Here are a few more photos of the old church, St Thomas à Becket, in Heptonstall. With parts dating back to the 1200s, though extended since then, it was damaged in a fierce storm in 1847, after which the new church was built just across the graveyard. The ruins of the roofless church are preserved and it has a peaceful atmosphere, with plenty of arches and angles to challenge a photographer.
This niche in the wall near where the church's altar would have been is, I believe, called a piscina. It would have been used for washing communion vessels and for 'the reverent disposal of sacred substances', through the drain or sacrarium, which would have drained direct into the ground and not into a sewer.
The floor of the old church has some inscribed gravestones, though it's not clear if these remain in situ or have been lifted from the graveyard itself to provide a firm floor. On very old graves, people were often listed by initials rather than full names.
You picture the peaceful atmosphere of the ruins very well, I can really imagine it.
ReplyDeleteAnd I still wonder about it being so well preserved and not used as a convenient source for stones for the new church, it is very unusual.
Great arches showing the beginning of gothic influence as they are pointed rather than rounded. And it was so great that the sky was brilliant blue to see through the spaces made by no roofs. That first shot with the newer church showing through the old arches is really artistic.
ReplyDeleteThat piscina is really interesting. I visited my long-ago childhood home recently. There is a similar stone structure in the yard. When we moved in all those years ago there was a Mary statue in it. I wonder if it was something like this. The structure is still standing.
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