Pevsner mistakes and omissions

  No one visiting old buildings in Britain can do without a Pevsner as a companion, but from time to time mistakes crop up; this blog will be added to as I notice any omissions or mistakes. I will also add any differences of opinion that I have over any information in this incomparable series of books.

One deliciously apt typo to start from London South, page 506, where Kew Gardens is said to have developed from the Old Dear Park in Richmond

East Barsham manor house, Norfolk : the royal arms over the porch on the main house seem stone not brick.

Cawston church, Norfolk: there are three figures on the hammerbeams that have been thought to be from a mediaeval rood; Pevsner comes to no conclusion. However, my images show that two are probably Victorian, that one of these is obviously St.Agnes, the patron saint of the church, holding a palm and a lamb, and that the third figure is a mediaeval female with original paint remaining on her dress.

c19 st.agnes with lamb, not the angel of the annunciation or st.john.

c15 female, poss. st.mary?

c19 male, prob. an apostle

Salle church, Norfolk; there's a funerary helmet hanging in the north transept not in Pevsner, looking C16  to me.

Weybread church, Suffolk. Pevsner gives most of the round tower a Norman date, but I reckon C14th, as the flints around the windows are undisturbed, and they and  the putlog holes are lined with mediaeval brick. There is also a little C14 chequer work around the base.

Squares of flint and stone along the base of the tower

Mediaeval brick edges of putlog holes and lights

Shilton church, Oxfordshire; Pevsner says that the font shows the passion with apostles on each corner, missing  Christ in judgement on one side, with angels blowing the last trump on each corner, with two others holding symbols of the passion: nails, crown of thorns and cross.  I would argue with his description of this as rustic work too, but that's a value judgement, and neither here nor there. Even if I'm right. 

Christ showing his wounds at the last judgement

Last trump blowing angel

Wordwell church, Suffolk; Pevsner claims that the figures carved on the tympanum of the north door  are pagan, whereas I'd say they are early Norman work of C1100; the left hand figure seems to be in the orans position indicating prayer or wonder, whilst the other could be holding a representation of the host. I've no explanation of the marks carved in  between, as they look to be purposeful rather than filler. A similar figure to the two on the tympanum can be seen on the obviously Norman capital on the south door.

Norman capital

The tympanum in question

In Hackney,  London there's an ex-synagogue missed completely on Montague Road, being set back from the street. It was the Beth Hamedrash synagogue built 1902, now flats since c.1980.

The superb marble and mahogany gents' lavatories under Wesley's Chapel on City Road should get a mention too, well worth a visit.

All Saints church Kingston on Thames has 4 unmentioned C16 stained glass roundels. Here are two.(Incidentally, the Saxon foundations that are mentioned in Pevsner are no longer visible)

Great Bardfield, Essex, has a C12 Norman  pillar piscina kicking around loose in the porch that Pevsner doesn't mention.

Felsted Essex font bowl is more like late C13 than Norman as given in the B.of E.

Colchester now, the arcades of StMary at the walls are obviously terracotta, not intricately carved stonework as the B.of E. claims.

Also at Colchester this heraldic glass on the landing of the town hall is not Clayton and  Bell like others here, but 50 years older and looks like it came from the earlier building.

Brome church, Suffolk was barely glimpsed at by Pevsner, as he missed the Perp porch on the south side of the building, and of the superb stained glass by Heaton, Butler and Bayne he merely says 1860s . (Pretty sure this will be sorted in the new one soon, but you never know)

last judgement detail from east window by robert turnhill bayne

C15 porch

Fersfield church in Norfolk has a stone effigy that the new Pevsner copies the old in claiming it to be a C13 priest, when it is obviously an early  C14 female. Her pillow is surrounded by the remains of no less than 4 angels, fine for a woman but too many for a humble priest - generally only the swankiest bishops get that much help to heaven.

Missed out completely is the 1907 statue of George and the dragon by C.L. Hartwell on the roundabout near Lord's in St. John's Wood.

 Then under Somerset House in London there are a series of interesting catholic memorials of the C17th that deserve a mention.

And there's this Italianate Victoria Park Baptist chapel on Grove Road in Bow, east London, could do with a name check....

 And this Deco factory in Theydon Road , Clapton built in the 1930s by Sir Owen Williams missed out too. There were many such scattered around Hackney until about 15 years ago; if Pevsner had named them, they may still have existed.

London's Archway Road has an unlisted tube ventilator and electricity station worth a mention too, being probably by Holden.

Richmond on Thames station has platform ironwork of c.1864, Pevsner only mentions the 1930s station facade

      At Harrowden Hall in Northants the prof. and everyone else failed to recognise the bronze angels from Cardinal Wolsey's tomb sitting on the gateposts, including them in a job lot described as late C16th lead statuary, but since they were probably covered in paint at the time and are less than exciting pieces anyway I think he was hardly to blame for that. The slots which took the missing wings may have been plastered over, or not obvious from the ground, and he could hardly have gone around sticking a blade into objects just to see what they were made of, so his mistake here was excusable.
They've gone to the V+A now valued at 5 million pounds, see related blog.









Great Bedwyn in Wilts. had  a mason's yard opposite the church which  became a  sort of museum over the years, with examples of lapidary art affixed to the walls and a yard full of carved odds and ends, including many georgian gravestones, victorian church art and even a stone biplane. much has gone over the  years, but many of the painted tombstones remained on the front and side of what became the post office for a while. Pevsner didn't mention them at all, which is odd, as you'd be hard pressed to miss them. Many are nicely painted, as many tombstones once were.

Westminster abbey cloister has this seemingly C13 statue of Christ, the sort of thing designed for a gable. No one mentions it, and there's no obvious empty niche extant, so I've no idea where it's from. It doesn't look like some war damaged Victorian bit to me, but bo one there seemed to know any history.

St Andrew Undershaft in London has this glass inn the west window, given as C17 but looking c.1855 to me.

St Botolph Aldgate has this sword rest given as C18 in Pevsner. The royal arms (obviously) and much more seem considerably later in date

  Berden in Essex has a chancel half rebuilt in brick, yet Pevsner claims the interiors of the side windows are original C13 work. The detail looks as Victorian as the east window to me.

Hatfield Broad Oak has this hammerbeam angel emerging from token clouds; not the statue of  a kneeling priest as given in Pevsner

I'll add more bits as they come to mind.

Two rare undocumented mediaeval finds in Suffolk

crucifix side of C15 cross head

Heads are generally missing from mediaeval churchyard crosses, as they were all smashed during the Reformation. Occasionally they have been found later, used as rubble or hidden under floors, but they remain rare indeed. Hence I was fairly gobsmacked to almost literally trip over this in the dark the other night. Probably C15th, made of a grey shelly stone, perhaps a coralline crag, a local stone here in Suffolk.

 lamb of god on C15 cross head

 side of C15 cross head

With Christ on a cross on one side, and the lamb of god on the other, short stub cross arms are carved on the ends with crosses, with feathery foliage up the sides.

I know of only one other such cross head in the area, a very worn one at Woolpit, making this a very uncommon object for East Anglia indeed.

The second object is a heater shaped shield, with fine trefoil decoration along both curved sides and along the top. It is carved from a shelly grey limestone.

 C13 shield

 Obviously C13th, where this would have been originally is a mystery. Shields of a similar size are found along the sides of later chest tombs, but they do not require carving underneath the sides, and if this was from a spandrel on high, it would not need carving on top.Too few tombs of the date remain to truly compare this, making it an object of equal interest. Perhaps if someone can put a name to the family whose arms are shown, there would be a possibility of tracing its original home and usage.

 edge of C13 shield showing trefoil detail

 trefoils decorate all sides of the C13 shield

(edit: Whilst not an exact match, the arms may be those of Mortimer ancient, difficult to portray without tinctures as having ten counter-coloured fleurs-de-lys with the bars passing through them. This branch of the family were based in Attleborough, where the chancel of the church that they pretty much built was demolished for the lead after the Reformation, illegally really, as it was not part and parcel of their nearby college. the stone - which would have included any tombs - went to build the road to New Buckenham, from where this may have come.)

The other two carvings are just bits of mediaeval fun, one the top of a gargoyle made of surprisingly of clunch, the other an oolitic limestone beast on the corner of two lengths of coved stone. Both are probably C15th, though owe a lot to earlier styles of carved beast. Neither has a lengthy provenance, but both come from  East Anglia.

C15 gargoyle

C15 corner beastie