You can experience this church and the amazing Saxon Wall Painting in one of two ways...
As a normal photo albumClick this link to see photos of the church.
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Viewing the detail of the imagesClick this link to Zoom and Explore the images in detail, the next page will show you the layout of the church and some thumbnails. Click on a window number on the plan to see the image in detail. You inspect the photo using these controls at the bottom of the image
and Press "Close" to return to the plan layout
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I strongly suggest you view the detail of the 1st Wall Painting, as it is amazing.
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A Saxon church built during the reign of Canute, and probably before 1020, according to A.R. and P.M. Green in "Saxon Architecture & Sculpture in Hampshire" (1951). It has no known dedication, it is just referred to as Corhampton Church. Thin flint walls strengthened by the typically Saxon long-and-short stone quoins and the vertical stone lesenes surmounted by horizontal string course of stone. Lancet window on south side from 13th century and Saxon windows on west gable. The Porch was added in the late 19th century. There is one of the best preserved Saxon sundial in south wall. The stone is different from the rest of the church and so must predate it. The sundial is divided into 8 "tides" rather than 12 hours. Four of the "tides" have a leaf pattern at their ends and the intermediate ones are of a bulbous shape. In the chancel, the medieval wall paintings were uncovered in 1968. They are considered most probably to date from around the middle of the 12th century. Two scenes on the south side [1] depict the legend of an old woman having a basket of eggs knocked out of her hand, which were then restored to her unbroken by St Swithun. The second scene with a stretcher is uncertain. It may relate to a man who apparently drowned in the River Itchen and was restored to life after being placed beside the tomb of St Swithun - perhaps he is falling off his horse after being frighten by two wild women. Below the top layer are attractive borders and below those motifs of drapes and of medallions containing back to back doves and a lion couchant. Professor Wormald has stated that "it is the most elaborate decorative scheme that survives in English Romanesque painting". The other scenes have not been deciphered. |
