortar, unlike those in the chancel which are true frescoes.
Further reading via Wikipedia:
St Marys Church Kempley.wmv
Anglo Saxon Church with Medevial & 17th Century wall paintings
Interior panorama at St Mary's Church Kempley Gloucestershire England UK
Filmed 22.3.19
Outstanding medieval church in the care of English Heritage
St Mary's Church, Shrawley
I was on a visit to Gloucestershire so I took the opportunity to look at some Churches.
St. Briavels Castle.wmv
We conducted a paranormal investigation at St. Briavels Castle in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.
St. Mary's Church, Deerhurst
Shows the interior of St. Mary's Priory Church dating back to Anglo Saxon times.
Complete with Newly installed lighting!
Deerhurst, near Tewkesbury.
History & Haunting of St Mary's parish church ,Hinckley
Hinckley is a market town in southwest Leicestershire, England.
St Mary's parish church in Hinckley was dedicated in the Middle Ages to the Assumption of Saint Mary the Virgin. This church building has stood on the site for almost nine hundred years, although there may well have been a church already on the site, as the remnants of an Anglo Saxon sun-dial is visible on the diagonal buttress on the south-east corner of the chancel. The church was built by William FitzOsbern, who came over with William the Conqueror.
According to local tradition, the gravestone of Richard Smith is said to 'sweat blood' on the anniversary of his murder.
St Mary's Church of Hinckley in Leicestershire is the last resting place of Richard Smith who was killed on 12th April 1727, aged 20 years old. Simeon Stayne was a recruiting Sergeant for the Army, he had come to Hinckley and stood outside the 'Pig and Whistle' along Regent Street, informing a crowd of potential new soldiers about the virtues of taking the King's shilling. When the Sergeant suggested that the George Inn (now the Bounty) was named after King George II, Richard started to heckle him and said that the George Inn was actually named the George and Dragon.
Richard would not stop with his comments, the Sergeant lost his temper and gave the crowd a demonstration in how to use a halberd in close quarter combat, it was at this point he struck Richard with the weapon and then left him lying on the floor in blood. Later on, Richard died of the wounds that the Sergeant had inflicted upon him; the Sergeant had now fled Hinckley.
Richard was buried near the Church wall of St Mary's Church during April 1727. Simeon Stayne was later arrested and sent to Leicester Assizes, which is where he received the sentence of death for murdering Richard Smith.
Upon Richard's gravestone is the following inscription:
A fatal Halbert his mortal Body slew
The murdering Hand God's vengeance will pursue
From shades Terrestrial, though Justice took her flight
Shall not the judge of all the Earth do right
Each Age and Sex his Innocence bemoans
And with sad sighs laments his dying Groans
The church itself is said to be home to phantom footsteps, believed to belong to a monk.
A Halberd (also called Halbard or Halbert) is a two-handed wooden pole with a combined spear point, axe and hook at one end. The Halberd had become a symbol of rank, it was carried by recruiting Sergeants of the British Army during the 18th Century. It was known that the Sergeants used the halberd to ensure that infantrymen drawn up in ranks stood correctly aligned with each other.
hinckleypastpresent.org
The weather vane, 184 feet up on St Mary's church tower at Hinkley is a fine cockerel which dates back some 200 years. In 1993 a headline appeared in the local paper entitled “Sorry Cock”. At the time the church steeple was being renovated and somebody took advantage of scaffolding to steal the said weather vane. The vicar appealed for its return in the press and early one morning he found the weather vane on his doorstep and it had been newly painted. There was also a note of apology telling that it was all the result of a drunken prank.
Hinckley has a history going back to Anglo-Saxon times; the name Hinckley is Anglo Saxon: Hinck is someone's name and ley is a meadow. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, Hinckley was quite a large village, and grew over the following 200 years into a small market town—a market was first recorded there in 1311. There is evidence of an Anglo Saxon church – the remnants of an Anglo Saxon sun-dial being visible on the diagonal buttress on the south-east corner of the chancel.
In 2000, archaeologists from Northampton Archaeology discovered evidence of Iron Age and Romano-British settlement on land near Coventry Road and Watling Street.
Deerhurst England and St Mary’s Chapel
My pilgrimage to the birthplace of my great great great Grandfather Levi Roberts
Chalgrove :Stunning Mediaeval Wall Paintings of St Marys Chalgrove
The Five Joyful, the five Sorrowful, the five Glorious Mysteries and the Doom. How these wall paintings must have fascinated & terrified the people of the middle ages when they had practically no access to any other visual media.
Due to reopen on Sunday 3rd of April with a talk on Monday 4th April 19:15.
Renovation starts today 01 June 15. The church will be closed The until February 2016, and all the furniture and fittings have been removed (as reported by the Oxford mail)
The Church has received a £544,000 Lottery Grant to restore and preserve the church and its wall paintings.
The chancel of St. Mary’s is decorated on three walls with a nearly complete set of medieval wall paintings, which is of national importance. It is believed that they were painted around 1320AD probably at the behest of the de Barantyn family who lived in one of the two manors in Chalgrove at the time. They were lime washed over at the time of the Reformation and then rediscovered in 1858 during a period of renovation work being carried out on the instructions of the then Vicar, the Rev’d Robert French Lawrence. Some of the paintings on the north wall are a little indistinct now due to their age and two of the paintings on the south wall were covered by marble memorials while the paintings lay hidden under the lime wash.
The whole scheme is dedicated to St. Mary-the-Virgin, the patron of the church, and can be divided into four main sections as follows.
On the north wall is the story of the Birth and Passion of Jesus, ending in his resurrection and ascension shown on the north side of the east wall.
On the south wall is the apocryphal story of the death and assumption of Mary, ending on the south side of the east wall depicting her crowning as Queen of Heaven.
Also on the south wall at the west end is a picture of the Day of Judgement, or “Doom”.
And finally in the window splays are pictures of Saints, all of whom are associated in some way with Mary.
St Mary’s church.forever england.
Shepshed, Leicestershire, St.Botolphs Parish Church
The parish church of St.Botolph's at Shepshed, Leicestershire.
All Saints' Church, Shorncote, Gloucestershire
All Saints' Church, Shorncote, Gloucestershire
A Tour of St Briavels Castle, Monmouthsire
A guided tour by Bruce from Phantom Fest (phantomfest.com) filmed using a Sony handy cam, hand held camera.
All Saints Church Brixworth
A short film of the anglo-saxon (680AD) All Saints Church, Brixworth, Northamptonshire. For more information you can visit friendsofbrixworthchurch.org.uk
Inside Hamstall Ridware Church
On the lovely afternoon of Wednesday 11th. June 2014, I drove from Tamworth to the tiny village of Hamstall Ridware beyond Lichfield & captured this video to share with you the tranquillity that I experienced inside the Olde Church of St. Michael and All Angels. I could not find a suitable piece of Organ Music to accompany my video but was pleased to add the lovely Searching For Something by Armando Trovaioli to mask my heavy breathing, so thanks for that Armando.
Investigating a church
Dowsing investigation of All Saints Church, North Cerney
Huntley Church and Path to Village. Gloucestershire. UK
St Mary's Church, Mundon, Essex
Following on from the video of Little Warley church, here is a short video about my personal favourite Essex church. St Mary is in the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches. You can see all of my photography Essex church exploits at essexchurches.info.
Campain Speech-Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson v William of Normandy v Harald Hardrada
Medieval Minds - Timelines.tv
Get inside the minds of medieval peasants. What did they believe? What were their hopes and fears? (6 mins)
This is one of 45 videos telling the story of Britain from 1066 to the present day, accessible an interactive timeline at
From a BAFTA winning series written and presented by Andrew Chater. Originally commissioned and transmitted by the BBC and streamed with the BBC's consent. Copyright Andrew Chater / Lodestar Productions / October Films.