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.

Newnham church, Hertfordshire.

St. Vincent's church, Newnham

Although the church wasn't on the lists of those open for Heritage Open Days, I saw it through churchyard trees on the way to busy Caldecote. Like that nearby church, the tower was raised on arches within the end of the nave, though here it was expanded when a clerestory and a stair turret were added, with battlements all round, in the fifteenth century. There's a south aisle here too, as well as a porch, pretty much all covered in roman cement, a sure sign that the nineteenth century restoration was of an early date. The nave and aisles all look perpendicular, but the chancel windows have decorated tracery to south and east, and two early english lancets to the north. Inexplicably, most books claim that the east window is fifteenth century, when it's obviously work of the early fourteenth.

Inside the porch , much graffiti of all ages, and two nice shield-carrying angels remain from the original roof. The south door is fourteenth century, as is the south arcade inside, and a pretty early nineteenth century gothick chamber organ stands in the aisle.   The floor throughout  is made up of bricks, a nicely rustic practical touch.







A rather dull fifteenth century font stands at the west end of the nave; close by are the wall paintings only re-discovered in 1963.










The whole wide expanse of the north wall  is covered in the remains of murals below the clerestory lights.As usual, St. Christopher has pride of place opposite the door, with fish frolicking about his feet. The ragged staff he carries is equally clear, and you can just about make out a kneeling donor on the left above the cliffs at the side of the stream. This saint was always placed in such a prominent position, as a sight of this image was said to ensure a good death. In mediaeval terms, that didn't mean safety from harm, but rather guaranteed that you wouldn't die unshriven. To the right can be seen a large roundel, with enough of a dragon's wing and clawed feet to judge this to be a mural of George and the dragon. If you look carefully you can just make out the lance piercing the beast's body. Next to the window besides the pulpit are faint remains of a hooded figure, and bits of an earlier scheme remain below the St. Christopher, fourteenth century saints in an arcade.

A couple of small brasses remain in the chancel; the Jacobean one names and portrays each of the children of the deceased. The only memorial of any pretension is a baroque tablet of 1697 to Lady Dame Thomazine Dyer, an heiress in her own right who married a baronet. All of her descendants have carried her maiden name of Swinnerton ever since.