Sir Walter Raleigh in Dorset Part 2: The Quiet Country Church

Sir Walter Raleigh in Dorset Part 2: The Quiet Country Church

Lillington Church near Sherborne Dedicated to St Martin of Tours It was on the 1st November 1593 that Sir Walter Raleigh and his family would have ridden out from Old Sherborne Castle and travelled 3.5 miles east towards the small village of Lillington. As to why...
The English Baroque Plasterwork Garland

The English Baroque Plasterwork Garland

Baroque architecture developed in Italy in the early-17th C and appeared in England during the 1660s. The Baroque garland was a motif that appeared as part of a scheme in English plasterwork. This post looks at three examples of plasterwork garlands in Baroque...
Funeral Hatchments at Crowcombe Church

Funeral Hatchments at Crowcombe Church

I recently visited the Holy Ghost Parish Church at Crowcombe in The Quantock Hills, Somerset. The Carew Chapel contains some fine hatchments. Besides church architecture the fixtures and fixings provide us with clues to social history. Human social history evolves and...
The Skimmington Ride – Montacute House, South Somerset

The Skimmington Ride – Montacute House, South Somerset

Montacute House is a rare survival from the late Elizabethan moving into the early-Jacobean period. In this post I wish to examine an aspect of decoration in the great hall that tells of how local villagers would deal with a particular transgression of a neighbour....