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BCD Special Report on
Historic Churches
18th annual edition
7
late 15th-century Yorkist collegiate church at
Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire. The latter
was a gift of Edward IV. An example of a stone
pulpit with a tester is at Brockley, Somerset.
Up to around 60 medieval pulpits in stone
and 100 in wood are said to survive in England.
Most are in the West Country, East Anglia and
the Midlands. In 1915 JC Cox found only a single
pulpit in both County Durham and Yorkshire.
There may be a few more than this but no
modern census has been undertaken.¹ Stone
pulpits are mainly found in Gloucestershire
(17), Somerset (20) and Devon (10). All three
counties are endowed with plentiful supplies
of oolitic limestone. Exceptionally, the early
15th-century pulpit carved with emblems of the
Passion, at Egloshayle, Cornwall is worked in
Caen stone. Many wooden pulpits have stone
bases, like the one at Burford, Gloucestershire,
but most are post-medieval in date.
Gloucestershire’s stone pulpits exploit lavish
carved decoration. North Cerney’s is a star
example, cut from a single block, and supported
on a concave moulded polygonal shaft (facing
page, top right). Its ornament is an audacious
presentation of crocketted * and finialled ogee *
arches separated by semi-detached buttresses .
It displays three bands of lily pattern, which
happen to match the treatment of the same
motif at Magdalen College Chapel, Oxford,
where the lily is the charge * on the college arms.
The stonemasons at Oxford are known to have
come from Burford and we can assume that
they also carved the pulpit at North Cerney.
It is striking that East Anglian pulpits (left
and right) in common with most medieval
wooden church furniture from this part of
England, were more conventionally Gothic
in appearance than pulpits from elsewhere,
particularly the West Country. By contrast,
Devon is renowned for its imaginative
deployment of motifs in three dimensions, as at
Halberton, as well as the county’s many other
ornamental idiosyncrasies. Both tendencies
spring from an enduring love-affair with
the 14th-century Decorated style, so well
exemplified during that period, in both wood
and stone, at Exeter Cathedral. Somerset
is less concerned with spatial composition,
although equally interested in ornament for
its own sake, as characterised by the low relief
vegetal and geometric decoration on the
panel work at Trull (facing page, top left).
It is sometimes interesting to note the
interplay between wood and stone carvers
within the same church. Although the former’s
decorative detail tends to be more inventive,
it is sometimes astonishing to discover that
a stonemason could, if required, carve with
equal intricacy. Many Devon stone pulpits
comfortably match the delicacy of the wood
carver’s ‘bossy’ foliage, a local speciality. Often
the pulpit was made en suite with the chancel
screenwork. On these occasions, the aesthetic
effect can be breathtaking, particularly the
juxtaposition of a stone pulpit with a wooden
screen at Dartmouth, Devon. In such cases, it is
a challenge to decide whether both components
were carved by the same craftsman.
In East Anglia two very different specimens
of the delicate ‘wine-glass’ pulpit can be seen
at Sandon, Essex (above left) and Castle Acre,
Norfolk (above right). Both have retained their
stems, with vaulted trumpet sections intact.
Although they share a certain restoration
content, it is merely discreet at Sandon, where
most of the original colouring is lost. At Castle
Acre, although the Victorian praying angels
at the base of the colonettes * strike a false
note, the surviving full range of polychrome
is astonishing. As a bonus we find painted
marbling on both column and stem, doubtless
an attempt to ensure a certain religious
propriety based on Classical precedent. The
generally excellent state of preservation of the
four surviving painted panels of the Doctors of
the Church is reassuring and, sadly, contrasts
with the pulpit at nearby Burnham Overy,
which has not escaped modern over-painting.
The pulpit’s spandrel * carvings, and the painting
style of the surviving dado * from the chancel
screen, suggest that both components were
made en suite. The painter has been identified
as ‘William Castleacre, steyner and peyntour’,
who is recorded in 1445. Sandon provides an
interesting contrast, because, now lacking
painted decoration, its principal aesthetic
investment is in the quality and variety of its
early 16th-century carving. Dating the Essex
pulpit presents a challenge, however. One can
understand how its conventional-enough,
somewhat heavy-handed, traceried * panel-
heads could have suggested a late 15th-century
date, yet it displays several features which
push it into the early 16th century, particularly
the pierced waved carving of the lower frieze
and the linenfold * panels. In its original
full colour dress, this elegantly constructed
and decorative piece would have appeared
even more impressive than it does today.
Surviving English medieval pulpits are
not remarkable for the quality of their figure
sculpture. Notwithstanding the opportunities
presented by the pulpit to visually underline
the Christian doctrine, relatively few cases can
be found where this opportunity was taken up.
It was the Doctors of the Church who were
most often recruited, and more usually in the
medium of paint. Augustine was one of the
most renowned theologians of the Christian
church, Gregory the first monk to be made
pope, Jerome translated the Bible into Latin and
Ambrose was a renowned preacher. Any one
of them could provide the text for a sermon.
Sculpturally, they are now depicted in only one
remarkable instance, at Trull, Somerset. Here
they are accompanied by St John the Evangelist,
all five standing with a hovering guardian
angel above (this is another example of a pulpit
designed to blend en suite with a chancel
screen). As in much other West Country
woodwork, the carving style is idiosyncratic
St Andrew, Sandon, Essex: oak pulpit
St James the Great, Castle Acre, Norfolk: oak pulpit