Today I was whisked back into my childhood quite unexpectedly. I was perusing a stall at a flea market in Kilkenny when I came across some wonderful old prints of ink engravings. This is my kind of thing so I had a closer look and found that they were all of places in England, places I recognised, and I came across three gems all depicting Waltham Abbey in Essex.
I was home in a heartbeat, remembering all the wonderful trips as a child and subsequently as an adult with my own children, to the Abbey: strolling through the Abbey gardens and the Cornmill Meadows, paddling in the little manmade stream, stroking the donkey that used to be tethered nearby, going to the bookshop and being allowed to choose a book (it was here that I bought my Flower Fairy books by Cicely Mary Barker and Raymond Howe’s Hannibal the Hamster stories – I still have and cherish them all), and of course visiting the Abbey itself. Visiting historic abbeys and churches was quite the norm for me as a child, and I loved it – the architecture, the stained glass windows, the beauty and tranquillity of a graveyard – and Waltham Abbey was a favourite of mine. It’s been over fifteen years since I’ve been there, over fifteen years in fact since I’ve been home to North London, but Waltham Abbey is still fresh in my mind and my heart. It is an amazing Abbey full of beauty and history. As a child I loved exploring and playing in the Abbey’s environs but I also loved exploring the Abbey itself. I loved the rose window, the unique ceiling (I’ll come to that later), the glorious Tudor tomb, and – extremely exciting for a small child – the elephant’s tooth (I’ve googled the latter and can find no reference to this, but as bizarre as it sounds it was there), and as a teen and an adult I was fascinated by the Abbey’s history.
Of course, as a child, much of Waltham Abbey’s history was lost on me. It is in fact one of the great monastic foundations of the Middle Ages with origins dating back to the 7th Century and it has been, amongst other things, a church and a priory before becoming one of the most prosperous and important abbeys in England – it is the final resting place of the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, Harold the Second (who as the then Harold Godwinsson rebuilt the abbey), and it later housed the Waltham Bible which dates back to 1200AD (if you want more information on the history of the Abbey have a look at http://www.walthamabbeychurch.co.uk).
What was – and is – lost on me is the Abbey’s zodiac and Labours of the Months ceiling. I love the ceiling but, although I know that at one stage the church would have been a patron of the sciences, I have always found it odd that astrology would be found in a place of Christian worship especially when you realise when the ceiling was painted. The signs of the zodiac were painted on the nave ceiling in 1860 by Edward Poynter (1836-1919) and according to a leaflet in the Abbey these symbols are not meant to have astrological meanings but are intended to illustrate the passing of the seasons. Hmmm. The Labours of the Month refers to cycles in Medieval and early Renaissance art depicting in twelve scenes the rural activity that commonly took place in the months of the year. It was usually linked to the signs of the zodiac, and are apparently seen as humankind’s response to God’s ordering of the universe.
Now, personally, all I see is an attempt at copying medieval decoration, but either way you have to admit that the ceiling is impressive, as is the Abbey itself. I could write for hours on its history which is intriguing and enthralling, but as a child I had a much more visceral response to Waltham Abbey and its stream and meadows, and I think that is the one I keep closest to my heart, that and the wonderful family memories of my visits to that beautiful town and Abbey in Essex. It’s not a wonder that finding those engravings made me cry.
Words Count 