Glow Festival 2018

The Fire Garden:  this year hinting at the manor's alleged connection with the Gunpowder Plot.

The London Borough of Barking & Dagenham is very keen on upping the profile of the area and has been for some time.  There are echoes of gentrification in the various redevelopment schemes in the Barking town centre and with that has come a fair focus on the arts.  Funding, of course, is always a dilemma but it doesn't deter the enthusiasm and one such event returning for its second time in three years is the Glow Festival.

Held over two evenings in the gardens of Eastbury Manor House, an Elizabethan period property owned by the National Trust but run by the Council, it hosts illuminated art installations that literally glow in the dark - or burn as in the photo above.

I'm not going to write too much as the photos and captions speak for themselves.

The west side of Eastbury Manor, an Elizabethan building that is today used by the local community for all manner of societies and events and very much a part of the Borough's heritage.  We got married there in 2011!

A paper fish that went through a whole rainbow of colours.

One of the many installations.

Standing guard by the main entrance (out of shot to the right).

Paper Polar Bears

Er...croak...

One of several horse sculptures in the small rear courtyard on the south side of the house.

A dormouse and its nest.

One final note is that the staff and volunteers were all very enthusiastic and this year had quite a spread of food options including vegetarian, halal as well as standard British bonfire night food.  Personally, of course, I just went for the apple and berry crumble with custard.  Oh yes.

St Mary & All Saints, Lambourne, Essex

St Mary & All Saints, Lambourne, Essex.  (c) Philip McDonnell, 2018

We took advantage of the recent October sunshine and went for another of our little jaunts into the Essex countryside.  Lambourne isn't actually that far from us but we have never turned down Church Lane (off the Ongar Road) to take a look.  And it's quite a meander to get to the church...but definitely worth it.

The first thing you notice as you approach is that the church has been rendered at some point in its past but, unusually, has been painted and is kept in good condition.  So many rendered churches are literally rendered ugly because they just look like concrete blocks.  Lambourne Church, I said to my wife as we approached, reminded me of a German kirche.

Anglo-Norman door arch in the North wall.
(c)Philip McDonnell, 2018

The second thing you see as you pull up on the verge - if you're something of an architecture nerd like me - is a blocked up Norman door arch (above).  That, own its own merit, was definitely a reason to park and investigate further and to our joy - or mine, at least - the church was open and it is quite a gem.

As you walk into the churchyard, one of the things you notice is that it is manicured.  Where once stood mature conifers, they have been cut down almost to cylinder hedging - and it is very attractive.

Entering in through the nave, the first sight to greet you is the enormous chancel arch.  But this is no Romanesque or Gothic arch that you would normally expect.  No, this is what architects call a basket handle arch (anse de panier in French) and it is quite fabulous with its monstrous faux corbels (see below).

The chancel arch. (c) Philip McDonnell, 2018

A decorative nave beam with a somewhat skewed
 and decorated kingpost.  (c) Philip McDonnell, 2018

Of course, the arch is just a boxing and plaster moulding.  The structural element is probably just a beam concealed by a fabulous piece of Georgian decoration.  You can see less decorative beams bridging the chancel further toward the altar.

Elsewhere, there are features that have been exposed during restoration such as the image of St Christopher on the south wall.  This is a glimpse of how the pre-Dissolution/pre-Puritan church would have looked throughout.

St Christopher wall painting. (c) Philip McDonnell, 2018

There are other frescos from later periods that another visitor who was evidently well-versed in the church's past said changed from wall to wall.

One feature exposed recently (that I didn't photograph) was the exposure of what was most likely the piscina for holy water in the pre-Dissolution church or possibly a confessio where there may have been relics.  It was only exposed when the metalwork in a wall-mounted memorial started to self-destruct from rust and needed to be removed.  Whether it will be left exposed or covered again once the memorial is restored, I don't know.

Finally, here is the window above the altar in the east end of the chancel and one of the restored stained glass panels in the south wall of the chancel.

If you get a chance, make a visit.

St Peter & St Paul, Stondon Massey, Essex

St Peter & St Paul, Stondon Massey, Essex. (c) Philip McDonnell 2014

You will come to learn that I spend a lot of time visiting, exploring and photographing churches that still contain some material fabric from the Saxon to 12th century.  Whether you have any belief or not, they are fascinating buildings with stories extending back over 1000 years.

Today, my wife and I escaped the hot, polluted air of East London and headed out into the Essex countryside.  We didn't go far really.  Initially, we had only intended to go to Wanstead to visit the Oxfam Bookshop (I got a bargain there) and have lunch.  However, despite a breeze, the traffic was quite intense and the air stale.  So we skipped the lunch idea and drifted through Epping and Chipping Ongar on our way for tea and cake at Megarry's, a delightfully quirky antiques and tea room in Blackmore.

As we meandered, we happened to pass St Peter and St Paul's church at Stondon Massey (although it's a good half mile or so outside the modern village) and noticed it was open.  That was an immediate cause to stop for exploration and photos.  I know we stopped and looked at the outside in 2014 when I was occasionally using my wife's Canon.  But this was an opportunity to get inside.

This church, dating from around 1100AD, has endured the reconstructions of the ages like most.  The external walls were rendered in a typical act of protection of what is clearly a beautifully patterned exterior constructed of tufa, Roman tile-brick and flint (see below).

The gable of the nave, Roman tile-brick forming a saw-tooth pattern. (c) Philip McDonnell, 2018

Inside, the main feature is the timber structure supporting the bell-turret.  I was once told this is a common feature in poorer churches and was omni-present by 1600.  Whether that's true or not, I cannot say as I haven't researched it.  (It's later than my period of interest, after all.)  What is unusual as far as I am concerned is that the structure is free-standing, only being tied in at the roof.  I have never seen this in a church before.

The timber structure supporting the bell turret built inside the older stonework. (c) Philip McDonnell, 2018

Close-up of the bell turret support framework. (c) Philip McDonnell, 2018

Elsewhere, the features are comparatively few as the building has a large Victorian vaulted extension that was originally a mortuary chapel (I didn't photograph it, sorry) but is now where Sunday school appears to be taught.  Apparently, it's very cold in winter - which is why it was a mortuary chapel!  The chancel arch was removed when the extensions were done so any 12th century features have long since gone.  The only ones left are the south entrance door and some small windows typical of Saxo-Norman architecture.

The Saxo-Norman doorway. (c) Philip McDonnell, 2018

One final photo is of the carved lectern that stands besides the pulpit.  One of the ladies in the church said it's not used today but, again, it is far from the usual type of lectern I've seen in so many other churches.

The lectern.  The side to the left is carved with a sheath of wheat and the word Christis. (c) Philip McDonnell, 2018

Until next time...