Puttenham church, Herts

 

Puttenham is Hertfordshire's westernmost settlement and parish*, situated in that part of the county shaped rather like a rhino's horn goring Buckinghamshire. There are a few houses to the south, but otherwise the church is alone in the fields watered by Thistle Brook, a tributary of the Thame, and very picturesque it is. Externally the outstanding feature is the 15th century tower, which displays perhaps the county's finest chequerwork stone facings.

Rectangles of squared knapped flints alternate with larger rectangles of limestone. (I'd have called them clunch - the soft chalky limestone so ubiquitous in the county - but the Statutory Listing says they're Ketton stone. I'm suspicious of this as it looks nothing like the stone of the Wren Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, or Burghley House, Lincolnshire, (which are definitely Ketton stone), but presumably the authors of the listing know what they're talking about.) A large part of the appeal is down to the irregularity of the arrangement; the sizes of the rectangles, especially of the flints, vary greatly. 

Much of the rest of the church is also stone, unlike most other Herts churches which are generally of flint except for the dressings; presumably Puttenham, being nearer the quarries to the west, could afford to build in stone as the transport costs were much lower.

Three three-bay nave arcades and chancel arch are 14th century. There's no stained glass so the interior is attractively light.

Over the chancel arch are the unusually large arms of George III, which lead our eyes up to the interior's dominating feature, the nave roof. This is 15th century and uncommonly elaborate for a small, out of the way church. 

Each of the eight wall-posts has a fairly large figure, which are quite hard to see in detail but are presumably saints (at least one has a mitre and is therefore a bishop). They stand on smaller bird figures jutting from the wall; they're now decorative rather than structural as they're supported by plain stone corbels (possibly from the Victorian restoration). There are angels, now wingless, in the roof along with carved and painted bosses (some of them featuring the arms of the Zouche, Wykeham and Hutton families).

Much the most intriguing object in the church is the Jacobean pulpit with a repeated figurative carving; pulpits of this date generally have abstract patterns. The Statutory Listing calls it a 'coiled scaly serpent'; the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments mentions 'carved panels' but says no more; Bettley/Pevsner judge it to be 'very rustic' but don't comment any further; the Victoria County History describes them as 'fishlike and scaly monsters'.

These descriptions are all true so far as they go but none of them seem entirely adequate. It is a snake-like creature with a bifurcated tail, scales, what are apparently two vestigial legs at the front and a large not at all fish- or snake-like head with a grinning mouth containing a finialled tongue. Is it meant to look very cheerful and happy-go-lucky, or sinister? Is it the Leviathan (which is either a multi-headed sea serpent, a serpent or a sea monster, depending on which part of the Bible you refer to)? Or the large sea creature that swallowed Jonah? The pulpit is the place above all others from which a message is conveyed, so surely the carving must mean something, but we can't now know what. I love it for its manic exuberance. 

Puttenham church is usually locked.

Cartwheel light fitting

17th cen font cover

In this panel the design is reversed and the head bigger in proportion

Bettley/Pevsner suggest that this lectern was originally the tester of the pulpit.

* It hasn't been it's own county since it was merged with Tring in 1964.

Codicote church, Herts

Old Codicote strings itself along the Welwyn-Hitchin road (B656), but the church is some distance from the main settlement, with modern estates to its west and open farmland to its north and east. St Giles does have ancient origins, but is mostly an early work (1852-3) of Joseph Clarke (1819-88), who is best known in the county for Apsley End church

It is said to have been consecrated by the Bishop of Rochester in c.1111, but nothing recognisably survives from that century, unless (as the National Churches Trust website and the Statutory Listing suggest) the iron strapwork on the south door dates from then; Bettley/Pevsner more plausibly propose that only the central strap dates from a major rebuilding which took place in the 13th century, and that the other two are good Victorian copies. The other surviving original features are the 13th century bases to the piers of the south arcade and the lancet window in the nave, and the tower, including its arch to the nave, and the clerestory are 15th century, though much restored.

There's one curious wooden carving in the church. Bettley/Pevsner don't mention it, but I assume it's a late medieval bench end. It's known as the Old Dog and is said to have the head of a baboon, the ears of a bat, the tail of a lion, the mane of a horse and the legs of a goat. My photos are rather poor; there's a better one here in which it's seen from the right, which reveals that it has a collar and chain too. 

The pulpit is the most notable fixture; the Statutory Listing calls it Jacobean with which I'm sure most visitors would concur, but the more knowledgable eyes of Bettley/Pevsner ascribe it to the late16th century, in which case it's Elizabethan. I wish I was sufficiently knowledgeable to be able to explain the subtle stylistic differences between the two periods. The pretty backboard with Gothic tracery must be Victorian.

There's several Victorian and 20th century stained glass windows.

East window, 1864. The Good Shepherd, and Suffer Little Children. Anonymous; I'd suggest Michael O'Connor.

The Three Maries at the Tomb, 1868, anonymous.

St Patrick and St John, by M.C.Farrar Bell, 1946.

Abraham, Sarah, Joseph, Mary, Jacob and Rachel, 1875, attributed to Clayton & Bell.

Angels and St Michael, by Kempe, 1895. I'm usually allergic to Kempe, but I must admit this one isn't bad.

Sts Giles and St Albans, by A.A. Orr, 1912.

Treasure hid in a field (Matthew 13)

The seed growing secrets (Mark 4).

The mustard seed (Matthew 13).

The sower (Matthew 13).

The best windows are to be found in the porch, and date from 1968. They're by Agnes Charles (1906-88). She studied in the Royal Academy Schools (1930), and ran a studio and business in Codicote called St Crispin's Glass. The windows are sophisticatedly naive, colourful and full of personality. In nearly all stained glass each piece of glass is surrounded and held in place by a lead came, but here each individual glass fragment is really small, and it would look ridiculous if each one was leaded, though some assemblages are. Instead most pieces are I assume glued together. The result is something like a mosaic or a collage, and the effect is pleasingly slightly ramshackle with a handmade feel.

Charles was also responsible for the painted plaster angels over the chancel arch.

In the churchyard is a modern memorial to John Gootheridge who died and was buried in 1824, but was reburied a week later. This was because his corpse was dug up by body-snatchers who were providing specimens for medical students to study anatomy. Buried bodies were not considered property, but in this case Gootheridge's body was retrieved, and the resurrectionists, as they were known, have bestowed a kind of immortality on him as his name survives far more prominently than that of most others who died then.

Codicote church is usually locked.

'Michael's burial from the time of Henry VIII'. I've been unable to discover the story behind this.

Sheep in the churchyard