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8
BCD Special Report on
Historic Churches
18th annual edition
and unaffected by metropolitan influence. It
is somewhat stereotyped, but devout, and full
of human feeling. The provincial aesthetic of
these mid 16th-century figure carvings and the
charming but somewhat primitive techniques
elicited by the joinery of their framing, is
witness to a geographical isolation and a
traditionally trained craftsman caught fair and
square between the Gothic and Renaissance.
Finally, at Long Sutton, Somerset, the
wooden pulpit (above) with a 16-sided rostrum
has been confidently dated to 1430 but with
no apparent proof (the carved initials at the
top of the stem might produce the evidence
for a donor). It stands on a decorated stone
column. The rostrum consists of a tightly-
packed echelon of niches below gablets *,
filled now with the competent figures of the
12 apostles, of 1872. There are several other
similar English pulpit facades, as at Bovey
Tracey, where the niches are two-tiered,
Cheddar, Somerset and South Burlingham,
Norfolk, but few elicit the same impression
of crowded intensity and miniaturisation.
Most probably, the Long Sutton pulpit
originally accommodated a credal scheme,
the display of the twelve apostles symbolising
the Creed, to which they are each said to
have contributed a verse. This would have
provided an all important pedagogic facility
for the preacher. At Trull there are 12 small
figures on the buttresses flanking the large
figures, but we cannot be certain that they
were supposed to represent the apostles.
If so, of course, in that church the preacher’s
pedagogic cup would have overflowed.
Recommended Reading
JC Cox, Pulpits, Lecterns and Organs in English
Churches, Oxford University Press, Oxford,
1915
FT Dollman, Examples of Ancient Pulpits
Existing in England, George Bell,
London, 1849
FE Howard and FH Crossley, English Church
Woodwork, Batsford, London, 1917
Charles Tracy
PhD FSA is a specialist in
historic church furniture, and has written
several books, including a two-volume study
on English Gothic choir-stalls, and a study of
continental church furniture in England. He is
frequently consulted by dioceses, parishes and
architects over difficult reordering decisions
that hinge on the significance of a church’s
furnishings. Website www.charlestracy.co.uk
Notes
1
According to Michael Good’s CD database The
Compendium of Pevsner’s Buildings of England
(2nd ed, Yale University Press, 2005), Pevsner
found just six surviving medieval pulpits in the
whole of the North of England and few in the
West Midlands, compared to 42 in Devon alone.
Long Sutton, Somerset: oak pulpit on stone base, note the modern apostle figures and colouring
Glossary
chantry
endowment for the singing of
masses for the soul of the deceased; also
a chapel, etc, dedicated for this purpose
charge
design, device, etc depicted on
heraldic arms
colonettes
small columns, often arranged
in clusters
crocket
small projecting sculpture of leaves
or flowers used to decorate finials,
gablets, etc
dado
lowest part of a chancel screen
between the plinth and the upper rail
gablet
small gable or pitched canopy
linenfold
relief carving that imitates the
form of folded cloth
monstrance
receptacle, usually of gold or
silver, incorporating a transparent
container for the display of a holy relic
or the consecrated bread
ogee
‘s’-shaped architectural or sculptural
form visible in arches and archlets
palmate tierceron vault
a circular vaulting
bay which combines a girdle of
secondary ‘lierne’ ribs at its centre,
supported by a system of converging
tertiary ‘tierceron’ ribs
pyx
small receptacle for the consecrated
bread
spandrel
roughly triangular area or surface
between the arches of an arcade or
between an arch and surrounding frame
tracery
ornamental work in which windows,
panels, etc are divided by a decorative
arrangement of ribs, etc