Brant Broughton again

Brant Broughton, Lincolnshire

It wasn't just the chancel at St Helen's Brant Broughton that received the Bodley and Garner treatment, the late medieval nave was also restored. The roofs of the nave and aisles were lavishly recoloured. Bodley based the colouring of the nave roof on fragments of the original polychromy. The nave is lit by a series of gilded wrought iron candelabra, designed by Canon F H Sutton and made by Thomas Coldron the local blacksmith.

Brant Broughton, Lincolnshire

In 1889 the fairly ordinary fifteenth century font, was given a towering cover designed by Thomas Garner. The cover is of plain oak on the outside, but opening the doors, you are met with a wonderful surprise, a glorious polychromed interior. The base of the paint work is the standard Bodley and Garner muted greens and reds, set off with stencilled and gilded devices and blackletter texts.

Brant Broughton, Lincolnshire

At the back of the cover are three figures. The child martyr St Agnes, St Michael the Archangel and St Nicholas of Myra. The blue highlights on these figures and the pink tone of the lining of St Michael's robe provide a visual relief from the sea of green and red that surrounds them.
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Comments

Anonymous said…
Bit of a crowd inside that font cover. St Agnes, maybe? Tho' it would be interesting to see how B & G handled St Agatha's attributes.
17 February 2009 at 18:38
The Religious Pícaro said…
The font cover is a happy surprise. Did they actually have these in the Middle Ages, or is this a 19th century idea of how it should have been?
17 February 2009 at 18:53
Allan Barton said…
St Agnes indeed, and less haste and more speed - and then I might write what I intend to write. I think St Agatha and her attributes would be very surprising inside a font cover!

Billy, yes towering font covers like this did exist in the Middle Ages, but generally they were counter-weighted so the whole structure lifted.
17 February 2009 at 19:06
Anonymous said…
Rather than "cast iron" I think the chandeliers are wrought iron with gilded details. Wonderful photo of the nave ceiling, Alan!
18 February 2009 at 16:13
Allan Barton said…
Thanks Davis. Some days I really shouldn't bother putting fingers to keyboard, first of all writing St Agatha instead of St Agnes and now cast instead of wrought iron! Oh dear. A glorious church it is and at some point I will dig up a photo of one of the chandeliers, which really are very special. Coldron was the local smith and I don't know of any other examples of his work, which is a pity as he was evidently a master.
18 February 2009 at 16:29
Lapinbizarre said…
Three years late on this one! Coldron made several fine chandeliers for Plumtree Church, Notts, another Bodley project

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50241745@N05/6167670046/in/pool-1394706@N24/

http://southwellchurches.nottingham.ac.uk/plumtree/pint-e.jpg
5 June 2012 at 12:10
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